What are the special sports skills included in the new curriculum standards?

According to the definition of the 2022 version of the compulsory education physical education and health curriculum standards, there are six major categories of special sports skills: ball sports, track and field sports, gymnastics sports, water or ice and snow sports, traditional Chinese sports, and emerging sports. Schools can choose specific projects from the corresponding sections to start classes based on their own venues and teacher conditions, and there is no need to rigidly apply a unified list.

I just finished arranging the school's special course selection schedule for junior high schools this semester. When I was going through the details of the course standards, I discovered that many parents and even teachers of other subjects still only have the understanding of special sports skills as "football volleyball and running". In fact, the flexibility of actual operation is much greater than imagined.

Take the most popular ball games among students. In addition to the familiar football, basketball, volleyball, badminton, and table tennis, we have specially added the inflatable volleyball option this year, which is less confrontational and less prone to injury. As soon as the quota was released, all the seats were taken by girls. In the past, ball games were always criticized for being "only for boys." Now the enrollment ratio between men and women is basically the same.

It’s not just ball games that have this kind of flexible adjustment. Track and field, which was the most boring in everyone’s mind before, also has a wide range of options. It’s not just middle-distance running and standing long jump that must be tested. Hurdles, obstacle runs, and fun throwing are all included in this section. We did this for seventh grade students last month. Obstacle track and field experience competition includes jumping over small hurdles, going around marked barrels, and throwing soft shot put. Many children who usually complain about the 800-meter test will run the entire course and ask when it will be held next time. In fact, as long as the event format is adjusted to be more friendly, most of the resistance to track and field will naturally disappear.

Gymnastics content has long since broken out of the old framework of horizontal bars and mat sports. Aerobics, cheerleading, rhythmic gymnastics and even hip-hop are now included in this section. The members of our school’s cheerleading team are all selected from special gymnastics classes. Last year, they also won the second prize in the provincial cheerleading competition for primary and secondary schools. Now the number of children signing up for gymnastics is more than three times that of the previous two years.

When it comes to the water or ice and snow sectors that are much discussed in the industry now, the choices in different regions are actually very different. For schools in the north that have ice and snow venue resources, it is natural to open speed skating, curling, and skiing. In the south, we do not have this condition. Water sports such as swimming and kayaking are suitable. There are also schools with limited space that engage in dry land curling and roller skating. Some people think that this kind of "alternative project" is not in line with the original intention of the curriculum standard. However, when our front-line teachers talked privately, most of them still felt that the curriculum originally gave flexible space to choose between water and ice and snow.

The class opening rate of traditional Chinese sports has also been increasing in the past two years. Wushu, dragon and lion dance are regular options in most schools. Many ethnic minority areas will also include ethnic specialties such as adjia, pearl ball and shuttlecock. An old teacher who has taught physical education for almost 30 years lamented to me that ten years ago these were the content of interest groups after school. Now they have become official special courses, which can be regarded as a stable carrier for the inheritance of traditional culture.

Finally, let’s talk about the emerging sports that young people are particularly fond of, including Frisbee, orienteering, skateboarding, rock climbing, and roller skating. Our school has a special orienteering class. Every time the class comes, the children take the map and run around the entire campus to find check-in points. By the way, they also get to know many rare plants on campus. Even the biology teacher next door praises us for doing interdisciplinary practice. Of course, there is a lot of controversy about this type of project. Some people think that there is no unified assessment standard for emerging projects, and it is difficult to evaluate the learning effect. Some teachers feel that special sports skills are not designed to test children. It is more important to allow them to find a sports project that they are willing to persist in for a long time than how many points they score.

I have taught physical education for almost ten years, and my deepest feeling is that the new curriculum standards have broadened the range of specific sports skills. Essentially, I do not want physical education classes to become the same "running class" and "test class", leaving more choices for children, so that they can always find a sport that suits them and can be played for a lifetime.