Concept-Based PE: How to Teach More Than Just Activities

By Jarrod Robinson · February 10, 2026 · 6 min read

Most PE curricula are organised around sports and activities — but what if the real lesson is bigger than the game? Dr. Aaron Beighle shares a practical framework for weaving concepts like empathy, resilience, and honesty through your existing programme.

How often do you finish a PE lesson feeling like your students nailed the activity — but you're not sure what they actually learned?

It's a tension most PE teachers feel. We plan great games, run engaging warm-ups, and keep every student moving. But when it comes to the deeper why behind what we teach — concepts like honesty, empathy, resilience, and cooperation — those often stay implied rather than intentional.

That's the challenge Dr. Aaron Beighle, professor at the University of Kentucky and author of Dynamic Physical Education, tackles head-on. In his ConnectedPE conference session, he makes a compelling case: the activities we teach are the vehicle, not the destination. The real destination? Concepts that transfer beyond the gym and into life.

Below, we break down Dr. Beighle's framework for concept-based physical education — what it is, why it matters, and how you can start using it tomorrow without overhauling your entire curriculum.

Watch the Full Session

What Is Concept-Based Physical Education?

Most PE curricula are organised around activities and sports — badminton in week three, basketball in week six, track and field in the spring. There's nothing inherently wrong with that structure. But Dr. Beighle argues we're missing an opportunity if the activity is the only organising principle.

Concept-based PE adds a layer on top. It weaves big, transferable ideas — honesty, perseverance, empathy, advocacy — through everything you already teach. The sport or activity becomes the vehicle for exploring these concepts, not the end goal in itself.

I would rather a student not learn anything about my PE content but learn all about honesty. I would rather kids learn to be better human beings and never learn how to do an underhand serve.

Dr. Aaron Beighle

In practical terms, a concept is:

• A broad, sometimes abstract, organising idea (e.g. empathy, resilience, advocacy)
• Transdisciplinary — not specific to PE alone
• Something students can transfer outside the gym into the real world
• The common thread that ties all of your units together

As Dr. Beighle puts it: "The concept is honesty. The concept is resilience. The concept is perseverance. We teach it when we're teaching badminton. We teach it when we're teaching gymnastics. It's the common thread that ties all of our units together."

Acquire, Connect, Transfer: The Learning Framework

Drawing on Julie Stern's book Learning That Transfers, Dr. Beighle outlines a three-step framework for how students develop conceptual understanding:

1. Acquire the Knowledge

Students can explain the concept at a basic level. For example: "Humans walk. Walking is a skill. Skills are things we use to accomplish tasks." This is foundational — students have the knowledge, even if they haven't done anything with it yet.

2. Connect the Knowledge

Students start linking concepts together: "Humans can use walking to move from one place to another." It's not just knowing they can walk — it's understanding why the skill matters and how it relates to other ideas.

3. Transfer the Knowledge

Students build a mental model connecting multiple concepts and apply them to the real world: "Walking has benefits for mental health, social connection, and physical fitness. I can choose to walk for pleasure, for transport, or for exercise."

The goal? Students take what they learn in PE and live it outside of PE. If the concepts we teach only have meaning inside our gym walls, we haven't gone far enough.

Four Concepts You Can Teach Tomorrow

Dr. Beighle shares several concepts with practical activity examples. Here are four you can start weaving into your programme immediately:

Empathy (Considering and Understanding Others)

Empathy isn't just an emotional buzzword — it's a functional PE concept. You can't understand strategy in an invasion game without putting yourself in another player's position. Empathy is deeply embedded in both cooperation and competition.

Try these activities:

• Line-Up Activities — Have students line up by birthday, first name, or other attributes. Something as simple as discovering a classmate shares your birthday month can spark connection. Dr. Beighle shares that one student friendship lasting years began from standing next to each other in a birthday line-up.
• Partner Shoe Tying — Partners sit side by side, each contributing one hand to tie a single shoe. Students quickly discover there's more than one way to tie shoes — opening conversations about how different doesn't mean wrong. A powerful entry point for discussing diversity and perspective.
• Builders and Destroyers — One group sets up cones, the other knocks them down. Then switch. It's always easier to destroy. Debrief with: "Is it easier to build someone up or tear them down?" The lesson sticks.

Perseverance, Challenge, and Resilience

Every PE class is full of moments where students face challenge — a jump rope trick they can't land, a juggling pattern that won't click, an obstacle course that feels impossible. These are goldmine teaching moments for perseverance.

Try these activities:

• Obstacle/Parkour Courses — Have students navigate challenges, then discuss how they overcame obstacles. One student's insight from Dr. Beighle's class: "I went around it." That's a life strategy, not just a PE one.
• Juggling Progressions — Start with scarves, move to beanbags. When students finally 'get it,' pause and name what just happened: perseverance. If it's easy, how can you challenge yourself further?
• Jump Rope Challenges — Struggle is built in. Use it intentionally to discuss what it feels like to keep trying when something is hard.

Honesty and Trustworthiness

PE offers unique opportunities to teach honesty that most other subjects simply can't replicate — because students are self-reporting, self-assessing, and working in teams where trust is visible.

Try these activities:

• Equipment Exploration — Give students free choice with equipment. Framing it as a chance to be honest about what they enjoy and challenge themselves transforms 'free play' into purposeful learning.
• Self and Peer Assessment — When students assess their own performance or 'scout' a peer, honesty becomes the real lesson. Ask: "Are you being honest with yourself? Is your partner genuinely helping you improve?"
• Trust-Based Challenges — Activities that require depending on a partner. Debrief around: "The best thing you can say about a person is that you can depend on them.",

Advocacy and Social Responsibility

Physical education connects to the real world more than we often acknowledge. Students can learn to advocate for active spaces, understand power dynamics, and see how physical activity connects to community life.

Try these approaches:

• Connect PE to Community — Teach tennis? Tell students where the public courts are and how to book them. Dr. Beighle cites research showing 70% of adults didn't know there was a walking trail within a mile of their home. Help students make these connections.
• Support Local Events — One PE teacher ran walk/jog lessons before a community fundraising walk, then sent information home so families could participate. The concept? Giving back.
• Student-Led Advocacy — Dr. Beighle highlights an Australian example where students advocated to their local council for more skateboarding spaces — learning about power, persuasion, and civic engagement through physical activity.

How to Start (Without Blowing Up Your Curriculum)

Dr. Beighle is refreshingly honest about his early mistakes: "I've been a dumb professor and gone into schools and said, just blow up the curriculum. And the teachers blew up at me. And they should have."

The better approach? Small, intentional tweaks:

1. Pick one concept per term or quarter — You don't need to redesign everything. Choose one concept (e.g. honesty) and thread it through four to six weeks of existing units.
2. Keep your existing unit structure — Your badminton unit stays in week four. Your basketball unit stays in week eight. The concept is the net you cast over the top.
3. Add intentional debrief moments — After activities, take 60 seconds to name the concept. "What did we just practise beyond catching? What concept showed up today?"
4. Use word clouds and student voice — Have students identify concepts they notice during activities. Dr. Beighle uses live word clouds to capture student thinking — concepts like rights, planning, diversity, safety, and cooperation emerge naturally.
5. Celebrate what you're already doing — As Dr. Beighle says: "The SEL stuff? It's in there. We're doing it. I just think we need to celebrate it and let other people in our schools know."

Why This Matters Now

Schools are increasingly asking PE teachers to demonstrate how their programmes contribute to broader learning goals — social-emotional learning, cross-curricular connections, and life skills. Concept-based PE gives you the language and framework to answer that question confidently.

We're nice and we're humble, but we need to let people know that we're doing great things. So many teachers say 'oh, you teaching concepts?' Yeah, we're teaching lots of concepts. We need to toot our horns.

Dr. Aaron Beighle

When your principal asks what PE contributes beyond fitness, you can point to a curriculum threaded with empathy, perseverance, honesty, and advocacy — and show exactly how you're teaching it.

Key Takeaways

• Concept-based PE weaves transferable life skills through your existing sport and activity units
• The framework is Acquire → Connect → Transfer — students need to take concepts beyond the gym
• You don't need to overhaul your curriculum — add concepts as a 'net' over what you already teach
• Empathy, perseverance, honesty, and advocacy are four concepts you can start with tomorrow
• PE already teaches these concepts — being intentional about naming them is the shift
• Celebrating and communicating what PE does builds credibility for your programme

Watch the Full Session Free on ConnectedPE

This blog post covers the highlights, but Dr. Beighle's full 50-minute session goes deeper — with live audience interaction, additional activity examples, and discussion of how concept-based approaches connect to curriculum frameworks including IB and SHAPE America standards.

The course is completely free in the ConnectedPE members area. Sign up or log in to watch the full session, access the presentation slides, and earn a professional development certificate when you complete it.

👉 Watch the full course and earn your certificate →

About Dr. Aaron Beighle

Dr. Aaron Beighle is a professor at the University of Kentucky where he trains physical education teachers and regularly works in schools. He is the author of Dynamic Physical Education, a widely-used PE textbook, and has been presenting at ConnectedPE conferences for several years. His research and teaching focus on making physical education more meaningful, concept-driven, and connected to students' lives beyond the classroom.

Tags: Concept-Based Learning, Physical Education, SEL in PE, Teaching Tips, Professional Development, Curriculum