Bring Back the Joy: Rediscovering What Matters in PE

By Jarrod Robinson · June 15, 2017 · 3 min read

Somewhere between curriculum standards, assessment rubrics, and data collection, we might have lost something important in PE: joy. Here's how to bring it back.

What is the purpose of Physical Education?

If you ask a curriculum document, you'll get something about developing movement competence, health-related fitness, and personal and social skills through physical activity. All true. All important.

But if you ask a student — the best answer you'll hear is: "PE is where I get to move, play, and have fun."

And somewhere between our lesson objectives, assessment rubrics, and data collection spreadsheets, I worry we've started to forget that.

When Did PE Get So Serious?

Don't misunderstand me — rigour matters. PE should be more than "a run around." We have a legitimate subject with real learning outcomes, and we should teach it with the same professionalism as any other subject.

But I've watched our profession become increasingly anxious about proving our worth. We document everything. We assess everything. We align everything to standards. And in doing so, we sometimes squeeze out the very thing that makes PE special: the joy of moving.

Think about the best PE lesson you ever taught. I'll bet the students were laughing, challenged, fully absorbed in the activity, and completely unaware they were "learning." That's what joy in PE looks like — and it's not at odds with quality teaching. It is quality teaching.

What Joy Looks Like in Practice

Joy in PE isn't about chaos or a lack of structure. It's about:

• Play — Genuine, student-directed play where they make decisions, take risks, and experience the intrinsic pleasure of movement
• Choice — Giving students real options in what they do, how they do it, and who they work with
• Mastery moments — That electric feeling when a student lands a skill they've been working on. A successful cartwheel. A basket from the three-point line. A yoga balance held for 10 seconds.
• Social connection — PE is one of the few subjects where students work together physically. The bonds formed through team challenges, partner work, and shared physical experiences are unique.
• Surprise and novelty — New games, unexpected twists, silly challenges. The element of "what are we doing today?" should spark excitement, not dread.

Practical Ways to Bring Joy Back

1. Start With a Question, Not an Instruction

Instead of "Today we're doing basketball dribbling," try "How many different ways can you move a ball across the court without carrying it?" Same skill. Completely different energy.

2. Build in Free Play

Dedicate the last 5-10 minutes of lessons to genuine free play with the equipment. Students experiment, create games, and simply enjoy moving. This isn't wasted time — it's when a lot of real learning happens.

3. Celebrate Effort, Not Just Skill

If you only praise the students who are good at sport, you're telling everyone else they don't belong. Celebrate persistence, creativity, teamwork, and improvement. Joy comes from feeling valued, not from being the best.

4. Play With Your Students

Join in occasionally. Be bad at things in front of them. Laugh. Show them that physical activity is something you do because you enjoy it — not because a curriculum document says you should.

5. Ask Students What They Enjoy

Radical idea: let students have input into what they learn. Survey them. Give them choice boards. Let them design games. When students have ownership, engagement follows naturally.

Joy and Rigour Are Not Opposites

The best PE teachers I know manage both beautifully. Their lessons have clear learning intentions, purposeful activities, and meaningful assessment — and their students leave the gym smiling, sweating, and looking forward to next time.

That's the gold standard. Not one or the other. Both.

If your PE program has become a joyless grind of fitness testing, sport drills, and assessment tasks — take a step back. Ask yourself: would I want to be a student in this class? If the answer is anything less than "absolutely" — it might be time to bring back the joy.

Looking for fresh, engaging PE activities? ConnectedPE helps you plan creative, curriculum-aligned lessons that put the joy back into PE teaching.

Tags: pedagogy, reflection, advocacy, philosophy, motivation