Movement Education

“Movement is as natural and essential to young children’s lives as loving care, rest and nutrition. Movement provides children with an outlet for expression, creativity, and discovery. Through movement, children learn about themselves, their environment, and others. Movement is a stimulus for physical growth and development. The joy of movement is a child’s expression of an emotional need fulfilled.” (Curtis)

The movement education teaching model, its historical development, its concepts and core activities will be discussed in this essay. Furthermore, the general objectives of movement education, the detailed objectives within physical education programs and the applicable teaching methods will be outlined and explained.

The history of movement education goes as far back as the 1800s. Many people articulated ideas and theories about movement. Three of the most influential people are Francois Delsarte, Liselott Diem, and Rudolph von Laban. Laban is considered by most the true pioneer of movement education. (Karen Weiller Abels) In the early 1900s Laban identified the four cornerstones of movement: weight, space, time, and flow. In the late 70s and early 80s, Stanley, Logsdon and his colleagues distinguished the four major movement concepts, based on Labans discoveries. Stanley, Logsdon and his colleagues classified body, space, effort, and relationship. Parallel to the discovery of the movement concepts, new trends and new teaching models emerged in physical education programs. Movement education faded from the physical education programs because other teaching models became popular and because movement education is an extremely complex teaching model. Today, movement education has returned and has planted it...

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Curtis, Sandra R. The joy of movement in early childhood. New York: Teachers College Press, 1982. Print.

George Graham, Shirley Ann Holt/Hale, Melissa Parker. Children Moving, A Reflective Approach to Teaching Physical Education. Vol. 8th Edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2012. Text. 28 March 2012.

Jennifer Wall, Nancy Murray. Children & Movement, Physical Education in the Elementary School. Dubuque: WCB Brown & Benchmark, 1990. Print.

Karen Weiller Abels, Jennifer M. Bridges. Teaching Movement Education, Foundation for Active Lifestyles. Human Kinetics, 2010. Print. 16 March 2012.

Robert P. Pangrazi, Victor P. Dauer. Movement in Early Childhood and Primary Education. Minneapolis: Burgess Publishing Company, 1981. Print. 16 March 2012.