Health & Physical Education Curriculum
The undergraduate degree program of the department of HPER is Recreation. The curriculum of recreation whole thrust is to provide majors with a variety of extensive, contemporary, and probing theoretical, practical, and research opportunities so that optimal knowledge, experiential growth, and professional maturity in recreation can be acquired and so that majors can be prepared with competencies in providing individuals with knowledge and skills in recreational, leisure time, and/or lifelong activities. And it is to ensure that majors attain a relevant, holistic, and diverse knowledge base that equips them with proficient skills to be successful in graduate school and in the world of work in any professional and/or related areas of recreation.
Physical Education is the undergraduate, disciplinary endorsement of the department of HPER and is also the teacher education component of the department. It prepares majors to teach and/or coach students in grades from K thru 12. It insures (a) that students acquire an overall, extensive learning of the knowledge base of physical education; (b) that they master instructional, methodological techniques specific to physical education; (c) that they understand and are able to execute the instruction, application, and adaptation of physical activities and skills not only with able body individuals but also with individuals with disabilities; (d) that they know and can apply appropriate theoretical, practical, and spontaneous classroom approaches as physical educators; (e) and that they know and can apply as well leadership managerial approaches as coaches and/or as administrators.
Lastly, the teacher education component of physical education prepares students to succeed in higher education, particularly whenever they attempt to pursue advanced degrees in Physical Education and/or related disciplines.
An undergraduate academic component of the department of HPER is the General Education Core Courses. These courses instill in students a familiarity of the many different enhancers and detriments that can influence their psyche, attitude, knowledge, health, fitness, and lifelong engagement in executing a reasonably conscientious style of living healthy. Moreover, the goal of these courses is to impart on the consciousness of students the necessity of knowing (1) how the body responses to disease and exercise, (2) how it responses positively and negatively to individual and environment factors, (3) how it reacts to engaging and not engaging in a healthy life style, and (4) how learning healthy lifestyle practices can enable them to be energetically persistent not only in an academic and/or a professional endeavor but also in sustaining a quality professional and a personal long life span of wholesome exuberance.
Another undergraduate component of the department of HPER is the HPER Club. The goal of the HPER Club is to engage HPER majors in the processes of organizing, planning, marketing, community service, team work, and leadership. The HPER Club is major-centered; the chair and faculty members of the department serve only in an advisory role. The majors are solely responsible for creating the vision and mission statements of the club; recruiting majors who are not members of the club; electing the officers for the club; determining the procedural operations, campus and community service functions, and fund-raising events of the club; and participating in the department’s research, professional, and academic development.