Psychological Support in a Post-Covid World in Relation to Physical Education

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every part of life. The education sector has been especially disrupted by transmission mitigation strategies since schools were forced to rapidly modify practice from conventional face-to-face delivery to remote online learning. Physical Education is learning that takes place within the school curriculum where the context of learning is Physical Activity with the specific aims involving pupils ‘learning to move’ (i.e. developing competence) and ‘moving to learn’ (i.e. learning through movement) (Association for Physical Education, 2020). A significant body of work exists on how to support the basic psychological needs of young people in Physical Activity contexts. Future work utilizing online support and the creation of communities of practitioners hold significant potential (Lonsdale et al., 2019). Finally, recent moves to remote learning have heightened concerns for issues of equality. Thus, future work in this regard needs to address equality. Together, the work presented in this paper provides a basis for considering how the necessary restrictions faced by schools and move to remote learning have shed light on the potential for innovative approaches that can potentially overcome the criticisms of, and challenges faced by, Physical Education before the COVID-19 pandemic and as we move into the ‘new normal’.