Teaching Life Skills in Physical Education within Different Teaching Traditions: A Narrative Review

Abstract

This narrative review of the latest papers on life skills development in physical education (PE) aims to identify and discuss different types of life skills programmes in PE in relation with four PE teaching traditions (PETTs), their variation across contexts (e.g., primary school, secondary school, teacher education), and the inherent tensions between the teaching and learning of subject knowledge and the development of life skills. We have carried out an identification and selection process close to those used in systematic reviews, resulting in 13 papers meeting all the inclusion criteria. These peer-reviewed articles show that teaching life skills in PE covers a wide range of possible combinations between three types of programmes (isolated, juxtaposed, or integrated) and the respective PETTs in which they are rooted (sport-techniques, health education, values and citizenship and/or physical culture education). These combinations as well as the (groups of) life skills targeted in the 13 programmes we reviewed do not seem to depend on the contexts in which they are implemented. The relationship between subject knowledge, in particular sports/motor skills, and life skills is approached differently depending on the combinations that have been identified.