As part of my PESS internship I was given the role of researching pedagogical approaches that could be used for teaching Health-Related Activities (HRA).
As a student going into my final year of the BSc. Physical Education Programme, my only experience with research was from an introductory research methods module, where I selected my FYP topic on the theme of HRA. Through that, I found a love for HRA and wanted to learn more about the strand and how best teach it.
HRA is a strand in the PE curriculum in Ireland that has the main goal of giving students the tools to improve their physical fitness and health. It is a strand that I particularly find interesting because being physically active is an essential part of day-to-day life. Therefore, making sure the delivery of HRA provides student with the necessary tools to engage in life-long physical activity is essential.
Initially going into the internship, I was nervous about my researching skills. However, once I had my first meeting with Elaine Murtagh I was already at ease. I was guided and given a clear schedule with a starting point and areas in which I could do additional research on curriculum models. Progressing on in the internship I got to work with Brendan O’Keeffe, who provided guidance on the research I was doing on the HRA strand in multiple countries. Working with both Elaine and Brendan really helped me as they both had such knowledge and interest in the topic and working with them spiked my interest even more. As we came to the end of the internship and discussed my findings, we all agreed it is an area that HRA has no real definition this led to difficulty in finding concrete findings. Not only that but different countries took different approaches which lead to little research in specific areas.
I believe HRA is a topic in which more research needs to be conducted as I feel we only scratched the surface during my internship. I am looking forward to putting all the new knowledge and skills I have learnt into place going forward on my placement, as well during the write up of my FYP.
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