Health Dance Physical Education

Recreation

Mission: Recreation

The mission of the NYSAHPERD Recreation Section is to promote, support, and enhance the use of quality leisure and adventure activities in physical education programs on all levels of education in New York State as a means of helping students to achieve the goal of a lifelong healthy and physically active lifestyle.

Characteristics of Recreation Activities:

physically and or psychologically demanding
used within a framework of safety and skills development
goals include interpersonal and intrapersonal growth
participant interaction with the natural environment
lifelong physical activity applications
experiential learning
process more important than product
perceived risk with acceptable or recoverable outcomes
challenge by choice
voluntary participation
intrinsic motivation
elements of perceived risk
problem-solving tasks and challenges in which the consequences are natural outcomes of the learners' choices and/or actions
transference of new learning from adventure experience to "real life"
holistic content

competency in a wide variety of activities
fun
fitness development
intrapersonal development:
self-confidence, self concept, self esteem
risk-taking, challenge
leadership skills
critical thinking skills: problem-solving, logical reasoning, reflective thinking
goal-setting
interpersonal development:
cooperation
communication
trust
shared decision-making
conflict resolution
problem solving
leadership skills

Establish and maintain a communication network for sharing information and ideas
Provide educational opportunities through conferences and special events
Promote awareness of the values of leisure/adventure activities, especially as they help students to achieve New York State learning goals
Establish and promote ties with related professional organizations