Thinking and Moving: The Cognitive Aspect of Physical Education

Abstract

This paper presents a formulation of the processes and operations of the complex phenomenon of human thinking. This formulation is an attempt to identify a framework to show the relationship among the various thinking processes and cognitive operations that characterize teaching–learning experiences. The notion of the non-versus approach is the cornerstone of the ideas presented in this paper. Within the educational arena there is no single idea or notion so uniquely powerful in human development that it stands alone as the important issue. The non-versus approach of the Spectrum acknowledges and values the importance of all the developmental channels, each of the components of teaching, each of the three basic processes of thinking, and, as we will see, all teaching behaviors. It is the reciprocation and supportive relationship among these functions that contribute to human growth and development—to the process of educating.