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Physical Education students in class

The School of Health and Human Performance's Secondary Education Health/Physical Education Program is committed to preparing students as successful teachers of health and physical education for licensing in Michigan.  Reciprocal license agreements allow students to teach in most other states.

The department offers an all-grade health and physical education teaching program.  Majors in health/physical education are trained to teach health/physical education in public and private elementary, middle and high schools (P-12).  

The purpose of the program is to develop outstanding educators that will have a positive effect on the children they teach.  Students gain competence in a variety of movement skills and in fitness education methodologies.  Further, students develop the philosophical base, knowledge, and experiential background necessary for analyzing, synthesizing, and applying scientific knowledge to physical education practices.

Health/physical education teaching students are also provided with classroom and field experiences related to growth and development, communication, management and motivation, diverse learners, assessment, reflection, and collaboration with others. 

The department believes strongly in the constructivist philosophy, thus, teacher preparation in physical education involves early and continuous field experiences in local public and private schools.  This experiential background throughout the curriculum allows physical education content knowledge to be taken into practice and reflected on throughout the program.  Thus, the pedagogical skills to help future professionals be successful in guiding their students through instructional and developmentally appropriate practice are nurtured and developed.

Finally, the program seeks to promote a sincere interest in quality teaching and a personal commitment to being physically educated and in helping others to become so.

Ali Ancans - NMU Student Teacher

Karla McCutcheon - NMU Graduate in Physical Education Program

Program Requirements

Students majoring in secondary education health/physical education must maintain a grade point average of 2.7 or higher with no grade below a “C” in the pre-professional education sequence, and a 3.0 in the methods phase and major courses.

Students are not eligible to enroll in any ED prefixed courses above 100 level until they have gained full admission to the School of Education, Leadership and Public Service

Full admission requirements to a teacher education program of study are as follows:

  1. A cumulative GPA of 2.7 in undergraduate level college credits with at least 28 credits and
  2. Minimum GPA of 2.7 in pre-methods courses
  3. Minimum GPA of 3.0 in methods and major courses

Academic Outreach

The Physical Education Teacher Education Program (PETE) and its students are deeply involved with the community in a wide variety of venues including early childhood physical activity promotion, elementary physical education, secondary physical education, and adapted physical education programming ranging from early childhood to adult populations.

These win-win relationships support the constructivist philosophy of the program and are ingrained in the curriculum throughout the preparation experience. The end result of this preparation is experienced practitioners that can take theory into practice.  As one administrator stated during his hiring process - NMU PETE students "get it"