NZ Scholarship Health and Physical Education flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Socio-ecological model

A framework describing health behaviour as shaped by nested levels: individual, interpersonal, organisational, community, and public policy. Used to explain why interventions targeting only individuals often fail.

Health equity vs equality

Equality gives everyone the same resources; equity allocates resources according to need so avoidable, unjust differences in health outcomes are reduced. Equity is the stronger social-justice concept.

Ottawa Charter

The 1986 WHO charter for health promotion, naming five action areas: healthy public policy, supportive environments, community action, personal skills, and reoriented health services.

Lifestyle drift

The tendency for health policy to start with structural determinants but drift toward individual-behaviour interventions, shifting responsibility onto individuals and often widening inequities.

Prevention paradox

Rose's principle that a large number of people at small risk may yield more total cases than a small number at high risk, favouring population-wide strategy over targeted high-risk approaches.

Salutogenesis

Antonovsky's orientation toward the origins of health rather than disease, emphasising assets, sense of coherence, and resources that support wellbeing despite adversity.

Hauora

A Māori health framework with four interconnected dimensions: taha tinana (physical), taha hinengaro (mental/emotional), taha whānau (social), and taha wairua (spiritual).

Physical literacy

Whitehead's concept: motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge, and understanding to value and take responsibility for physical activity across the lifespan. It is a disposition, not a skill checklist.

Determinants of health

The range of personal, social, economic, and environmental factors that influence health status, including income, education, housing, employment, and access to services.

Health promotion

The process of enabling people to increase control over, and improve, their health. It extends beyond health education to policy, environments, and community action.

VO2max

The maximum rate of oxygen uptake during exercise, expressed as millilitres of oxygen per kilogram per minute. A key indicator of aerobic capacity and cardiovascular fitness.

Lactate threshold

The exercise intensity at which blood lactate begins to accumulate faster than it is cleared. It marks the transition from sustainable aerobic work to fatigue-prone intensity.

FITT principle

A prescription framework for exercise: Frequency, Intensity, Time, and Type. Used to design and progress training programmes systematically.

Progressive overload

The principle that training adaptations occur only when the training stimulus exceeds the body's current capacity, applied through gradual increases in load, volume, or intensity.

Specificity principle

Training adaptations are specific to the type of stimulus applied. Aerobic training improves aerobic capacity; strength training improves strength, with limited transfer between them.

Reversibility principle

Detraining: physiological adaptations gained through training diminish when the training stimulus is removed, with aerobic capacity declining faster than strength.

Fitts and Posner stages

A three-stage model of motor learning: cognitive (thinking through the skill), associative (refining technique), and autonomous (automatic, low-attention execution).

Gentile's taxonomy

A two-dimensional classification of motor skills by environmental context (open/closed, stability) and action requirements (body orientation, object manipulation). Used to design practice progressions.

Open vs closed skill

Closed skills occur in stable, predictable environments (free throw); open skills occur in unpredictable, changing environments requiring constant adaptation (interceptive team play).

Intrinsic vs extrinsic feedback

Intrinsic feedback is information from the learner's own senses; extrinsic (augmented) feedback comes from an external source such as a coach or video.

Massed vs distributed practice

Massed practice schedules sessions with little rest; distributed practice inserts rest intervals. Distributed practice generally supports better retention and skill learning.

Motor learning

A relatively permanent change in the capability to perform a motor skill, inferred from improved performance and retention across trials, distinct from momentary performance effects.

Socio-ecological perspective

A NZ HPE curriculum perspective that examines health and movement issues across personal, interpersonal, and societal levels, and how these interact to shape wellbeing.

Attitudes and values in HPE

A curriculum strand emphasising respect for self and others, care, fairness, and social justice as integral to health and physical education, not separate from it.

Health education vs health promotion

Health education builds knowledge and skills in individuals; health promotion adds policy, environmental, and community strategies to make healthy choices feasible and equitable.

Correlation vs causation

Correlation indicates that two variables vary together; causation requires evidence that one produces the other, supported by temporality, dose-response, and control of confounders.

Effect size

A standardised measure of the magnitude of a difference or association (e.g., Cohen's d), distinct from statistical significance, which depends on sample size.

Internal vs external validity

Internal validity is confidence that a study's design supports causal inference; external validity is the extent to which findings generalise to other populations and settings.

Selection bias

A distortion arising when study participants differ systematically from the population of interest, or when groups are formed non-randomly, compromising comparisons.

Publication bias

The tendency for studies with positive or significant results to be published more often than null findings, inflating apparent effects in the literature.

Overload–recovery–adaptation

The training cycle in which a stressor disrupts homeostasis, recovery allows repair, and adaptation produces a higher functional capacity. Inadequate recovery leads to overtraining.

Acute vs chronic response

An acute response is the immediate physiological reaction to a single exercise bout; a chronic response is the longer-term adaptation resulting from repeated training.