NZ Scholarship Health and Physical Education key terms

The planned process of enabling people and communities to increase control over the determinants of their health and thereby improve it, typically through policy, education, and environmental change rather than individual advice alone.

The interconnected personal, social, economic, cultural, and environmental conditions that shape whether people stay well or become ill, including income, housing, education, employment, and social connection.

A person's or group's relative position based on income, occupation, and education. It strongly predicts health outcomes because it shapes access to resources, stress, housing, and healthcare.

Fairness in health and participation, achieved by allocating resources and support according to need so that avoidable differences between groups are reduced rather than ignored.

Differences in health status between groups that are avoidable, unfair, and unjust because they stem from unequal distribution of power, money, and resources rather than biology or choice.

A 1986 World Health Organization statement that framed health promotion around five actions: building healthy public policy, creating supportive environments, strengthening community action, developing personal skills, and reorienting health services.

Decisions made across sectors such as transport, housing, and education that deliberately consider their effects on population health, making the healthy choice the easier choice for communities.

The skills people need to find, understand, judge, and use health information and services in order to make informed decisions and act on them in daily life.

A person's belief in their own capability to organise and carry out the actions needed to reach a goal, which strongly influences whether they attempt and persist at health-related behaviour change.

The capacity to adapt, recover, and keep functioning when facing adversity or stress, drawing on personal skills and on supportive relationships, cultural identity, and community resources.

Conditions or resources, such as strong family relationships, school connectedness, and cultural belonging, that reduce the likelihood of harm and buffer the impact of risk factors.

Characteristics, experiences, or conditions that increase the probability of a negative health outcome, for example poverty, social isolation, or easy access to alcohol.

A state of wellbeing in which a person can cope with normal stresses, work productively, and contribute to their community. It is more than the absence of mental illness.

A broad, positive state encompassing physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual dimensions, shaped by how a person feels about their life and how well they function day to day.

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

An approach that treats health as the interaction of physical, mental, emotional, social, cultural, and spiritual aspects of a person within their environment, rather than as isolated body systems.

A practice where health and physical education professionals examine their own power and culture so that people receiving care or teaching feel respected and safe in their cultural identity.

New Zealand's founding agreement between Māori and the Crown, whose principles of partnership, participation, and protection guide equitable health and education practice, including in physical education.

The pursuit of fairness in how resources, opportunities, and power are distributed, including challenging practices and structures that advantage some groups and disadvantage others.

The planned process of enabling people and communities to increase control over the determinants of their health and thereby improve it, typically through policy, education, and environmental change rather than individual advice alone.

A shift in what a person does, sustained over time, that arises from motivation, capability, and opportunity interacting, rather than from willpower alone.

A behaviour-change framework proposing that behaviour occurs when capability, opportunity, and motivation interact. It is used to diagnose why a behaviour happens and to design interventions.

The internal drive that initiates and sustains behaviour, including reflective motives such as goals and plans and automatic motives such as habits, emotions, and impulses.

A pragmatic approach that aims to reduce the negative consequences of risky behaviour, such as drug use or drinking, without requiring the person to stop the behaviour first.

The ability to critically analyse media messages, including advertising and social media, and to recognise how they shape body image, norms, and health-related choices.

A person's thoughts, feelings, and perceptions about their own body, which can be positive or negative and are influenced by media, peers, culture, and sport environments.

Shared, often unwritten expectations about how people in a group should behave. They powerfully shape health behaviour, including drinking, eating, and participation in physical activity.

The motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge, and understanding that enable a person to value and take responsibility for lifelong engagement in physical activity.

Any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure, including play, transport, work, and sport, not only structured exercise.

Time spent sitting or lying awake with very low energy expenditure, such as screen time. It is a distinct health risk from simply not meeting physical activity guidelines.

The basic locomotor, stability, and manipulative patterns, such as running, balancing, throwing, and catching, that underpin more complex movement and sport participation.

A person's ability to perform movement tasks accurately and efficiently. Higher competence tends to support confidence and continued participation in physical activity.

The process by which learners move from conscious, effortful control of a movement to automatic, adaptable performance, progressing through cognitive, associative, and autonomous stages.

Information a learner receives about their performance, either from their own senses or from a coach or teacher, that guides correction and improvement of a movement skill.

The extent to which skills, tactics, or understandings learned in one context improve or hinder performance in another, such as from practice drills to game play.

A player's ability to read a game situation and choose appropriate decisions, such as where to move or pass, in relation to space, opponents, and teammates.

A teaching approach that develops understanding through modified games and questioning, so students learn tactics and decision-making before or alongside isolated technique practice.

The range of approaches a teacher uses, from direct instruction to guided discovery and cooperative learning, each shaping who makes decisions and how students engage.

Adapting content, process, product, or environment so that learners with differing abilities, backgrounds, and needs can all access and progress in the same learning area.

Designing physical activity and learning so that all people, regardless of ability, gender, culture, or background, can participate meaningfully and feel they belong.