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NZ Scholarship Health and Physical Education study materials
NZ Scholarship Health and Physical Education study resources

NZ Scholarship Health and Physical Education practice questions

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Question 1Health and Physical Education

In the socio-ecological model of health promotion, which level is represented by a school policy that bans sugary drinks from its tuck shop?

  1. Interpersonal level
  2. Public policy level
  3. Organisational or setting level Correct answer.
  4. Intrapersonal level

Explanation

The socio-ecological model nests individual, interpersonal, organisational, community and public-policy levels. A school tuck-shop rule is an institutional rule, so it operates at the organisational or setting level because it shapes behaviour through the environment rather than through an individual's beliefs.

Question 2Health and Physical Education

A Year 13 student designs a lunchtime programme that builds on the school's existing kapa haka group to increase physical activity participation. Which health promotion strategy does this best illustrate?

  1. Deficit-based risk reduction
  2. Screening and early diagnosis
  3. Settings-based empowerment using existing community assets Correct answer.
  4. Behavioural conditioning through rewards

Explanation

Asset-based approaches identify strengths already present in a community and mobilise them, which is central to the Ottawa Charter's settings and community-action strands. Building on an existing kapa haka group uses social and cultural resources rather than treating students as problems to be fixed.

Question 3Health and Physical Education

Which statement best describes the concept of health literacy in the New Zealand health curriculum?

  1. The ability to read medical leaflets accurately
  2. The level of knowledge a doctor has about a condition
  3. The capacity to obtain, understand and use health information to make informed decisions Correct answer.
  4. A clinical measure of a patient's reading age

Explanation

Health literacy is the capacity to access, comprehend, evaluate and apply health information in order to make decisions and act on them. It is a functional, critical skill set rather than a simple reading measure, and the curriculum treats it as a competency students develop.

Question 4Health and Physical Education

Two students debate whether a proposed energy-drink ban is fair. One argues it protects younger students; the other argues it removes informed choice. Which concept best frames this disagreement?

  1. Motor skill acquisition
  2. Economic supply and demand
  3. Physiological adaptation to caffeine
  4. Ethical tension between harm minimisation and autonomy Correct answer.

Explanation

The debate pits a paternalistic harm-minimisation rationale against respect for individual autonomy, which is a classic ethical tension in health promotion. Analysing it requires weighing competing values rather than measuring biological or economic effects.

Question 5Health and Physical Education

What does the Ottawa Charter identify as the fundamental conditions and resources for health?

  1. Peace, shelter, education, food, income, a stable ecosystem, sustainable resources, social justice and equity Correct answer.
  2. Income, housing and employment alone
  3. Personal motivation and willpower
  4. Genetic inheritance and medical technology

Explanation

The Ottawa Charter lists peace, shelter, education, food, income, a stable ecosystem, sustainable resources, social justice and equity as prerequisites for health. This recognises that health is created by social, environmental and economic conditions, not simply by individual choices or clinical care.

Question 6Health and Physical Education

A coach wants to improve a player's ability to change direction quickly in response to an opponent's movement. Which fitness component should be prioritised?

  1. Static flexibility
  2. Aerobic endurance
  3. Maximum muscular strength
  4. Agility Correct answer.

Explanation

Agility is the ability to change body position and direction rapidly and accurately while responding to a stimulus. Reacting to an opponent's movement is the perceptual-decision element that distinguishes agility from simple speed or conditioning.

Question 7Health and Physical Education

A netball player repeatedly lands on one leg after a jump. Which training principle best justifies gradually increasing landing repetitions and load over weeks?

  1. Reversibility
  2. Progressive overload Correct answer.
  3. Individual difference
  4. Specificity

Explanation

Progressive overload is the systematic increase of training stress so the body adapts without being overwhelmed. Gradually adding landing repetitions and load follows this principle while reducing injury risk, whereas reversibility describes detraining and specificity concerns matching training to the target activity.

Question 8Health and Physical Education

Which statement best explains the difference between health-related and skill-related fitness components?

  1. Health-related components determine sporting success; skill-related components determine wellbeing
  2. Skill-related components are only relevant to elite athletes and have no link to health
  3. Both sets of components are identical and differ only in name
  4. Health-related components reduce disease risk and support daily living; skill-related components support performance in physical activity Correct answer.

Explanation

Health-related fitness (cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, body composition) supports health and everyday function. Skill-related fitness (agility, balance, coordination, power, reaction time, speed) primarily supports performance in physical tasks, though the two overlap in practice.

Question 9Health and Physical Education

During a game, a player notices an opponent drifting out of position and adjusts a pass to exploit the space. Which type of skill does this decision-making best represent?

  1. Open skill Correct answer.
  2. Discrete skill
  3. Closed skill
  4. Fine motor skill

Explanation

Open skills are performed in unpredictable, changing environments where the performer must adapt to external cues. Reading an opponent's movement and adjusting a pass is a decision made under changing conditions, which is the defining feature of an open skill.

Question 10Health and Physical Education

Which statement best describes the role of feedback in motor skill learning?

  1. Feedback always improves performance immediately
  2. Feedback provides information about performance that allows the learner to adjust and refine movement Correct answer.
  3. Feedback replaces the need for practice
  4. Feedback is only useful for elite performers

Explanation

Feedback supplies information about the outcome or execution of a movement, enabling the learner to detect errors and adjust. Its effectiveness depends on timing, type and the learner's stage, so it informs rather than automatically improves performance.

Question 11Health and Physical Education

A teacher wants students to understand how societal attitudes shape body image. Which approach best develops critical thinking about this issue?

  1. Requiring students to memorise ideal body measurements
  2. Telling students that body image is purely a personal problem
  3. Avoiding discussion of media influence
  4. Analysing how media images are constructed and questioning the messages they promote Correct answer.

Explanation

Critical thinking about body image involves examining how media images are produced, selected and used to sell products, and questioning whose interests those messages serve. Analysing construction and messaging develops the critical and media-literacy skills the curriculum values.

Question 12Health and Physical Education

Which statement best describes the concept of hauora in the New Zealand curriculum?

  1. A fitness-testing protocol
  2. A model with only physical and mental dimensions
  3. A clinical assessment tool for diagnosing illness
  4. A holistic model of wellbeing comprising taha tinana, taha hinengaro, taha whānau and taha wairua Correct answer.

Explanation

Hauora is a Māori holistic wellbeing framework with four interconnected dimensions: taha tinana (physical), taha hinengaro (mental and emotional), taha whānau (social) and taha wairua (spiritual). The dimensions are interdependent, so imbalance in one affects the others.

Question 13Health and Physical Education

A student argues that a community's high rates of type 2 diabetes are mainly due to poor individual choices. Which critique best challenges this claim?

  1. Type 2 diabetes is not influenced by behaviour
  2. Structural factors such as food affordability, housing and access to safe activity spaces shape the choices available Correct answer.
  3. Genetics explain all cases of diabetes
  4. Individual choices are always rational

Explanation

A socio-ecological critique notes that individual choices are constrained by structural determinants such as income, food environments and neighbourhood design. Blaming individuals alone ignores how these conditions shape what choices are realistically available.

Question 14Health and Physical Education

Which statement best distinguishes equity from equality in health promotion?

  1. Equity and equality are interchangeable terms
  2. Equity means treating everyone identically; equality means giving extra support to disadvantaged groups
  3. Equity applies only to physical activity, equality only to nutrition
  4. Equity means allocating resources according to need; equality means allocating the same resources to everyone Correct answer.

Explanation

Equality gives everyone the same share, whereas equity distributes resources according to need so that disadvantaged groups can reach comparable outcomes. Health promotion often requires differential support to address structural disadvantage, which is the equity approach.

Question 15Health and Physical Education

A rugby player is returning from a hamstring strain. Which approach best reflects current injury-prevention practice?

  1. Ignoring pain signals to avoid deconditioning
  2. Complete rest indefinitely
  3. Return to full training immediately to rebuild toughness
  4. A graded return with progressive loading and monitoring of symptoms Correct answer.

Explanation

Rehabilitation best practice uses graded exposure to load, progressing only when symptoms allow and monitoring responses to reduce re-injury risk. This reflects the principle that tissue adapts to incremental stress rather than to sudden maximal loading or total inactivity.

Question 16Health and Physical Education

Which statement best describes the role of the Health and Physical Education learning area in supporting students' wellbeing?

  1. It develops knowledge, skills and attitudes that enable students to make informed decisions about health and movement Correct answer.
  2. It focuses solely on physical fitness testing
  3. It replaces the role of whānau and community in health education
  4. It prepares students only for competitive sport

Explanation

The learning area integrates health education and physical education to build students' knowledge, skills and dispositions for lifelong wellbeing. It emphasises critical thinking, movement competence and informed decision-making rather than fitness testing or sport alone.

Question 17Health and Physical Education

A student analyses why girls may drop out of sport during adolescence. Which explanation best reflects a sociological perspective?

  1. Girls are genetically less interested in physical activity
  2. Girls have lower physiological capacity for sport
  3. Gender norms, body image pressures and limited opportunities can discourage participation Correct answer.
  4. Dropout is random and unrelated to social context

Explanation

A sociological analysis examines how gender norms, body image pressures, peer expectations and unequal access to opportunities shape participation. These social factors explain patterns of dropout far better than claims about innate capacity or random chance.

Question 18Health and Physical Education

Which statement best explains the concept of transfer of learning in movement contexts?

  1. Skills learned in one context always transfer perfectly to another
  2. Transfer only occurs between identical activities
  3. Transfer is unrelated to practice design
  4. Prior learning can influence the learning or performance of a new skill, either positively or negatively Correct answer.

Explanation

Transfer of learning occurs when previous experience affects new learning or performance. It can be positive, where similar elements help, or negative, where an established pattern interferes, so practice design matters for maximising helpful transfer.

Question 19Health and Physical Education

A community group wants to increase physical activity among older adults. Which strategy best reflects the Ottawa Charter's 'creating supportive environments' action area?

  1. Providing free pedometers only
  2. Upgrading footpaths, lighting and seating to make walking safe and attractive Correct answer.
  3. Running a one-off lecture on exercise benefits
  4. Publishing a list of medical risks

Explanation

Creating supportive environments means changing the physical and social settings so healthy choices are easier and safer. Improving footpaths, lighting and seating directly modifies the environment to support walking, whereas information-only approaches do not alter the setting.

Question 20Health and Physical Education

Which statement best describes the relationship between physical activity and mental wellbeing?

  1. Mental wellbeing is unrelated to movement
  2. Physical activity has no effect on mental health
  3. Regular physical activity is associated with reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression and improved mood Correct answer.
  4. Physical activity guarantees freedom from mental illness

Explanation

Evidence consistently links regular physical activity with reduced anxiety and depressive symptoms and improved mood, partly through physiological and social mechanisms. It is a protective factor rather than a guarantee against mental illness.

Question 21Health and Physical Education

A coach uses small-sided games rather than isolated drills to develop decision-making. Which principle best explains this choice?

  1. Feedback should be withheld entirely
  2. Practice should represent the perceptual and tactical demands of the game Correct answer.
  3. Fitness improves only through long slow running
  4. Training should always be blocked and repetitive

Explanation

Game-based approaches reflect the principle of specificity and representative learning design: practice should contain the perceptual cues and decisions performers face in competition. Small-sided games preserve those demands, whereas isolated drills remove them.

Question 22Health and Physical Education

Which statement best describes the purpose of a code of conduct in school sport?

  1. To replace coaching instruction
  2. To guarantee victory
  3. To set agreed expectations for behaviour and safety for all participants Correct answer.
  4. To rank students by ability

Explanation

A code of conduct establishes shared expectations for respectful and safe behaviour among players, coaches, officials and spectators. It supports fair play and safety rather than performance outcomes, instruction or selection.

Question 23Health and Physical Education

A student critiques a 'Biggest Loser' style weight-loss programme as a health promotion strategy. Which critique is most defensible?

  1. It is too cheap to be effective
  2. It individualises health and may stigmatise participants while ignoring structural determinants Correct answer.
  3. It focuses too much on social determinants
  4. It provides too much long-term support

Explanation

Such programmes frame health as an individual responsibility and often use public weigh-ins that can stigmatise participants, while neglecting the structural conditions that shape weight. A defensible critique therefore targets individualisation and stigma rather than cost or over-support.

Question 24Health and Physical Education

Which statement best describes the role of cultural safety in health and physical education in Aotearoa New Zealand?

  1. It applies only to Māori students
  2. It requires everyone to adopt the same cultural practices
  3. It involves examining power relations and ensuring practices are safe and respectful for diverse cultural identities Correct answer.
  4. It is unrelated to teaching practice

Explanation

Cultural safety requires practitioners to reflect on power relations and their own assumptions so that diverse cultural identities are respected and not harmed. It is a relational and critical concept that applies to all learners and to teaching practice itself.

Question 25Health and Physical Education

A school wants to evaluate whether its new wellbeing programme is effective. Which approach best reflects sound evaluation practice?

  1. Using pre- and post-programme measures alongside qualitative feedback from participants Correct answer.
  2. Assuming effectiveness because the programme was expensive
  3. Measuring only attendance at one session
  4. Relying on a single teacher's impression

Explanation

Sound evaluation combines quantitative measures taken before and after with qualitative data that captures participants' experiences and context. This triangulation gives a more credible picture than anecdote, cost or a single attendance figure.

Question 26Health and Physical Education

Which statement best describes the difference between physical activity and exercise in Health and Physical Education?

  1. Physical activity refers only to sport, while exercise refers only to fitness training.
  2. Physical activity is any bodily movement that uses energy, while exercise is planned, structured and repetitive. Correct answer.
  3. Exercise and physical activity are the same thing, so the terms can be used interchangeably.
  4. Exercise is any bodily movement that uses energy, while physical activity is planned and structured.

Explanation

Physical activity is the broad category of any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that raises energy expenditure, including chores, transport and play. Exercise is a subset that is planned, structured and repeated to improve or maintain fitness. The distinction matters because health promotion often targets everyday activity, not just formal training.

Question 27Health and Physical Education

A Year 11 class measures heart rate before, during and after a 12-minute run. Which fitness component are they most directly monitoring?

  1. Flexibility
  2. Cardiorespiratory endurance Correct answer.
  3. Reaction time
  4. Muscular endurance

Explanation

Cardiorespiratory endurance is the ability of the heart, lungs and blood vessels to supply oxygen during sustained activity. Heart-rate responses to a continuous run reflect how hard that system is working and how quickly it recovers. The other components relate to muscular or neural capacities rather than oxygen transport.

Question 28Health and Physical Education

In the socio-ecological model of health, which level is represented by a school policy that bans sugary drinks from its canteen?

  1. Public policy
  2. Intrapersonal
  3. Interpersonal
  4. Organisational Correct answer.

Explanation

The socio-ecological model layers influences from individual factors out to public policy. A single school's canteen rule is an organisational setting-level influence because it shapes behaviour within that institution. Public policy would involve government legislation or national regulation, which sits at a wider level.

Question 29Health and Physical Education

Which statement best defines a motor skill as the term is used in movement learning?

  1. Any movement performed during a competitive sporting contest.
  2. A learned ability to bring about a predetermined result with maximum certainty and minimum energy. Correct answer.
  3. A genetically fixed pattern of movement that cannot be changed with practice.
  4. The maximum force a muscle group can produce in a single effort.

Explanation

Motor skills are learned, goal-directed movements performed with consistency and economy. The key features are that they are learnt through practice and aimed at a predetermined outcome. Reflexes are innate, and single-effort force describes strength rather than skill.

Question 30Health and Physical Education

A teacher wants students to understand how the media can shape unhealthy body ideals. Which classroom activity best develops critical health literacy?

  1. Students complete a fitness test and record their own scores.
  2. Students read a textbook chapter on the digestive system.
  3. Students memorise the recommended daily servings from each food group.
  4. Students deconstruct advertising images and identify the techniques used to create unrealistic bodies. Correct answer.

Explanation

Critical health literacy involves analysing how information is constructed and how it influences attitudes and behaviour. Deconstructing advertising lets students identify editing, framing and commercial motives behind body images. The other activities build knowledge or fitness data but do not interrogate media messages.

Question 31Health and Physical Education

Which statement best describes the purpose of a warm-up before vigorous physical activity?

  1. It guarantees that no injury will occur during the session.
  2. It replaces the need for a cool-down at the end of the session.
  3. It raises muscle temperature and gradually prepares the body for the demands of the activity. Correct answer.
  4. It builds maximal strength more effectively than resistance training.

Explanation

A warm-up increases blood flow and muscle temperature and rehearses movement patterns, which can improve performance and reduce injury risk. It does not eliminate risk entirely, and it cannot substitute for a cool-down. Strength gains come from progressive overload over time, not from warming up.

Question 32Health and Physical Education

A student says, 'Being healthy just means not being sick.' Which critique best reflects a holistic health perspective?

  1. Health is only about physical fitness and nothing else.
  2. Health is determined entirely by genetics and cannot be influenced.
  3. Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, not merely the absence of disease. Correct answer.
  4. Health is the same as the absence of injury during sport.

Explanation

Holistic models, such as the WHO definition and the concept of hauora, treat health as wellbeing across physical, mental, social and spiritual dimensions. Under this view, the absence of disease is only one part of the picture. The other options narrow health to a single dimension or deny that it can be influenced.

Question 33Health and Physical Education

Which statement best describes the difference between a sprain and a strain?

  1. A sprain affects only the skin, while a strain affects only bone.
  2. A sprain involves damage to a ligament, while a strain involves damage to a muscle or tendon. Correct answer.
  3. A sprain involves damage to a muscle, while a strain involves damage to a ligament.
  4. A sprain is always more serious than a strain.

Explanation

Sprains affect ligaments, the connective tissue joining bone to bone, usually through a sudden joint twist. Strains affect muscles or tendons, often through overstretching or forceful contraction. Severity depends on the grade of the injury, not on which tissue type is involved.

Question 34Health and Physical Education

A coach designs a session where players practise passing at a fixed distance with no defenders. Which classification best describes this practice type?

  1. Open, externally paced skill practice
  2. Random variable practice
  3. Closed, self-paced skill practice Correct answer.
  4. Game-based decision training

Explanation

The environment is stable and the player controls when to pass, so the skill is practised in a closed, self-paced condition. Closed practice removes unpredictable factors such as opponents. Random variable practice would vary conditions and order, and game-based training would include opposition and decisions.

Question 35Health and Physical Education

A teacher uses a reciprocal teaching style in a gymnastics unit. What does this most likely involve?

  1. Students work alone with no interaction or feedback.
  2. Students design the entire unit without teacher input.
  3. Students take turns performing while a partner observes and gives structured feedback against criteria. Correct answer.
  4. The teacher demonstrates every skill while students copy in silence.

Explanation

In Mosston's spectrum, reciprocal style pairs a performer with an observer who gives feedback using teacher-supplied criteria. This develops peer assessment and observation skills alongside performance. Command style is teacher-directed copying, and self-check style involves individual self-assessment.

Question 36Health and Physical Education

A student's performance improves markedly when she practises in the same hall and with the same equipment as her competition. Which concept best explains this?

  1. Negative transfer
  2. Specificity of practice to performance conditions Correct answer.
  3. Progressive overload
  4. Plateau effect

Explanation

Practice that closely resembles the performance environment can improve performance through positive transfer of context cues. This reflects the principle that training should be specific to the demands of the event. Negative transfer would mean prior learning harms new performance, and overload concerns training load.

Question 37Health and Physical Education

A school seeks to embed Te Whare Tapa Whā in its health programme. Which approach best reflects the model?

  1. Replacing all health content with academic study of the model's history.
  2. Addressing taha tinana, taha hinengaro, taha whānau and taha wairua as interconnected aspects of wellbeing. Correct answer.
  3. Teaching the four dimensions as separate weekly topics that never connect.
  4. Focusing solely on physical fitness tests each term.

Explanation

Te Whare Tapa Whā uses the image of a house with four walls representing physical, mental and emotional, social and spiritual wellbeing. The walls must all stand strong together, so the model emphasises interconnection. Treating the dimensions as isolated topics or ignoring them misrepresents the framework.

Question 38Health and Physical Education

A coach wants to develop a beginner's accuracy in basketball free throws. Which practice design is most appropriate at this stage?

  1. Testing under competition pressure with no prior practice
  2. Random practice mixing many different shots with delayed feedback
  3. Full-court scrimmage with no instruction
  4. Blocked practice with consistent conditions and immediate feedback Correct answer.

Explanation

Blocked practice repeats one skill in stable conditions, which supports early skill acquisition and confidence for beginners. Immediate feedback helps learners correct errors before they become habitual. Random practice and high-pressure testing are better used once the skill is established.

Question 39Health and Physical Education

Which statement best explains why a growth mindset supports continued participation in physical activity?

  1. It avoids all challenges to protect self-esteem.
  2. It treats ability as developable through effort and strategy, so setbacks are seen as part of learning. Correct answer.
  3. It assumes ability is fixed and cannot change, so effort is unnecessary.
  4. It attributes success only to natural talent rather than practice.

Explanation

A growth mindset, described by Dweck, holds that ability can develop through effort, feedback and strategy. This framing helps learners persist after setbacks rather than avoiding challenge. A fixed mindset, by contrast, treats ability as static and can lead to withdrawal when difficulty arises.

Question 40Health and Physical Education

A community group wants to increase participation in physical activity among people with disabilities. Which approach best reflects the social model of disability?

  1. Removing environmental and attitudinal barriers so participation is possible. Correct answer.
  2. Assuming that disability automatically prevents physical activity.
  3. Excluding people with disabilities from mainstream programmes.
  4. Focusing on correcting individual impairments through medical treatment.

Explanation

The social model of disability locates the problem in barriers created by society, such as inaccessible facilities and negative attitudes. Removing those barriers enables participation. The medical model, by contrast, focuses on the individual's impairment as the problem to be fixed.

Question 41Health and Physical Education

Which statement best describes the relationship between moderate physical activity and mental wellbeing?

  1. Regular moderate physical activity is associated with reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression and improved mood. Correct answer.
  2. Physical activity only benefits elite athletes.
  3. Physical activity reliably cures all mental health conditions.
  4. Physical activity has no measurable effect on mood or stress.

Explanation

Research consistently links regular moderate activity with improved mood and reduced anxiety and depression symptoms, through mechanisms including stress regulation and social contact. It is a supportive factor rather than a guaranteed cure. The benefit is not limited to elite athletes.

Question 42Health and Physical Education

A student argues that a person's health is entirely a matter of personal choice. Which critique best reflects a determinants-of-health perspective?

  1. Health is determined only by access to doctors.
  2. Personal choice plays no role at all in health outcomes.
  3. Health is shaped by wider factors such as income, housing, education and environment, which constrain individual choices. Correct answer.
  4. Health is determined only by genetics.

Explanation

Determinants-of-health approaches recognise that income, housing, education, employment and environment shape what choices are realistically available. Personal agency matters but operates within these structural constraints. The other options replace one single explanation with another, rather than acknowledging multiple influences.

Question 43Health and Physical Education

A coach is planning a session for a mixed-ability group. Which approach best reflects the principle of differentiation?

  1. Having all students perform identical drills at identical intensity.
  2. Setting one task that only the strongest students can complete.
  3. Removing all feedback to let students work independently.
  4. Modifying tasks, equipment or space so that all students can work at an appropriate challenge level. Correct answer.

Explanation

Differentiation adjusts the task, equipment, grouping or environment so that learners of varying ability can access an appropriate level of challenge. This supports inclusion and progress for all. Uniform tasks often leave weaker students behind and stronger students under-challenged.

Question 44Health and Physical Education

Which statement best describes the role of physical education in developing interpersonal skills?

  1. Physical education offers structured opportunities for cooperation, communication and conflict resolution through shared physical tasks. Correct answer.
  2. Physical education develops interpersonal skills only in team sports.
  3. Physical education is unrelated to social development.
  4. Physical education should focus only on fitness outcomes.

Explanation

Physical education settings involve shared tasks, teams and rules, which create authentic opportunities to practise cooperation, communication and fair play. These skills can develop in individual activities too, through peer feedback and group work. Focusing only on fitness or team sports narrows the learning area's purpose.

Question 45Health and Physical Education

A student is designing a training programme and wants to apply the overload principle correctly. Which approach best reflects it?

  1. Keeping training intensity constant indefinitely once a baseline is reached.
  2. Reducing training volume to zero after the first week.
  3. Gradually increasing training demand as the body adapts, while allowing adequate recovery. Correct answer.
  4. Training at maximal intensity every day without rest.

Explanation

Overload requires progressively increasing training demand beyond current capacity so that adaptation can occur. Recovery is essential because adaptation happens during rest, not during the session itself. Constant load produces a plateau, and daily maximal training risks overtraining.

Question 46Health and Physical Education

A school's physical activity data show that participation drops sharply in Years 11 to 13, especially among girls. Which research approach would best inform an effective response?

  1. Copying a programme from another school without any local data.
  2. Assuming the drop reflects individual laziness and issuing a warning to students.
  3. Surveying only the students who remain in sport to confirm current programmes are working.
  4. Using mixed methods to explore participation patterns alongside students' experiences of barriers, then acting on findings. Correct answer.

Explanation

Mixed methods combine participation data with students' accounts of barriers, revealing both what is happening and why. This evidence base allows targeted and contextually relevant responses. Sampling only current participants risks confirmation bias, and copying another school ignores local context.

Question 47Health and Physical Education

A teacher wants to develop students' tactical awareness in a modified invasion game. Which approach best reflects Teaching Games for Understanding?

  1. Drilling isolated skills first, then playing a full game at the end of the unit.
  2. Having students watch professional matches without playing.
  3. Teaching rules and tactics through modified games, with skills developed as the need arises in play. Correct answer.
  4. Testing students on the history of the sport before playing.

Explanation

Teaching Games for Understanding begins with modified game play to develop tactical understanding, then introduces skills as learners need them. This contrasts with a technique-first approach that delays game play. The model aims to build decision-making alongside skill.

Question 48Health and Physical Education

A student critiques a public health campaign that uses only fear-based messages about obesity. Which critique is most defensible?

  1. Fear-based messaging can stigmatise people and may increase avoidance rather than promote sustained behaviour change. Correct answer.
  2. Fear-based messaging always produces the best long-term results.
  3. Obesity is not related to any health outcomes.
  4. Health campaigns should never provide any information.

Explanation

Fear-based campaigns risk stigmatising people and can trigger avoidance or disengagement rather than sustained change. Effective health promotion typically combines information with supportive environments and respect for dignity. Claiming fear always works or that information never matters misstates the evidence.

Question 49Health and Physical Education

A coach analyses why a skilled player performs poorly in high-pressure matches. Which explanation best reflects an attentional control perspective?

  1. The player is not trying hard enough during matches.
  2. The player has forgotten the basic technique entirely.
  3. The player lacks physical fitness for the sport.
  4. Excessive self-focus under pressure disrupts automatic movement execution. Correct answer.

Explanation

Under pressure, performers may turn attention inward and consciously control movements that are normally automatic, which disrupts execution. This explains why skilled players can underperform in high-stakes moments. It is not explained by forgetting technique or lacking fitness.

Question 50Health and Physical Education

A school wants to evaluate its new wellbeing programme using sound methodology. Which approach is most defensible?

  1. Declaring success before the programme begins.
  2. Relying on a single anecdote from one student.
  3. Asking only the programme's organisers whether they think it worked.
  4. Collecting baseline and follow-up data with a comparison group and clearly defined outcomes. Correct answer.

Explanation

Sound evaluation uses clearly defined outcomes and compares change over time, ideally against a comparison group, to reduce bias. This allows reasonable inferences about whether the programme caused the change. Relying on organisers' impressions, single anecdotes or pre-judging results lacks rigour.