2024-2025 Undergraduate & Graduate Catalog
Health and Physical Education
For additional information about opportunities your college offers, please refer to your College of Liberal Arts and Sciences section in this catalog.
Website: gvsu.edu/physicaleducation
The Department of Movement Science offers students the opportunity to obtain a B.S. in health and physical education teacher education. The health and physical education program is designed to prepare physical education teaching professionals to promote quality physical education, lifelong skills, and developmentally appropriate activities. Students will incorporate health and physical literacy into the broader goal of both health and physical education curricula. As such, the faculty prepare future health and physical educators through excellent teaching, scholarly activity, and service which reflect the programs commitment to the Society of Health and Physical Education (SHAPE America) Standards. These standards include competencies in scientific and theoretical knowledge, abilities in movement performance and health enhancing fitness, skills in planning and implementing developmentally appropriate activities, digital literacy skills, effective communication and pedagogical skills, strong health and physically literacy skills, and the ability to assess student learning. Students will also engage and demonstrate the characteristics to become effective professionals. Students will have experience teaching at both the elementary and secondary levels in health and physical education as well as opportunities in working with students who have movement differences. With a degree in health and physical education teacher education, our students are prepared to teach in the PK-12 environment.
Students majoring in health and physical education teacher education PK-12 may obtain a Michigan certification to teach health and physical education. In addition to the health and physical education content, those seeking teacher certification must complete a 39-credit professional education program from the College of Education and Community Innovation (see the GVSU College of Education and Community Innovation website for more information). Secondary admission to the College of Education and Community Innovation requires at least a 2.7 GPA overall and in the major.
Program Requirements
The following program is available: