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article 29 January 2025

Inclusive vs. Adaptive Practice in PE: Are We Moving Towards or Away from Lifelong Engagement?

Are we truly fostering a lifelong love for sport in PE, or are we unintentionally steering students away from it by adapting activities too far from their original form?

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In physical education, we often talk about making sport accessible to all. As we developed our Disability Sport curriculum for Performance Pathways, two approaches to accessibility have given us a lot to think about. Inclusive practice vs Adaptive practice.

Inclusive practice is what we do day in, day out as teachers, adapting the activity so all students can participate together. However, more and more we are seeing adaptive practice, when we modify or replace the activity all together, being used whilst still talking about inclusivity

What's the difference?

Let’s take football as an example. Blind football, where visually impaired players use an adapted ball with a sound device, is an inclusive approach. The game remains football in its essence—dribbling, passing, scoring—but with modifications that allow players of different abilities to compete alongside each other.

Now compare this to goalball, a sport designed specifically for visually impaired athletes. It removes traditional football elements entirely, replacing them with rolling a ball toward a goal using only auditory cues. It’s a fantastic sport, but it’s not football.

This distinction matters in PE. When we adapt activities too far from their original form, are we still fostering a love for sport, or are we simply finding an alternative way to engage students in physical activity?

The Bigger Picture: Inclusion or Adaptation?

Through the Performance Pathways community, we’ve been able to discuss a wide range of approaches to PE. While each school has their own unique goals, the common challenge is always how to engage students long-term. Some schools focused on highly structured sports programs, while others prioritized inclusion—modifying existing sports so every student could play.

The interesting thing is how students respond to these different approaches. The schools that keep students involved in recognizable sports seem to cultivate more enthusiasm. When sport feels familiar, participation increases. When activities become too distant from the original game, engagement seems more temporary—like a fun lesson activity rather than a lifelong passion.

What’s the Best Approach for PE?

If our goal is to create a lifelong connection to physical activity, we need to ask: does adaptive practice actually achieve that? Or would finding more interesting ways to be inclusive be more effective?

Rather than replacing traditional sports with alternatives, perhaps we should focus on making sports playable for all students. Because if we want them to engage in physical activity beyond school, the best thing we can do is ensure they see themselves as part of the sporting world—not outside of it.

What do you think? Are we adapting too far? Or is there still room for more inclusive practice in PE?

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