抄録
The term 'physical education' was coined in the nineteenth century and the general concept of physical education established itself in the U.S. from the end of the last century to this century when it was defined as 'education through the physical'. But as the result of the extension of the term physical education, along with time, the definition came to be criticized as too abstract by physical educators themselves. The purpose of this paper is to make clear what tendency has been seen in the efforts of American scholars who have contributed to the establishment of the concept of physical education. For this purpose, the present author has chosen twenty-two volumes written by leading scholars in physical education from 1960 through 1976, and has made a survey of their ideas and definitions of physical education. The chief findings are as follows: 1. From 1960 to 1963 scholars employed the traditional definition of physical education as 'education through the physical'. They are: Duncan, Watson (1960), Shepard (1960) and Cowell and France (l963). 2. In the 1964-1970 period, the new concept of physical education as 'the art and science of human movement' was suggested by such scholars as: Felshin (1967) and Zeigler (1968). 3. In the 70's the scholars seem unable to define the concept of physical education without referring to 'human movoment'. They are represented by: Felshin (1972), Seidel and Resick (1972), Siedentop (1972), Vanderzwaag (1972), Nixon and Jewett (1974), Zeigler (1975), and Singer (1976). The fact that 'human movement' has been a key phrase in the definition of physical education can be explained by the circumstances in which physical education has had to confirm its status as an academic discipline in the U.S. It remains to be proved that the definition on that line can be rendered more concrete to become a definitive one.
