Abstract

This article summarises the results of a comparative research study centered on the analysis didactic models applied in physical education teaching in Latin Aerican countries through the last half century and at the same time tries to propose, on the basis of a critical reflection on those models, the main traits of a physical education peddagogy from the perspective of Critical Theory. The author groups the models during the period considered in two main trends, empiristic and rationalistic, according to the basic differences in the treatment that each model gives to the various components of the didactic model: contents, goals, means, class structure, etc. Contrary to academic tradition in physical education has usually considered these models as opposites, prioriying the analysis of their differences, the article points to the crucial similarity between these models in respect to the phenomena of undirectional communication characteristic of both, and the notion of a non critical recieving subject that is common to all these models, as well as the drawbacks these assumptions suppose for the construction of a physical education pedagogy coherent with a humanistic progressive outlook.