Abstract

This paper presents a critical review on national and international scientific literature on studies and research carried out over the past ten years about core skills and physical education. The review is part of the R&D project “Las competencias básicas en una educación física de calidad. Análisis de los procesos relativos a la programación de educación física atendiendo a su efectividad en la adquisición de las competencias básicas (DEP2012-33296)”. Based on in-depth review of the databases that contain the highest impact national and international publications, we classify the issues that are triggering greatest interest among researchers in our area into six deductive categories: 1) studies related to the contribution of physical education to core skills; 2) teachers’ perception on the implementation of core skills in schools; 3) the skills approach in search of quality in education; 4) strategies to introduce core skills in physical education programming units; 5) thoughts on motor skills as the great forgotten core skill; and 6) positions criticizing the skills approach. The results of this study provide systematic organization that can be a reference point for subsequent studies in this area.