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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
LI Juncheng
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5542/2026.05.002
Chongqing Sanxia University of Science and Technology, Chongqing, China
In research on physical education, students’ skill levels, fitness, and motivation have received sustained attention, while a more fundamental question has long been neglected: whether students feel safe in this classroom. This paper introduces the construct of “psychological safety” from organizational behavior and argues that physical education is markedly higher than ordinary classrooms in the degree to which interpersonal risk is exposed—bodies are publicly watched, ability differences are highly visible, and evaluation is immediate and public—so the influence of psychological safety on participation behavior may be greater. The paper identifies three classroom manifestations of the absence of psychological safety (embarrassment and shame, implicit withdrawal, and mockery and bullying) and analyzes their formation mechanisms from two aspects: teacher behavior and peer interaction. On this basis, two actionable instructional design recommendations are proposed: reducing the cost of “being seen” and establishing and enforcing anti-mockery rules. The paper concludes by emphasizing that psychological safety is not a soft requirement for making students comfortable but a key condition determining whether physical education can truly produce long-term exercise behavior.
psychological safety, physical education, classroom climate, embarrassment, participation
LI Juncheng. (2026). "Psychological Safety" in Physical Education: A Neglected Instructional Dimension. Psychology Research, Vol. 16, No. 5, 251-256. doi:10.17265/2159-5542/2026.05.002.
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