The Paradigmatic Construction of Happiness-Oriented Physical Education: Theoretical Implications, Value Mechanisms, and Implementation Pathways

As a critical pillar of the “Five-Education Parallel Development” strategy, physical education profoundly influences the effectiveness of educational modernization. However, school physical education currently remains constrained by an instrumental rationality paradigm, failing to adequately address students’ higher-order developmental needs for enjoyment, self-actualization, and meaningful engagement in sports. Happiness-oriented physical education, as an emerging educational philosophy, can be conceptually defined through four operational dimensions: need-orientation, developmental appropriateness, mind-body integration, and structural systematization. At the level of value logic, this paradigm achieves a conceptual shift from a “health-oriented” to a “well-being-oriented” framework through critical value examination and reconstruction. At the practical level, the philosophy is operationalized through five interconnected pathways: systematic curriculum design, the construction of “Joy-Movement-Engagement” happiness classrooms, the cultivation of teachers’ well-being literacy, the establishment of a “Knowledge-Ability-Practice-Health” comprehensive evaluation system, and the formation of an integrated “in-class and extracurricular” collaborative education framework. Happiness-oriented physical education signifies a fundamental transformation from “body training” to “holistic education”.