Which of the following is NOT a recognized method of practice in physical education?

• A. The progressive-part method
• B. The progressive-whole method
• C. The whole-part-whole method
• D. The part method

Answer: (B)

The idea behind these methods is how to structure practice so learners can master a skill efficiently by either training the whole movement, breaking it into parts, or using a combination of both. Recognized approaches include practicing the entire skill (whole practice), practicing components separately (part practice), and mixing the two by starting with the whole, isolating a difficult part, and then returning to the whole (whole-part-whole). The progressive-part method is also common, where learners start with simpler parts or a subset of the skill and gradually add more parts until the full skill is practiced.

The option that isn’t a standard term is progressive-whole method. In motor-learning literature, there isn’t a widely accepted practice approach by that name; the established concepts are whole, part, progressive-part, and whole-part-whole. So the “progressive-whole” label doesn’t correspond to a recognized method, making it the best choice for not being a recognized method of practice.