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| Feature | No.65 October 2013 |

Physical Literacy in Wales – the Role of Physical Education

Paul Rainer & Judith Davies

Abstract

Since 2001 the Welsh Government and Sport Wales have articulated that physical literacy is a clear focus of both physical education and physical activity strategy. Physical education (PE) because of its accessibility by young children is well positioned to contribute in establishing environments that contribute to physical literacy as an outcome. However, integral to this will be the need to establish high quality learning opportunities in PE. Indeed PE teachers’ pedagogical methods can significantly influence young children’s attitudes and disposition to physical activity. Therefore the aim of this paper will explain why, and how, such environments are being created in Wales to ensure that physical literacy is embedded within young children’s physical education in the hope that lifelong participation in physical activity be fulfilled.

Physical Activity in Wales

In spite of the growing evidence highlighting the importance of physical activity to young people’s health, there continues to be a growing concern about the activity levels of young people (Fairclough and Stratton 2005). However, although the importance of physical activity to young children has been widely acknowledged, a number of barriers and challenges exist that prevent children actively engaging in the current United Kingdom (UK) recommendation of an hour per day of physical activity on most days of the week (see Department of Health 2004).

Currently in Wales only 35% of girls and 53% of boys meet these recommendations and participate in 60 minutes of physical activity on 5 days or more per week. Furthermore, of the adolescent population, 34% children are recognised as overweight or obese and 19% obese (Welsh Government 2012). Significantly, there is also a drop off in participation with age - fewer young people participating beyond the age of 15 years and girls participating less than boys. (Sport Wales 2010). Of concern, is the belief that physical activity patterns established in childhood continue into adult life. (Telama 2009) This makes the promotion of physical activity in young people an important endeavour. Current statistics with respect to young people are worrying. Indeed, the adult population continues this worrying trend, with 59% of adults overweight or obese, 23% obese and only 29% meeting the recommendations of physical activity on 5 days or more a week (Welsh Government 2012). This bleak picture would suggest that initial experiences and exposure to environments that provide physical activity opportunities for children are critical; that is if we are to ensure young children are physically active for the lifelong.

The Role of Physical Education

Therefore, the role of schools in providing an initial opportunity to positively influence levels of physical activity, and in doing so contribute to lifelong physical activity habits is unquestionable, and yet this potential has remained largely untapped (Wechsler and Devereaux 2001). Indeed, Physical Education (PE) is commonly regarded as the major vehicle for the promotion of physical activity in schools, and recent studies have suggested that high quality PE programs can help maintain initial positive positions, thus resulting in increased physical activity (Thompson, Rehman, and Humbert 2005). However, despite the benefits of a high quality PE programme, Kirk (2013) has suggested that PE has become institutionalised to meet the school needs, rather than a child-centred approach, and in doing so, PE teachers ‘have never achieved their most cherished aspiration, that young people would as a result of their physical education experience engage in lifelong physical activity’ (p. 2).

Therefore, the future of Physical Education is currently an issue of much contentious discussion and as we move into the 21st century, there is a strong push for a change in both the content and the delivery of the PE curriculum (Green, 2002). As an outcome of this, there may exist an opportunity for PE to be constructed differently and allow the subject to realise both its intrinsic values and also embrace aspects of intellectual endeavour, higher order thinking skills and social interaction. In recognition of this PE ‘has the potential to contribute to the achievement of a range of educationally beneficial outcomes for students, across a range of domains’ (Bailey et al 2006). Nevertheless, for PE to realise its potential to achieve beyond just the physical domain, it will need to consider alternative pedagogical models, rather than the ‘one-size-fits-all’ form that commonly encompasses traditional PE teaching.

An emerging concept that could be considered as a pedagogical model - Physical Literacy (PL), has the potential to support this re-conceptualisation of PE and ‘re-visit the enduring conundrum of physical education’s situation in the curriculum’ (Kirk, 2013; p.2) and indeed, promote its status to that afforded the core subject areas. Essentially, the concept promotes the development of movement competence to enable children to develop and apply motor skills to various contexts in order to develop an understanding of the physical self in space, time and direction (Marsden and Weston 2007). The concept encourages an existentialist, monistic perspective in which the body and mind inextricably combine together to effect movement that contrasts sharply with the Cartesian, dualist perspective whereby the body is simply an object to be manipulated for athletic purposes; a perspective so prominent in traditional methods of teaching PE. In considering the idea and importance of PL, this might provide an opportunity to re-think the educational value and structure of physical education and to evaluate how National Curriculum PE can best be implemented or re-conceptualised (Haydyn-Davies 2005).

Currently there exists very little knowledge or application of how physical literacy is to be implemented into school physical education (PE) curricula or sport and physical activity programmes. Significantly, a physical literacy curricula for the Foundation years, Key stage 1 (KS1) and Key stage 2 (KS2) should make a positive contribution to the overall National curriculum goals and prepare young children for the challenges and expectations of lifelong physical activity.

Physical Literacy and Welsh Policy

In Wales the Climbing Higher National sport and physical activity strategy (Welsh Assembly Government 2006 p. 18) on its inception reported of the need to: ‘ensure that, in the process of personal development, the acquisition of physical literacy is as important as the development of literacy and numeracy skills.’ To achieve this, the strategy recognised that creating environments that encouraged ‘play’ would be critical and highlighted: ‘Encouraging play as an essential component for healthy development and a foundation for Physical Literacy’ (WAG 2006; p.16). The most recent Sport and Physical Activity strategy produced by the Welsh Government (Creating an Active Wales 2009) has clearly recognised the crucial role that physical education will contribute in supporting the concept of physical literacy. The strategy reported that: ‘The provision of high quality Physical Education and the effective delivery of Physical Literacy is essential for young children to have the skills and confidence for lifelong participation in sport and physical recreation’ (p.34). To achieve this, the Welsh Government emphasised that it would: ‘prioritise interventions that encourage the development of physical literacy and participation in physical activity by the least active’ (p.35).

More recently, A Vision for Sport in Wales (Sport Wales 2010, p. 12) reiterated that the Welsh government prioritised young children’s physical activity and that: ‘every child and young person is provided with the skills and confidence from an early age to be physically literate through high quality, engaging sporting opportunities.’ In addition, the Sports Wales Vision (p.31) articulates of the requirement that: ‘Every child and young person is provided with the skills and confidence from an early age to be physically literate through high quality, engaging experience. To achieve this we believe that physical literacy needs to be given the same status in schools as Literacy and Numeracy as outlined in Assembly Government policy.’

At its core the concept of PL would suggest that the promotion of physical activity throughout the life-course for all, is its prominent message and importantly this should be seen as the clear message that is articulated through Physical Education and school sport in Wales. The Physical Education School Sport participation survey (Sport Wales 2009; p.24) reported that: ‘Physical education in schools, delivered through curricular and extracurricular activity, can perform a crucial role in developing physical literacy and sports literacy, as well as allowing access to those who might have become disillusioned about physical activity’. In doing so the vision articulated by Sport Wales is to ensure that all young children are provided with the ‘Skills for a Life in Sport’ and that ‘every child and young person is provided with the skills and confidence from an early age to be physically literate through high quality, engaging sporting experiences’ (Sport Wales 2010; p.31). As a result, a number of initiatives implemented through Sport Wales, in particular through the Physical Education and School Sport programme, have clearly recognised the opportunity to embed and encourage a teaching environment that ‘fosters’ the development of PL. It is re-assuring to acknowledge that Sport Wales’ policy recognises that PL be envisaged through both PE and community sport and although there are some issues with the ambiguous interpretation, a physically literate nation is clearly the intention of the Welsh Government.

Physical Literacy and Physical Education and School Sport

The role of physical education cannot be underestimated and having qualified PE teachers deliver regularly-scheduled classes will increase the chance that a quality program will be delivered and that their students will become physically literate (Mandigo, 2010). In an attempt to encapsulate the very essence of the concept of PL there have been a number of examples of good practice implemented primarily through the Physical Education School Sport (PESS) initiative in Wales. In Wales, the Foundation Phase (Play to Learn, KS1) and Dragon Challenge (Multi-skills, KS2) have encouraged teachers to foster positive learning environments that encourage a child-centred approach and champion student voice. Furthermore initiatives, such as ‘keeping learning on track’ and ‘the PE talking tool-kit’ have encouraged both staff and pupils to embrace an environment that supports PL. More recently the Sport Physical Activity Task Force has submitted recommendations to Welsh Government regarding a Physical Literacy framework for Wales in an effort to ensure that PL is clearly an integral part of physical education.

Physical Education School Sport - Wales

The introduction of PESS in 2001 was established as a result of a task force report (Welsh Government 2001) outlining the key actions to raise both the standards and high quality of PE in Wales. In an attempt to ensure that the concept of PL is reflected within teachers’ PE delivery, the PESS programme has subsequently aligned the outcomes of High Quality Physical Education (Department for Education and Skills, 2005) with that of the concept of PL. In doing so, the intention has not been to propose PL as an alternative to PE, but to recognise PE as a curriculum subject area with PL as the outcome of a high quality PE environment. Therefore, most school PE staff and pupils, as a result of Physical Education and School Sport (PESS) policy in Wales should be able to readily acknowledge the outcomes of high quality PE and therefore if their pedagogy supports this, then PL should always be the outcome of their teaching. Consequently, pedagogy that reflects high quality PE is not necessarily related only to what is taught but also includes creating an environment that supports many of the outcomes identified as integral to HQPE (Commitment, Knowledge and Understanding, Confidence, Competence, Problem solve, Enjoyment, Positive attitude) (Ref). In aligning work to Whitehead’s (2010) current definition of PL being: ‘the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding to value and take responsibility for maintaining purposeful physical activities throughout the life-course’, PE teachers need to ensure that appropriate pedagogy is evident in their teaching.

Foundation Phase – Play to Learn (Key stage 1)

Whitehead (2010) has recently argued that physical literacy is not an end-point but should be envisaged through a ‘cradle to grave’ concept. It is an evolving journey unique to each individual and should therefore be developed throughout the life-course, although its origins are clearly founded within primary school physical education. It is well documented that promoting participation in PE and school sport upon entry to secondary level education is too late (Jess et al., 2007) and that the primary years are the ‘skill hungry’ years (Seedfeltd, 1980) and children of this age are very receptive to environments that both encourage and support development of physical competence.

Consequently, in recognition of this Sport Wales established a child centred, play-based learning continuum for children aged 3-7 years through the advent of the Foundation Phase (2008) and this has provided much impetus for those who advocate a physical literacy approach. A key aspect of the Foundation phase is a holistic educational approach, which advocates indoor and outdoor learning environments that are child initiated to support and promote discovery and independence (DCELLS 2008). Traditionally PE has been concerned with the development of motor skills and fundamental movement concepts (Doherty and Brennan 2008; Gallahue and Ozmun 2002) and these have been widely acknowledged as integral to high quality PE, although often alarmingly mistaken ambiguously to represent PL. Such an approach contributes little towards self-development and self-realisation of the individual and compartmentalises and de-contextualises their experiences in movement, physical activity and sport. Nonetheless, PE is more than the ability to demonstrate competency in movement; essentially it promotes the notion of ‘learning to move and moving to learn’ (Doherty and Bailey 2003, Pickup and Price 2007). In other words ‘how we learn’ and ‘what we learn’ are both integral to the pedagogy that is employed by PE teachers.

The advent of the ‘Play to Learn’ programme in Wales has provided much impetus and opportunity for teachers to embed the principles of physical literacy throughout their teaching. Although ‘Play to Learn’ does not implicitly focus on ‘Physical Literacy’ the emphasis is focused on creating environments that aid the development of fundamental movement skills, movement competency, problem solving, developing motivation and confidence; such that good teachers create a disposition in children as a result of positive and rewarding experiences in physical activity. Indeed, the role of the teacher as suggested by Maude (2001) is to create ‘enabling environments’, an opportunity for young children to play and extend their learning beyond recreational involvement. Physical literacy encourages teachers to use a constructivist approach to their teaching and recognise that learning in physical education is not a linear process and the acquisition of discrete pre-determined skills (Willis, 1994). Crucial to this will be the skill of the teacher in establishing a learning environment where learners are challenged within close proximity to, yet slightly above, their current level of development. According to Von Glasersfeld (1989) sustaining motivation to learn is strongly dependent on the learner’s confidence in his or her potential for learning. Furthermore it is argued that responsibility for learning should reside increasingly with the learner (Glasserfield, 1989), an approach very much purported through physical literacy and represented through Play to Learn.

Dragon Multi-Skills (KS2)

More recently the creation of the Dragon Sport multi-skills programme (Sport Wales 2012) has built on the success of the ‘Play to Learn’ approach promoting physical development in the Foundation phase into a more games focused approach in KS2. The programme was developed to ensure a smooth transition from KS1 into KS2 and ensure that young children have those transferable skills to allow a child to make informed choices and life-long participation. The approach is child-centred and has been disseminated through professional development courses and supported by a comprehensive set of resources created by the PESS team at Sport Wales. The approach is concerned with the ‘how’ of moving and through a child-centred, personalised learning approach, appropriate to each child’s stage of development. It encourages a child to consider what they can do and would like to do, rather than what the teacher would like them to do. The programme encourages the teacher to engage in ‘conversation coaching’, whereby teachers listen and value a child’s contribution, thereby empowering a child to take responsibility and ownership of their physical activity. This has been supported through a set of resources; a tool-kit provided to PE teachers that highlights the ‘what’ to teach through a comprehensive set of activities and technical skills.

Ensuring that an environment that supports PL is evident from the early years of primary teaching will ensure that young children successfully deal with the transition through to secondary school PE and lifelong physical activity beyond this and this is clearly integral to the implementation of PE policy within Wales.

Physical Education School Sport Task Force Wales

It is acknowledged that the goal of developing physically literate children involves important responsibilities for physical education specialists to develop competence, confidence and creativity across a range of activities (Stanec and Murray Orr, 2011). And yet, it is well referenced that increasingly PE in the primary school within the UK is taught by non specialists, or those with little appropriate training (Morgan and Hansen, 2008). Consequently, this would suggest that young children may not be exposed to ‘enabling’ environments that subsequently will ‘foster’ physical literacy. In acknowledgement of this and despite ‘pockets’ of good work throughout Wales evidenced through the PESS programme highlighting PL, the Welsh Government in July 2012 initiated the creation of a Schools and Physical Activity Task and Finish Group (SPATAF) in an attempt to explicitly ensure that PL is an integral part of a child’s PE experience. The group was convened by the Minister for Housing, Regeneration and Heritage (whose responsibilities included Sport), and the Minister for Education and Skills, to provide recommendations to the Welsh Government on how to develop the roles of schools in increasing the levels of physical activity in children and young people. The main purpose of the Task and Finish Group was to operationalize the programme of Government commitment ‘to make physical literacy as important a development skill as reading and writing.’

Given the Welsh Government’s commitment to making physical literacy as important a development skill as reading and writing, the report has provided recommendations that physical education provides the only credible and secure way of ensuring this. Furthermore, the report also recognised that Physical Education must also be supported by a National Physical Literacy Framework, in a similar way to the national frameworks for numeracy and literacy that currently exist in Wales. Although such a framework currently does not exist for Physical Education, the group strongly proposed that this was necessary to ensure that the outcome of delivering high quality physical education would be physically literate young people.

Conclusion

Significantly, it is a young child’s entitlement to a high quality PE environment that is important and this must clearly be a focus of any school curriculum. Sport Wales through its PESS programme, curriculum delivery and community strategy aims to provide positive and rewarding experiences and empower young children to take ownership and responsibility for their physical activity. As a result, encouraging productive pedagogical approaches through the PESS programme has provided the opportunity for children to connect their learning to their own experiences and enable them to build meaningful connections that are important for deep understanding, authentic learning (Fernandez-Balboa, 1997) and stimulate lifelong participation.

Critically, the nature and significance movement is essential to our understanding of PL and there is a need to ensure that practitioners, in particular PE professionals, have acquired and developed a philosophical, theoretical and empirical understanding about the centrality of movement experiences. This will enable them to critically examine their current practice from the perspective of a range of disciplines and contexts (Brown and Payne, 2008). Moreover, well planned PE curricula should be designed both to provide the opportunity for schools to ensure that PL is demonstrably an outcome of HQPE and to be certain that this is clearly articulated and supported through all forms of physical activity.

References

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Contact

Paul Rainer
Principal Lecturer Sports Coaching & Performance University of South Wales
United Kingdom
E-mail paul.rainer@southwales.ac.uk

Judith Davies
– previously PE advisor for Wales
United Kingdom
Email djudith9@aol.com

http://www.icsspe.org/