Contents

Publisher's Statement
Foreword
Feature
Current Issues

Archives

Bulletin 65 Pdf

Contacts

| Feature | No.65 October 2013 |

Physical Literacy from the Perspective of Czech Pupils and Teachers: Results from a Pilot Study

Jana Vašíčková &Marek Hřibňák

Abstract

This paper outlines the current understanding of physical literacy in the Czech Republic. The information was obtained through a questionnaire completed by pupils and a questionnaire completed by teachers. The answers show an appreciation of some of the aspects of physical literacy but highlight the need for further understanding of the concept.

Background

Physical literacy is quite a new term in the Czech scientific and education society. Surely there are other new terms connected with literacy that came to the public’s attention quickly. These are for example “reading” literacy, numeracy, science literacy, financial literacy and computer literacy. To develop skills in these branches, new methodological textbooks in Czech language have been published. Unfortunately, the new term in the Kinanthropology field – physical literacy (PL) – has a quite complicated journey to awareness. Sometimes even scientist may discuss the content of this term in our conditions and especially what it brings to physical education (PE) teachers in the school setting.

One of the articles that was published in the Czech journal for PE teachers called “Physical Education and sport for youth” provided some ideas how to understand the term “physical literacy” (Čechovská & Dobrý, 2010). There are also attempts to clarify the term and concept from various viewpoints (Čechovská, Chrudimský, Novotná, & Vindušková, 2011; Vašíčková, 2011; Vašíčková, Frömel, & Svozil, 2011). The most important point is to understand the difference between PE and PL. As Whitehead and Murdoch (2006, 6) stated: “...physical literacy is a personal attribute that has life-long significance, while physical education describes school based experiences during compulsory education.”

Research

The aim of our research, which was a part of a master thesis, was to find out the understanding of the physical literacy term among PE teachers and pupils at selected primary and high schools in one Moravian city.

We created our own questionnaire for obtaining information about PL, about motivation for performing physical activity, about technologies for helping to increase physical activity, and about willingness of PE teachers to apply the concept of physical literacy into their PE lessons. The pupils’ questionnaire contained 7 open questions; the teachers’ questionnaire contained 11 open questions. 87 pupils (49 boys and 38 girls) from the 6 th and 9 th grade of elementary school and from the 1 st, 3 rd and 4 th grade of high school and 12 teachers (7 males and 5 females) participated in this survey. In the beginning of a PE lesson pupils completed the questionnaire that took approximately 15 minutes.

Answers to given questions were analysed with the use of qualitative coding. The most frequent terms were chosen and were divided into several categories. These categories were described with the use of descriptive statistics and discussed.

Results

Pupils’ answers

Pupils answered that under the term of PL they most often imagine “human movement” (37%), the second most frequent category was “managing of sports” (24%) and the third most often mentioned category was “fundamental movement skills” (13%). Ten per cent of pupils do not know what to imagine when hearing the term “physical literacy”.

The second question asked the pupils “What do you think you should know to be said you are physically literate? (What sports, games, and knowledge you should master?)”. The most often they mentioned “fundamental movement skills”, the second most often mentioned term was “games” and the third was “knowledge of the movement”. Some of them mentioned particular sports like gymnastics, swimming, dance or athletics.

Question about motivation revealed that pupils like enjoyment in the PE lessons; they often mentioned mental well-being, relaxation or having a rest from learning. The second most often mentioned motive was competition and victory; they often mentioned victory over a mate. The third one was described as the increase in physical fitness, mostly mentioned by girls (Picture 1).

Picture 1. What motivates you in Physical Education lessons?

The next question was about enhancement of physical activity not only in PE lessons. Pupils feel the need of a wider offer of physically oriented activities (in clubs), easily accessible sport equipment in corridors and gymnasiums, trips (cycling trips), sport events in schools, possibility to spend breaks outdoors and discounts for students in sport facilities (47 %). The second most frequent answer was that there are plenty of possibilities to be active but pupils must want to exercise (21 %).

Surveyed pupils answered the question about acquaintance with PC games (or consoles) where one has to move. 24 % know some of them but cannot give us a name; 28 % know Nintendo Wii, 17 % know X-Box 360 Kinect, 12 % know some other games and 18 % do not know any of these sorts of games.

The most frequent answer to the question “Which physical activity you would like to try in PE lessons?” was the games (54 %) followed by martial arts and fitness training (both 8 %). Girls also mentioned dance.

The last question was about the benefits that physical activity has for them. The most important benefit is the increase in physical fitness (26 %) followed by active relaxation (21 %). The next two mentioned benefits were maintaining weight (appearance) and health improvement (both 16 %).

Teachers’ answers

Teachers answered that Physical Literacy is for them connected with fundamental movement skills like jogging, jumping, throwing and manipulation with objects (58 %), movement abilities (fitness) (21 %) and thirdly with theoretical knowledge (11 %). Physically literate person, according to Czech teachers, must have fundamental movement skills (walking, jogging, climbing, swimming, cycling, skiing etc.) (50 %), basic theoretical knowledge (why to exercise) (27 %), physical abilities (18 %), and also inner motivation (5 %).

92 % of the questioned teachers agreed that the concept of PL should be applied into the school physical education, however based on legal status. Dissemination of the PL concept should be carried out in schools through extended offer of leisure-time physical activities, sport events, tournaments or theoretical lectures (41 %), through mass media (internet, documents on TV, discussion with professionals etc.) (35 %), and through involvement of parents (12 %).

Implementation of PL into practise on a general level would be helpful through a theoretical part within PE lessons (31 %), through mass media (14 %) and through better accessibility of sport facilities (adequate price or discounts), together with support of leisure time physical activities by the national institutions (funding, media promotion of physical activity, organising of sport events etc.) (25 %). Implementation of PL into practise on a school level would be good through better accessibility of school managed facilities (44 %) and a theoretical part in PE lessons or parents’ involvement (both 19 %).

92 % of teachers think that two PE lesson a week is not enough for the development of PL; they would prefer 3-4 PE lessons per week. All teachers would be willing to apply PL concept into their PE lesson after better familiarisation with its content. 42 % of teachers are also willing to further educate themselves. Teachers also think that some elements of PL concept should be implemented into various leisure-time physical activities. 75 % of the questioned teachers feel that PL concept may become the aim or target for school Physical Education, the rest of them claim that PL may be one of the outcomes of PE or the objective of PE.

The strength of the study is in the connection of the answers obtained both from pupils and their teachers. The new term “physical literacy” is quite unique and this was also one of the ways how they could familiarise with it. The limitation of the study is in small sample questioned and that it was distributed only in one city.

Conclusions

For the most of the pupils “physical literacy” is connected with human movement, sport activities and fundamental physical skills. Teachers describe PL in details as fundamental movement skills, abilities and theoretical knowledge of the benefits of movement. According to the pupils the physically literate person should have fundamental movement and sport skills; they do not think about the cognitive part of PL, e.g., knowledge and importance of right information for implementation of physical activity into healthy lifestyle. For pupils, the main motivation in PE is enjoyment and relaxation, which is also the most often mentioned benefit together with the increase of physical fitness. Physical literacy from the teachers’ point of view should be applied into school PE; it should be disseminated through the theoretical part of the lessons, via mass media and also by greater offer of sport facilities. The big challenge for researchers and physical activity professionals is to prepare information brochures, websites or organise lectures to spread out knowledge of the PL concept.

References

1. Čechovská, I., & Dobrý, L. (2010). Význam a místo pohybové gramotnosti v životě člověka (Significance and a place of physical literacy in human life) [in Czech]. Tělesná výchova a sport mládeže, 76(3), 2-5.

2. Čechovská, I., Chrudimský, J., Novotná, V., & Vindušková, J. (2011). Povědomí uchazečů o studium na FTVS UK o pohybové gramotnosti (Knowledge of student applicants at Faculty of Physical Education and Sport at Charles University about physical literacy) [in Czech]. Česká kinantropologie, 15(3), 47-55.

3. Vašíčková, J. (2011). Physical literacy as one of key challenges in new school educational programmes in the Czech Republic. International Physical Literacy Conference (pp. 16-18). Bedfordshire: University of Bedfordshire.

4. Vašíčková, J., Frömel, K., & Svozil, Z. (2011). Key competences of Czech students in PE lessons with different content. In 6th FIEP European Congress. Proceedings book. Physical Education in the 21st century - pupils' competencies (pp. 496-503). Zagreb: Croatian Kinesiology Federation.

5. Whitehead, M., & Murdoch, E. (2006). Physical Literacy and Physical Education: Conceptual mapping. PE Matters, 1(1), 6-9.

Contact

Jana Vašíčková
Faculty of Physical Culture, Palacký University in Olomouc
Czech Republic
Email: jana.vasickova@upol.cz

http://www.icsspe.org/