A holistic approach to integrating movement and learning across the school day.
If we want our kids to grow up to be healthy and active for life we need to spend less time imagining them as budding elite athletes in training for sporting success. Instead, we need to think of them as learners building their ‘physical literacy’ one adventure, game, match or race at a time, so that physical activity becomes integrated into every aspect of their daily lives.
Ultimately, the goal of ‘physical literacy’ is to produce individuals with the ‘motivation, confidence, physical competence and knowledge’ to value and maintain purposeful physical activities throughout their entire lives, says MQ’s Dr Dean Dudley, Senior Lecturer in Educational Studies (Health and Physical Education) who is breaking new ground in this emerging field.
Given the many well-documented health, social, psychological and longevity benefits of physical activity – and the high economic and human costs of our increasingly sedentary lifestyles and associated health risks -- there’s a lot at stake.
Dr Dudley’s holistic approach integrates movement and learning across the school day, rather than confining physical activity to separate sports or PE classes. Just as literacy and numeracy strategies are more effective when applied across several subjects and co-curricular activities, integrating movement into tasks constitutes an important learning opportunity too.
“What I am looking at (in my research) is effective physical education that will translate into healthy and sustainable living for life – we need health, sport and education to work together,” he says.
Dr Dudley believes humanity has reached a critical juncture. Technologies designed to make our lives easier are also eroding our fitness, curtailing opportunities for social interaction and alienating us from the natural world, at a potentially high cost to our happiness and health. But, how can fostering ‘physical literacy’ at school and in our other institutions help?
For schools, reimaging what we make kids wear to school is a good place to start, especially for girls who are constrained by dresses and stockings, Dr Dudley says. He also believes playgrounds should be shaped to encourage active, creative play that extends kids of all abilities and interests, and include opportunities to climb and swing, rather than being dominated by a particular sport. Children also need opportunities to walk, skate or ride bikes to school.
Other activities, too, can combine the development of physical strength and motor skills while teaching valuable lessons and life-long skills. School gardens and kitchens, for example, deliver multiple returns, including outdoor activity and behaviour change.
“The best way to encourage kids to eat more fruit and vegetables and to learn about food is to teach them how to grow and cook it,” Dr Dudley said. And, he says, gardening is a great preparation for an active life. One of the most common activities for those aged over 40 is working in the garden.
“We also need to be thinking about children’s future social connections. What skills, values and knowledge will endure to provide lifelong opportunities for friendships combined with activity?”
Talented school children will continue to train for competitive sports and even to prepare for elite sporting careers, he says.
However, there is sufficient evidence that early talent spotting and early specialisation, say in swimming, soccer or gymnastics, leads to poorer outcomes than participating in a wide variety of sports and games during youth.
He likens opportunities to build physical skills and confidence across many areas to filling a bucket with Lego; each new skill, value, emotion, or piece of knowledge represents a Lego brick. As the number of bricks grows, kids can combine them creatively in an ever-increasing variety of ways.
Dr Dean Dudley’s research focuses on physical literacy and understanding the associations between health and learning in children and adolescents. He is interested in evidence-based approaches to health and physical education that improve learning and shape health-promoting behaviour change. He is also serves as an Individual Specialist (Health & Physical Education) - International Bureau of Education/UNESCO, and as World Regional Vice-President (Oceania) & Australian Delegate - International Federation of Physical Education (FIEP)