Phys­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion is a cur­ricu­lum and in­struc­tion mod­el with ap­pro­pri­ate de­vel­op­men­tal teach­ing strate­gies. The ed­u­ca­tion sub-dis­ci­pline teach­es spe­cif­ic con­tent and know-how that trained sport pro­fes­sion­als ap­ply. Since 1993, Phys­i­cal Lit­er­a­cy has ex­plic­it­ly com­mu­ni­cat­ed the in­tent or pur­pose of Phys­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion pro­grammes, par­tic­u­lar­ly those de­signed for chil­dren.

The In­ter­na­tion­al Phys­i­cal Lit­er­a­cy As­so­ci­a­tion (IPLA), whose mis­sion is to fa­cil­i­tate and sup­port the adop­tion and pro­mo­tion of phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy in com­mu­ni­ties world­wide, de­scribes Phys­i­cal Lit­er­a­cy as “the mo­ti­va­tion, con­fi­dence, phys­i­cal com­pe­tence, knowl­edge and un­der­stand­ing to val­ue and take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for en­gage­ment in phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ties for life.”

Phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy is be­hav­iour­al. It is an ac­tion-ori­ent­ed, self-ini­ti­at­ed, and self-sus­tain­ing change that may be in­flu­enced by ex­po­sure to cred­i­ble sports in­for­ma­tion.

PL and Read­ing in the

El­e­men­tary Cur­ricu­lum

In the same way that ed­u­ca­tors pro­mote read­ing as a uni­ver­sal life skill, phys­i­cal ed­u­ca­tion re­form now em­pha­sis­es phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy as an out­come for Phys­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion pro­grammes tar­get­ing chil­dren. Giv­en what sci­ence tells us about what move­ment does to brain de­vel­op­ment, mo­ti­va­tion, and mood, imag­ine the ben­e­fits to young chil­dren of pro­mot­ing phys­i­cal lit­er­a­cy along­side read­ing.

In­stead of treat­ing these two crit­i­cal life skills as sep­a­rate and un­re­lat­ed, read­ing and phys­i­cal ed­u­ca­tion teach­ers in pri­ma­ry schools should con­sid­er co-plan­ning and co-teach­ing se­lect­ed units as strate­gies for mo­ti­vat­ing young re­luc­tant read­ers and movers. The Busy Body Book: A Kids Guide to Fit­ness is a pic­ture book that guides chil­dren to find out how the mus­cles, lungs, heart, and brain work to­geth­er to pro­duce move­ment. Chil­dren will al­so learn ex­cit­ing ways to stay ac­tive.

Get Up and Go by Nan­cy Carl­son is an­oth­er teach­ing re­source that in­te­grates read­ing and Phys­i­cal Lit­er­a­cy. The sto­ry will al­so mo­ti­vate chil­dren to love their bod­ies, no mat­ter the size or shape, and care for them through reg­u­lar move­ment.

Em­pha­sis­ing the “E”

in Phys­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion

The fre­quen­cy of post-COVID lo­cal, na­tion­al, and in­ter­na­tion­al sport­ing events, galas, and awards may have shift­ed at­ten­tion from the sta­tus of Phys­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion in the Caribbean.

Re­searcher Mikael Quen­ner­st­edt, from the School of Health Sci­ences in Swe­den, laments the em­pha­sis on Phys­i­cal in Phys­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion and the de-em­pha­sis of the E in Phys­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion. In oth­er in­stances, the writer notes, heavy fo­cus on met­rics such as ac­tiv­i­ty lev­els and heart rates su­per­sede ed­u­ca­tion.

Though the writer re­ferred to Phys­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion in Aus­tralia, an ob­ser­va­tion that may res­onate with sports ed­u­ca­tion in the Caribbean is the “over-acad­emi­sa­tion” of sports ed­u­ca­tion.

This may be done to dis­pel the per­cep­tion of Phys­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion be­ing an area of study for low-achiev­ing or av­er­age stu­dents. Phys­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion is of­fered as a Caribbean Sec­ondary Ed­u­ca­tion Coun­cil (CSEC) and Caribbean Ad­vanced Pro­fi­cien­cy Ex­am (CAPE) sub­ject for sec­ondary school stu­dents.

PE can be stud­ied at teach­ers and sports col­leges in the re­gion. In ad­di­tion, spe­cialised sport ed­u­ca­tion stud­ies such as Sports Coach­ing and Sport Ki­net­ics are taught at Caribbean uni­ver­si­ties.

As sports cur­ricu­lum are nev­er sta­t­ic, it may be time to ex­am­ine the bal­ance be­tween con­tent knowl­edge and be­hav­iour change or whether phys­i­cal ed­u­ca­tion con­tributes to more phys­i­cal­ly lit­er­ate cit­i­zens as mea­sured by their be­hav­iour.

Dr Claudette Coote-Thomp­son is Cur­ricu­lum De­vel­op­ment Spe­cial­ist in the Fac­ul­ty of Sport, Dean’s Of­fice, Mona cam­pus and can be con­tact­ed at claudette.cootethomp­son@uwi­mona.edu.jm