Red flags, new hope for PE

The on-going second National Conference on Sport Pedagogy at the UP Film Center is making great strides in raising red flags and uncovering new hope in how the Philippines is keeping its youth physically fit and healthy. Hundreds of participants have come from all over the world to figuratively dip into the well of richness of knowledge being presented. The wealth of research and information in the three-day gathering which began yesterday is opening eyes to the predicament we have in raising a generation of Filipinos who are becoming more sedentary, and bringing to the public’s attention means to reverse the trend.

In the past two decades, physical education has been fighting a losing battle in schools around the world. Some states in the US deem PE irrelevant and have either diminished them or not required them as part of a general education program. When culture and sports were devolved from the scope of the DepEd, it left sports without any representative muscle at the cabinet level. There are some major gaps in how physical education is taught, and the conference is making a great leap in addressing these flaws in a system which is basically adapted from the 1930’s educational matrix.

“What we are doing here is presenting evidence-based teaching and making sure that educators are aware of new findings on physical education,” explains Prof. Oscar Santelices, chairman of the Department of Sports Science of UP’s College of Human Kinetics. “We are sharing vital information to help update the teaching of PE” including the medium of instruction.”

Local data by Philippine Science High School points out that among grade school students, only 50 percent of males and 10 percent of females enjoy being physically active. A substantial percentage would even avoid PE altogether if the frequency or duration were to be increased. Ironically, other research indicates that only 18 percent of the time allocated to PE is consumed actually being physically active. In addition, 18 percent of students surveyed would increase their physical activity even without adding to the frequency or duration if they were only more active during the actual PE classes.

There is apparently a vicious cycle of negative attitude towards PE, which is fostered by lack of opportunities to actually learn the skills and play the game, which lead to poor fundamentals and lack of confidence, especially when peers and instructors laugh at poor form or lack of innate ability. This in turn feeds a negative perception of PE itself, and so on.

One of the problems lies in how physical education programs are developed. Are they appropriate for the ages of the students participating? Research shows that Filipino children master their gross motor skills (running, hopping, skipping) when they are 6 to 9 years of age. But when they are 9 to 12 years old, they don’t seem to grasp the fine motor skills – leaping, catching and throwing – as readily. One measure would be how well a child can dribble a basketball while running.

One way of dealing with the pressure of learning a new physical skill is being tutored by peers. Studies done in the US have revealed that kids are sensitive or cautious about asking questions or requesting for assistance from their PE teachers. There is a stigma associated with not being good at sports. But if the class is divided into groups of three to six students, the more athletic children can teach their classmates, and make more headway. The goal, after all, is not for them to end up being good at the sport, but opening them up to integrating certain new skills into their lives.

The goal is for a child to have moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) as often as possible. It is defined as any physical activity beyond walking, or one that gets your heart rate up to 130 beats per minute or more, such as when you are doing jumping jacks. Basically, what gets a kid to sweat is good for their stage of development.

There are several recommended steps. First, a PE teacher may have a fitness goal or contract with each student, defining what the student would like to achieve, or what they would physically want to be able to do by the end of the term. This gives the PE class a set of individual goals, and empowers the students to make the disciplinary changes to achieve their goals, and removes comparison, which destroys the confidence of those who do not have a lot of sports or physical activity at home.

“Unlike other subjects which only require cognitive recognition like math, physical skills require practice for them to be integrated into one’s life,” said Dr. Peter Dajime, one of the conference’s first speakers. “Like math, for example, a student just has to know in his mind that one plus one equals two. Whatever the circumstance, he knows one plus one equals two. For a physical skill, however, he also has to physically practice the skill to develop proficiency in it.”

Other topics explore the means of teaching in a multilingual society like the Philippines, sustaining sports programs, and various forms of training. A session on the development of arnis is also slated for Sunday. In 2009, it was officially made the national sport and martial art of the country, but there are no implementing rules and regulations in teaching it. Implementing an effective system of teaching it will be just one of the many achievements the conference hopes to attain. With all the health challenges facing our nation, the timing couldn’t be better.