Our First Project: PhysicalEducasean™

World Class Physical Education Programs for ASEAN by ASEAN

~ PE100 ASIA's response to the ASEAN Integration

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Physical Education is an integral part of school curriculum in Southeast Asia. With the 2015 ASEAN integration, the region is facing many challenges to be able to realize its slogan - one vision, one identity, one community. Well-planned, organized, and efficiently implemented school PE programs and extra-curricular activities not only create a physically fit and healthy population, but can also provide a wide range of benefits such as the ability to assist in the development of productive and engaged citizens, provide social solidity, yield economic profits, enrich the region’s identity and build a healthier community (Dudson et al., pp 2). Physical Education plays a vital role in ASEAN education system to be able to realize the slogan.

There’s an ongoing debate on whether or not PE should be mandatory in schools  because of many perceived negatives such as uneven results in assessments and grades, lack of choice, liability, interference with academic course load, bullying potential, and one size fits all programming. While it’s true that PE has also many positives such as its beneficial effects on brain development, promotion of healthy lifestyles, battling obesity, and an avenue for fun and enjoyment, mandatory PE faces great challenges to vindicate PE to the community. This issue is not only a concern in Western countries. It is also true in Asia, particularly, in the Southeast Asia.

To be able to address the perceived negatives of mandatory PE, we have to look back to the purpose of why PE exists in schools in the first place. What is the main purpose of Physical Education? 

A number of position statements and research from different organizations in the US advocating for quality physical education have been supporting the establishment and expansion of Physical Education in schools with great emphasis placed on preparing students for a lifetime of physical activity (EPEC, 2005). The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends to implement physical education curricula and instruction that emphasize enjoyable participation in physical activity and that help students develop the knowledge, attitudes, motor skills, behavioral skills, and confidence needed to adopt and maintain physically active lifestyles (CDC, 1997). One of the topics and objectives of the Healthy People 2020, the source of science-based 10-year national objectives for improving the health of all Americans, is to increase the proportion of the Nation’s public and private schools that require daily physical education for all students.

These organizations in the US are telling us the same thing—a more active populace is what we should strive for. There should be a paradigm shift for schools to lead physical education in a new direction: to equip people with physical literacy and help them become active for the rest of their lives. In other words, the main purpose for having PE as an academic discipline is to guide students in the process of becoming physically active throughout their lifetimes by letting them acquire knowledge, skills, values and enthusiasm to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle.

Having said that the purpose is active participation in and out of school throughout one’s lifetime, aside from the negatives mentioned earlier, students also face barriers in participation such as physical activity preference, motivation factors, and issues of activity adherence. 

With the absence of a governing body that could create the most anticipated future “Physical Education Standards in Southeast Asia”, most schools rely on standards created in Western countries. The 2013 UNESCO final report on World-wide Survey on School Physical Education suggested that policies and practices are subject to localization and/or local interpretations, and that there is no “one size fits all” solution (UNESCO, 2013). What works in many Western countries may not work as efficiently and effectively in Asia.

PhysicalEducasean™ has been created for the purpose of bringing out the core essence and the purpose of Physical Education in schools all around Southeast Asia. It also addresses issues and challenges for a mandatory PE program in schools and factors that affect student participation. During the past seven years in various locations around Southeast Asia particularly in the Philippines, Myanmar, and Thailand, Oliver Gomez, the founder of PE100 SYSTEM™, has been teaching different types of PE curriculum to different types of learners. Using international policies and practices in PE has many advantages; however, specific learners’ needs are disregarded. Additionally, activities that show cultural identity of Southeast Asia are lacking, if not missing. There is a need for localization of Physical Education programs and curriculum in the region to create a much better learning experience for the ASEAN learners. The aim of PhysicalEducasean™ is to unite ASEAN as its slogan—one vision, one identity, one community—through physical activities learned in schools.

The vision of PhysicalEducasean™ is for schools across Southeast Asia to have one purpose as its slogan in delivering PE programs that are unique, flexible and customizable. We encourage schools to emphasize recreational and fun aspects of PE (not only the competitive aspects) and to lead students to a more active lifestyle not only in the present, but also for a lifetime. We advocate for the inclusion of all types of learners, equity in curricular program opportunities, and that no country, no school, and no child is overlooked. Our mission is to mobilize Southeast Asia by increasing the number of schools requiring PE on a daily basis, requiring all students to take PE, and increasing activity duration in PE. We help schools to focus on education and behavior change leading to physical activity outside of class by linking curricular PE programs to extra-curricular activities and activity opportunities outside school within the community. We associate with schools to create community centers that promote lifestyle physical activities. 

WHY PHYSICALEDUCASEAN™?

PhysicalEducasean™ offers curricular programs that localize international practices in PE specific for Southeast Asia schools. It has established five different programs that cater to the specific needs of different types of learners namely, Integrated PE, Athletic PE, Movement PE, Adapted PE, and Leadership PE. It contains recommended sets of activities that involve physical fitness, martial arts, athletics, recreation, dance, and accessible community activities. These sets of activities are not mandatory as we advocate inclusiveness of all students to participate. Schools have choices about programs to implement and which activities to offer as mandatory lessons in the same way as students have the freedom to select which program to undertake and decide which activities to do. In other words, while PE is completely compulsory, students are motivated because of their freedom to choose activities that best fit their preferences.

We have listened to students’, parents’ and teachers’ perceived reasons why PE programs should not be mandatory in schools around Southeast Asia. But not having PE as part of the integral curriculum, will not solve these points. Gomez has developed PhysicalEducasean™ purposely to address these issues.

The two main issues PhysicalEducasean™ address are lack of choice and “one size fits all” programming. Schools see students as an integrated body that is capable of learning almost anything. In PE, rigid learning outcomes (standards and benchmarks) are imposed for students to achieve. However, activity preference of students is not taken into consideration. Every student is special, with unique combinations of abilities and needs that affect learning (UNICEF, 2001). With this in mind, students, when forced to participate in a certain type of activity outside their preference, are more likely to experience drudgery and may actually make themselves less likely to participate activity outside the school setting. The absence of choice in PE may have the opposite effect than the one the school intended (eHow, 2016).

Children are unique. They are individuals and no two children are alike; physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually, each child is a unique individual. Because children are unique, even if there are common needs and characteristics that children of a particular age or stage of development share, they must be understood by their parents and teachers in their uniqueness, and their individuality must be respected (UNICEF, 2001). With this understanding of the uniqueness of each learner, schools should offer choices in Physical Education to cater to each of their needs. What choices are available to students?



References:

CDC, “Guidelines for School and Community Programs to Promote Lifelong Physical Activity Among Young People”. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00046823.htm, March 5, 2016

Corbin C., 2002, “Physical Activity for Everyone: What Every Physical Educator Should Know, http://journals.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/ Documents/DocumentItem/4223.pdf, March 6, 2016

Dudson, M., Cummings, G., & Fraser, C. An investigation into the sport needs and preferences of youth aged 13-18 years in a semi-rural community.

Healthy People 2020, https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/physical-activity/objectives, March 5, 2016

Michigan Fitness Foundation, “Position Statements and Research Advocating Quality Physical Education”, http://www.jschmal.com/nmhu/pages/HU/350/advoexample.pdf, March 5, 2016

Starin M. “Disadvantages of Physical Education in the Schools”, http://www.ehow.com/info_8431377_disadvantages-physical-education-schools.html, March 5, 2016

UNESCO, “World-wide Survey of School Physical Education”, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002293/229335e.pdf, March 5, 2016

UNICEF, “Many Pathways of Learning”, http://www.unicef.org/teachers/learner/paths.htm, March 6, 2016


*About the ASEAN one community photo used in this article, I do not own the copyright of the graphic material. Please email oliver@pe100.asia if you are the owner of the photo. Removal of the material will be made upon request. Thank you.