SummerSch2010 - Theme & Aims



		Theme and Aims The Whole Person with 5 Chinese Virtues The concept of whole person development has long been the educational goal of the long Chinese history. The concept originates from the view of holistic, balance and optimal development of the whole child in terms of 5 Chinese virtues. Through a variety and rich learning experiences in the school context, students are nurtured in an integrated manner to become Moral, Intellect, Physique, Social, Aesthetics well beings. As time goes by, virtues such as spiritual and emotional well beings are also supplemented. Possessing morally sound well-being means that students will be acquainted with the ability to judge and direct themselves in meaningful life and to establish their values system, moral as well as ethical judgment. Intellectual well-being signifies students’ ability to acquire knowledge, skills and attitude and think reflectively and critically to solve their problems and handle difficulties. Physical well-being illustrates the ability to enhance their wellness including practicing healthy and active lifestyles for achieving optimal health. Students who are social well-being possess the ability to fulfill their social roles effectively with the desirable calibers of communicative, collaborative, responsive, respect, receptive and supportive characters. Students who are aesthetic well-beings will enhance their participation in appreciation of arts and beauty as well as their life and nature. It enables them to foster peaceful temperament, stimulate the pursuit of perfection and creativity, balance emotions and enrich life with varieties of interest. Being emotional well-beings, students will have the balance and control among their emotions towards themselves and particular contexts, and with affection and respect of others. Having said that, it is always difficult to realize or substantiate fully in particular learning area like PE, each of the above noble goal of education such as ‘Moral, Intellect, Physique, Social, Aesthetics’’ well-beings. Achieving these seven essential Chinese virtues and translating them into our realistic and practical learning goals especially through PE need to be thoroughly clarified and discussed. On the whole, the whole-person development has been identified as an important goal of education in the current education reform movement in the late Twentieth Century in Hong Kong. The reform is thought to be initiated by global and local technological, economic and social changes. The Curriculum Development Council (2002a) states that The school curriculum should provide all students with essential life-long experiences for whole-person development in the domains of ethics, intellect, physical development, social skills and aesthetics, according to individual potential, so that all students can become active, responsible and contributing members of society, the nation and the world. (p. 2) In substantiating the components of nurturing students’ whole person development, the Curriculum Development Council (2002a) recommends that The school curriculum should help students to learn how to learn through cultivating positive values, attitudes, and a commitment to life-long leaning, and through developing generic skills to acquire and construct knowledge. These qualities are essential for whole-person development to cope with challenges of 21st Century. (p. 2) Accordingly, the school curriculum including PE should be regarded as learning experiences for whole-person development. Curriculum Development Council (2002a) suggests that the following five essential learning experiences for whole-person development: Moral and civic education; Intellectual development; Community service; Physical and aesthetic development; and Career-related experiences. (p. 8) As a key learning experience, how PE can contribute to the whole-person development in response to the above-mentioned 5 types of experiences both theoretically and practically may need further study. Moreover, the new academic structure for senior secondary education also places much emphasis on changing the curriculum for nurturing the whole-person development and developing individual potentials (Education and Manpower Bureau, 2005). Yip (2007) postulates that The type of young adults our society, economy and culture require, post secondary institutions, employers and the community are looking for young people with broad horizons, positive work attitudes, a commitment to our society and country, and a capacity to collaborate with and to serve others, rather than some “exam-oriented elites”. These personal qualities can only be partially cultivated through subject or textbook-based learning. (para. 3) It is suggested that, at least 15% the total curriculum time of the new senior secondary school curriculum should be allocated for “Other Learning Experiences (OLE) ” alongside the core and elective subjects (including Applied Learning courses). It should be noted that PE is the core component of the OLE and it is recommended that 5 % of the total curriculum time should be allocated to PE experience. Accordingly, promoting students’ whole-person development is the educational goal of PE. Yip (2007) explains that OLE (including PE) embraces a catalytic function in promoting students’ whole-person development. The experiences serve to “catalyze” broad and balanced learning experiences; sustainable personal development; and positive attitudes towards learning; complementing subject learning. (para. 4) Apart from being an elective as well as a course in Applied Learning, PE is also a core component in the OLE for senior secondary school students and accordingly is expected to perform the catalytic function for promoting whole-person development. It appears to be a suitable time to look into how PE can contribute to whole-person development of the students. Similarly, in the Western countries, the rise of whole person development concept and its becoming as the major goal of school education can be dated back to the rise of progressive education in the beginning of the Twentieth Century. It is based on the humanistic view of education emphasizing on the optimal and holistic growth and development of the children. Physically Educated Person In the US, National Association for Sports and Physical Education (1992) proclaims originally from the perspective health and benefits of physical activities the idea of “Physically Educated Person”. Resulted from all PE programmes, “Physically Educated Person” should be the one who Has learned skills necessary to perform a variety of physical activities; Knows the implications of and benefits from involvement in physical activities; Does participate regularly in physical activity; Is physically fit; and Values physical activity and its contributions to a healthful lifestyle. (p. 7) National Association for Sports and Physical Education (1995) later develops an important document for all PE teachers titled Moving into the Future: National Physical Education Standards: A Guide to Content and Assessment. The major question guiding the standards is surrounding “What should students know and be able to do?” The outcomes of the "physical educated person" are suggested as the person who Demonstrates competency in many and proficiency in a few movement forms; Applies movement concepts and principles to the learning and development of motor skills; Exhibits physically active lifestyle; Achieves and maintains a health-enhancing level of physical fitness; Demonstrates responsible personal and social behavior in physical settings; Demonstrates understanding and respect for differences among people in physical activity settings; and Understands that physical activity provides opportunity for enjoyment, challenge, self expression, and social interaction. (p. 1) The concept of "physical educated person" highlights a wide spectrum of practical learning outcomes and offers a fuller practical guide on what a whole person should look like. Physically Literate Person In the UK as well as Canada, some PE scholars adopt the term “physical literate” alongside with the US term “physical educated person” to illustrate someone who “moves with competence in a wide variety of physical activities that benefit the development of the whole person” (Mandigo, Francis, Lodewyk & Lopez, 2009, p. 6). The term has further been elaborated in terms of the efficiency and effectiveness of the human movements as follows: Physically literate individuals consistently develop the motivation and ability to understand, communicate, apply, and analyze different forms of movement; They are able to demonstrate a variety of movements confidently, competently, creatively and strategically across a wide range of health-related physical activities; and These skills enable individuals to make healthy, active choices that are both beneficial to and respectful of their whole self, others, and their environment. (Mandigo et al., 2009, p. 7) Mandigo, Francis and Lodewyk (2007) offer a fuller concept of physical literacy. They recall that the United Nations has declared 2003-2012 to be the “International Year of Literacy”. Literacy should include components of knowledge of understanding, thinking, communication and application. They explain that To be physically literate includes the ability to move with poise and confidence across a wide range of activities. It also includes competencies that are linked to be the development of the whole person (e.g. physical, affective, and cognitive). Recent definitions of physical literacy include the importance of psycho-social aspects such as motivation, social responsibility, self esteem and culture. (p. 4) Almond (1997) suggests active living, cultural wealth and physicality as three important educational goals of PE for developing students' all round development. He further explains that through involving in rich PE learning activities, students should be able to find joy, learn to love in and reinforce commitment to being active; learn to appreciate and engage in cultural forms games and sports; perform something physical and combat emotions in facing challenge and risk; and finally seek out active opportunities to enhance quality life. The above analyses offer some of the many illustrations explaining the "whole person" concept. Accordingly, the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of education are highlighted as an integral aspect of the whole person education. Where there are a variety of interpretations as well as claims on educational values arisen from the whole person development, there may be debate about where the priority should lie. The Summer School for PE teachers 2010 serves as a timely initiative for clarifying what, how and why the whole- person development are. Local PE Curriculum Local educational reform efforts launched in the late Twentieth Century have addressed new goals of education in terms of “all round development” and “learning to learn” (Education Commission, 1999, 2000). PE has been regarded as a key learning area contributing to the achievement of the whole-person development of the students. Accordingly, the 6 strands (motor and sports skills; health and fitness; sports-related values and attitudes; knowledge and practice of safety; knowledge of movement; and aesthetic sensitivity), the 9 generic skills (communication skills; critical thinking skills; creativity; collaboration skills; information technology skills; numeracy skills; problem-solving skills; self-management skills; and study skills) and values and attitudes (perseverance; respect for others; responsibility; national identity; commitment; caring for others; and integrity) have been included as important learning domains for PE (Curriculum Development Council, 2002b; Curriculum Development Council & the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, 2007). The wide variety of goals may generate priority issues which weaken how its function as it has claimed. In the past few decades, “educating students through physical activities” has been identified as the direction of PE in schools in Hong Kong. Such an orientation has been specified in the curriculum guides since the Seventies (Curriculum Development Committee, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1988; Curriculum Development Council, 1995, 2002b; Curriculum Development Council & the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, 2007), which in turn demand PE teachers to plan and try using a variety of sports, games, cultural, aesthetic and adventure types of physical activities as means for promoting the whole-person development of our students. All of the above concepts of whole-person development including the whole person with 5 Chinese virtues, the physically educated person (National Association for Sports and Physical Education, 1995), the physically literate person (Mandigo et al., 2007), active living, cultural wealth and physicality (Almond, 1997) as well as the 6 strands, 9 generic skills and 7 values and attitude (Curriculum Development Council, 2002b) try to explain and substantiate the concept and elements for illustrating whole-person development. However, they are directions coming from governmental, professional organisation or individual PE scholars only. Relatively little consensus or views generated from PE teachers and students on the concept of whole person development is available. Recently, a study of the interface of PE curriculum in Hong Kong has been initiated after the Summer School for PE Teachers (Li, Cruz & Yeung, 2008). By using the questionnaire technique for investigating 296 PE teachers participating in the workshops, the following was the priority of functions of PE rated by respondents' as the 1st priority and 2nd priority: Building active and healthy lifestyle (45% n=131, 18% n=53); Improving physical fitness and bodily coordination (25% n=74, 32% n=94); Nurturing positive values and attitudes (11% n=33, 20% n=57); Learning sports skills (9% n=26, 16% n=46); Acquiring PE related knowledge (3% n=8, 5% n=16); Cultivating desirable ethical behaviours (2% n=7, 4% n=12); and Promoting generic skills (1% n=3, 1% n=2). From the point of view of the participating PE teachers, health and physical benefits were ranked by PE teachers as their 1st and 2nd priority of PE. Nurturing positive attitude and values and learning sports skills have been ranked the 3rd and 4th in their priority list. PE related Knowledge was rated as the 5th importance as the function of PE in school. The generic skills were ranked as the least importance although they had been identified and promoted in the current education reform. The findings attempted to illuminate how teachers thought of the functions of school PE. In PE teachers’ mind, there was a priority list concerning how PE could contribute to the whole person development for their students. It appears to be the timely initiative to revisit the current curricular practices so that students’ whole person development can be promoted and nurtured through PE. As a matter of fact, teachers are key players in any educational activities as they directly involve in learning and teaching for the students. They are important for promoting students’ whole person development. Their ability to create an optimal environment, structure learning goals, experiences, activities and select appropriate methods plays a vital role for nurturing students’ whole person development. Accordingly, they have to improve the quality of their teaching and to be reflective and innovative through professional development programmes. Opportunities and platform have to be provided so that PE teachers can share and nurture for incorporating respective understanding and skills in their school PE curriculum for promoting students’ whole-person development. Obviously, simply involving students in physical activities, games, sports and group activities may not be adequate in enhancing students’ whole person development. It needs purposeful planning and effective implementation. Sharing with good and relevant practices from and among PE researchers and practitioners are important if the concept of promoting students’ whole person development through PE is to be successfully implemented. How PE can be treated as a means for promoting the whole person development needs further discussion, sharing and debate. For achieving the educational goal of the whole person development, some PE teachers adopt a taken-for-granted conception. PE teachers appear to have diverse conceptions on the concept of whole person development and respective curricular and pedagogical means for developing it. For structuring learning experiences of these skills in the PE curriculum, teachers must be willing and be capable of planning, organising and evaluating relevant learning experiences for their students. It is an appropriate time to look into the issue and to see how the concept of whole person development can be promoted in the field of PE. Thus, through the initiation of this project, PE teachers can be acquainted with necessary skills and knowledge for structuring relevant learning experiences to nurture whole person development for the students through conference, school-based experience sharing sessions and workshops. Cultivating whole person development requires a great deal of planning and timing from PE teachers. In return, opportunities for them to acquaint with professional skills and knowledge have to be provided. Nevertheless, whole person development through PE is a valid educational endeavor. The major objectives of the Summer School for PE Teachers 2010 are formulated: To familiarise PE teachers with the latest development in PE, in particular, whole person development; To disseminate good practices and share the experiences among PE teachers with particular emphasis on how whole person development can be envisaged by the students through planned PE experiences; and To enrich PE teachers’ professional knowledge of learning and teaching for promoting students’ whole person development.