10. W. PSAILA (Education Officer, PHYSICAL EDUCATION, Malta)

Intrinsically, Physical Education has two recurring elements: education and movement. It is education in movement, education through movement and education about movement.

The final outcome of a P.E. programme should be the "physically educated person" - a person who has a repertoire of movement skills, knows the implications and benefits of physical activity and values in practice an active lifestyle. This is all very well within the context and along the sense of direction proposed in the draft of the New National Curriculum with its three-pronged emphasis on "Skills, Knowledge and Attitudes."

Two popular attitudes have been and still are bedeviling P.E. as a school subject. One is the attitude, popular in lay circles that P.E. is a time for free play, just roll out the ball and run. The other attitude, popular among various medal mongers, is that P.E. should be a direct preparation for adult, elite sport and a minicopy of them irrespective of developmental stage of children or students. With regard to the first attitude it must be emphasised that P.E. in its own right is a time for learning and teaching and much more so since it is a subject which has an enormous potential for a cross-curricular approach. The second attitude tends to promote the nurture of the gifted few at the expense of all others - the gifted few who it’s hoped will one day represent the nation with honour in some future edition of the GSSE.

P.E. is neither the one nor the other and efforts are continuously being made by members of the P.E. teaching profession to eradicate both attitudes.

The P.E. Section within the Curriculum Department has embarked on a programme with a clear sense of direction. It has to be stated at the very outset, that this programme is not an event but a process with four distinct though inter-related phases, plan, act, evaluate and plan again. In this programme the P.E. content is being based on the teaching and learning of "skill themes" and "movement concepts" in a developmentally appropriate progression from kindergarten to the end of year 6 primary.

Given the present state of P.E. in primary schools, where the subject is too often, though not always, sidelined by academic subjects, this "skill themes" and "movement concepts" approach is continued in Forms I and II of secondary education. At this stage, however, skills and concepts are to be learnt and practised in relation to five themes, namely Health-related-Fitness, Gymnastics, Ball-Games, Implement-Handling Skills and Athletics.

From Form III to Form V, the P.E. programme is directly related to specific sports disciplines in skill and game practice.

The strategy being employed is to have for each P.E. lesson a "learnable piece". This strategy is being promoted by P.E. peripatetic teachers in primary schools who periodically develop and deliver lessons on a particular skill theme or movement concept in an effort to enhance the class teacher’s knowledge of P.E. content and methods. As from next scholastic year the "learnable piece" approach is being introduced in Forms I and II of Area Secondary Schools and Junior Lyceums. This is to be achieved through a scheme of work prepared by the P.E. Section and presented and discussed in a recent in-service course for P.E. teachers.

From what is heard on and read in the media, it seems that few persons in Malta know what is being done "sportswise" in state schools and unfortunately among the unknowledgeable are many people within sports circles.

The P.E. Section has been engaged in a wide programme of staff development. During the last four years, for instance, no less than eight in-service courses on a national basis have been organised. Staff development for P.E. teachers in secondary education included teaching strategies in sports disciplines such as, basketball, volleyball, handball, judo, badminton, athletics and football. The collaboration of the national associations in these courses was indeed forthcoming and welcomed. In the July 99 course, Dott V. Baldini of the Federazione Ginnastica d’Italia was brought over by the Education Division to lecture and demonstrate preparatory phases in Artistic Gymnastics. Moreover, school-based staff development has been held in thirty-one primary schools. Twenty-nine state primary schools voluntarily took part in the "Award for good practice n Physical Education" held in collaboration with the Malta Olympic Committee an initiative in which all participating schools made an effort to improve the "quality" of their P.E. programme.

Primary Schools are every year invited to participate in educational sport activities. During the last scholastic year, forty-eight state primary schools were represented in football festivals and thirty six in netball festivals. The four Regional Sports Festivals (three in Malta and one in Gozo), with the active participation of over three thousand children have now become established annual celebrations. The "festival" formula has been introduced and is being kept in order to dilute the competitive spirit. These sports festivals are an occasion for team and "cooperation" games as well as for P.E. displays or folk dancing. Many state primary schools organise their own intra school sports festival. With the support of the P.E. peripatetic teacher, some schools have lately been organising "a field day" - an alternative sports meeting in which all pupils in the school participate in a continuous activity, of about an hour and a half duration, by going around various stations of skills and fun games.

The secondary schools calendar is brimming with sports activities. The Malta "Olympic Youth Fest" is organised annually by the P.E. Section and the M.O.C. for Area Secondary Schools, Junior Lyceums, Trade Schools as well as for Church and Independent Schools. Nineteen different sports were offered in the last edition of the YouthFest and the bulk of the participation came from State Schools. Sports activities included Athletics (3-day programme, boys/girls, with 28 state schools participating). Girls’ Rhythmic and Artistic Gymnastics (4-day programme with 80% of the gymnasts coming from State Schools), Football, Netball, Basketball (boys/girls with 16 teams from state schools), Handball (boys, 8 teams out of 10 from state schools), Hockey (boys, juniors/seniors 7 teams out 8 from state schools), Volleyball (girls/boys with 18 teams from state schools) and Cross Country.

Some of these competitions are held during school hours while others are held according to an after-school-hours programme. It is to the merit of those P.E. teachers, who sometimes have to train their students before a.m. lessons or after p.m. lessons that these competitions are a success.

It is indeed understandable that even people in sports circles are not aware of such a sports programme in state schools. As personnel in the Education Division, the fault lies not in our stars, but in ourselves, since we are not accustomed to give publicity to our achievements. But then, the person who every morning obeys the call of duty and attends for a day’s work does not go out and break the news to the media. These sports activities in the schools have become normal, routine procedure.

Recent press releases by the Ministry of Education have shown that Physical Education, as a subject in the school curriculum, may indeed be on the verge of an important phase. While continuing to be a "core" subject, P.E. may become an "option" subject. This would considerably increase P.E. time in the upper forms of secondary education and would render satisfaction to many of our students. An action committee composed of members of staff P.E. programme, Faculty of Education, University of Malta and officers from the Curriculum Department, Education Division have been working on this initiative for the last twenty months. It is hoped that a P.E. "option" would be linked to a Secondary Education Certificate at the end of Form V.

Another matter lately being debated in P.E. circles regards the question by whom should the delivery of P.E. lessons be done in the primary.

Three schools of thought emerge, each presenting its particular arguments for and against. The first proposes P.E. to be taught by the class teacher. The class teacher has always been considered the "heart" of primary education in Malta. At this developmental stage the relationship nurtured between the child and "his/her" teacher is considered as the quintessence of educational endeavour. The class teacher embodies the "holistic" approach and renders it meaningful.

The second proposes a "specialist" P.E. teacher as a member of the school staff who is "exclusively" in charge of the Physical Education programme for each class in the school. This may seem an appropriate solution with the approaching glut of P.E. teachers even though our graduates are prepared to teach P.E. in the secondary rather than in the Primary school. This proposal, however, may give rise to several questions.

It is a sound, educated guess that with a specialist P.E. teacher taking the class regularly for the lessons the child’s development in the psychomotor domain would be enhanced, but does this equally apply for the child’s development in the cognitive and affective domains? If P.E. is given "specialist" treatment, would other expressive arts (music, art, drama) eventually demand the same treatment? How would children eventually perceive the "class" teacher who is assigned to teach them only the once so called 4R’s while other teachers take them for games, to run and to jump, to sing and to dance, to play and to act, to draw and to paint ...? How many P.E. teachers would be required in Primary Schools so that every child receives the two-hours per week of Physical Education as is being proposed by the draft of the New National Curriculum? What would this mean in financial terms?

The third school of thought proposes a "shared responsibility" between the class teacher and a P.E./Sports Leader, a specialist teacher who is also a member of the school staff. The P.E./Sports leader in the schools is to plan the P.E./Sports programme from Kindergarten to Year 6, to co-ordinate this programme, deliver P.E. lessons to all classes in the school, provide examples of good practice, and is to be committed to the organisation of school sports clubs after the normal school hours. The class teacher, with the support of the P.E./Sports leader, is to plan the programme for the class and deliver his/her share of lessons in accordance to the planned programme and with the school’s organisation. The P.E./Sports leader’s commitment to school sports club would require some changes in the normal working hours and/or adequate remuneration. A P.E. peripatetic service would still be required to provide curriculum and syllabus co-ordination as well as for the organisation of inter schools initiatives and activities.

In discussing these schools of thought, it must constantly be borne in mind that the well-being of the child comes first and foremost; indeed prior to the very enhancement of the status of Physical Education itself. "The Sabbath was made for Man and not Man for the Sabbath".

For questions or comments about this article, contact Marina Bonello

(Information provided courtesy of www.pelinks4u.org)

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