| CODE | HPP5006 | ||||||||
| TITLE | Promoting Healthy Lifestyles through PE and School Sport | ||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | ||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Health, Physical Education and Consumer Studies | ||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | Recent studies have shown that the physical activity levels and the sedentary time of Maltese children are alarmingly high. The consequences of such high levels of inactivity include the onset of certain diseases, including obesity and thus can have a long-term effect on their health. Schools are in the ideal position to focus on inculcating a healthy and active lifestyle, and Physical Education provides an ideal context for physical activity and where children can acquire the skills that allow lifelong participation in physical activity and sport. Physical educators also have a unique role to achieve this aim and to facilitate the adoption of a whole school approach to a healthy lifestyle, as outlined in the recently published government policy, and this unit focuses on this important role. Study-unit Aims: The aim of this study-unit is to: 1. Familiarise students with various aspects related to the contribution of Physical Education to children's health and fitness; 2. Teach student-teachers how to monitor health, fitness and physical activity of children in schools and how to use it to promote increased participation in physical activity and sport; 3. Define the role of the Physical Educator in developing a whole school approach towards promoting healthy lifestyles; 4. Present various tools and pedagogies to encourage more participation in physical activity and sport; 5. Prepare students in planning, delivering and evaluating various interventions to increase physical activity before, during and after school hours, while establishing stronger links with the community; 6. Familiarize students with the activities required to improve the physical conditioning of pupils. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - demonstrate knowledge of child development and health; - demonstrate knowledge of various conditioning exercises aimed at improving the fitness levels of children; - list various fitness tests that could be used as a target towards improving children’s health and fitness levels; - demonstrate knowledge of traditional Maltese games and how they can be integrated to the PE curriculum and further practiced during recess; - demonstrate an ability to select physical activity interventions that are feasible and effective in schools (including active transport and activities before, during and after school) and all the steps required in their implementation; - develop links with feeder schools, and the community, including local councils and sport clubs; - list the various opportunities available in the community where students can be active; - demonstrate knowledge of the content of various position papers on Health in Schools, e.g. the Health Position Paper of the Association of Physical Education (AfPE-UK); - demonstrate knowledge of policy development in Physical Education at EU level and how it filters down to the national context, and high quality Physical Education. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - use up-to-date health related knowledge to promote healthy and active-lifestyles of pupils; - assess the activity time during physical education lessons and recess using observation tools such as SOFIT, SOPLAY and ALT-PE, and use such observation tools to improve the quality of teaching and learning; - monitor children's activity and fitness and use results to encourage children to increase their activity levels; - plan and design physical education lessons that ensure high levels of Moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA); - demonstrate a competency in the use of technology to assess and promote increased physical activity levels during physical education; - use traditional games and fundamental skills (e.g. hopscotch, rope skipping) to increase physical activity during recess; - evaluate interventions aimed towards promoting active lifestyles and healthy schools; - introduce a school-wide campaign to increase competence and competence in physical activity while aiming to develop physical literacy; - collaborate with other schools and entities (including local councils, SportMalta, Sports Associations and clubs) to promote participation in physical activity and sport; - facilitate the integration of different subjects to teach health education; - demonstrate competence to manage a whole school approach to the promotion of healthy and active lifestyles; - co-ordinate and manage an active school award and liaise with SMTs and teachers to present proof of good practice in preparation for this award. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main texts Harris, J. & Cale, L. (2018). Promoting Active Lifestyles in Schools. Leeds, Human Kinetics. Mura et al. (2015). Physical Activity Interventions in Schools for Improving Lifestyle in European Countries. Clin Pract Epidemiol Ment Health. 2015; 11(Suppl 1 M5): 77–101. Expert Group on Health-enhancing Physical activity. (2015). Recommendations to Encourage physical Education in school. Brussels, EU Commission. Ministry for Education and Employment ( 2015). A Whole School Approach to a healthy lifestyle: Healthy eating and Physical Activity - Policy. Floriana, MEDE. Supplementary readings (articles are available online) Cale, L., Harris, J. & Duncombe, R. (2016). Promoting Physical Activity in Secondary schools. Growing expectations, 'same old' issue? European Physical Education Review, 22 (4), 526-544. DOI: 10.1177/1356336X15623774 Decelis, A., Jago, R, & Fox. K. Physical Activity, screen time and obesity status in a nationally representative sample of Maltese youth with international comparisions, BMC Public Health 2014, 14:664 Fairclough, S. & Stratton, G. (2005). 'Physical Education makes you fit and healthy'. Physical Education's contribution to young people's physical activity levels. Health Education Research, 20 (1): 14-23 Harris, J., Cale, L., Casey,A. & Tyne, A. (2016). Promoting active lifestyles in schools: the PAL project. Physical Education Matters, 11 (3), pp. 52-53 Harris, J. (2012). Physical education teacher education students' knowledge, perceptions and experiences of promoting healthy, active lifestyles in secondary schools. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 19:5, 466-480, DOI: 10.1080/17408989.2013.769506. Hulteen, R., Lander, N.,; Morgan, P., Barnett, L., Robertson, S. & Lubans, D. (2015). Validity and Reliability of Field-Based Measures for Assessing Movement Skill Competency in Lifelong Physical Activities: A Systematic Review, Sports Medicine, Oct 2015, Vol.45(10), pp.1443-1454. McKenzie, T. L., & Lounsbery, M. A. F. (2014). The pill not taken: Revisiting physical education teacher effectiveness in a public health context. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 85, 287-292. Micallef, C., Calleja, N., Decelis, A. Assessing the capabilities of 11-year-olds for three types of basic physical activities. Eur J Pediatr, 2010, Vol.169(9): 1093-1096. |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Andrew Decelis (Co-ord.) Aaron Formosa Daniel Zammit |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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