The COVID-19 pandemic as a fortuitous disruptor in physical education: the case of active homework
Measures devised to contain the COVID-19, including isolation, social distancing, and quarantine, have profoundly affected people's lives around the world. One of the consequences of these actions has been a general reduction in the habitual daily physical activity among children and young peop...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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AIMS Press
2022-04-01
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| Series: | AIMS Public Health |
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| Online Access: | https://www.aimspress.com/article/doi/10.3934/publichealth.2022029?viewType=HTML |
| _version_ | 1818203987239763968 |
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| author | Richard Bailey Claude Scheuer |
| author_facet | Richard Bailey Claude Scheuer |
| author_sort | Richard Bailey |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Measures devised to contain the COVID-19, including isolation, social distancing, and quarantine, have profoundly affected people's lives around the world. One of the consequences of these actions has been a general reduction in the habitual daily physical activity among children and young people for whom schools represent the major setting for the promotion of sports, physically active play, movement skills learning, and other activity supportive of healthy, active lifestyles. Whilst acknowledging the seriousness of these changes, and their concomitant health risks, we suggest that COVID-19 offers an opportunity to think again about important features of school-based activity promotion in light of new lessons learnt during lockdown, emerging technologies, and adapted pedagogies. In these specific cases, COVID-19 could be judged a “fortuitous disruptor” to the extent that it has opened a window of opportunity to schools and teachers to reflect on their assumptions about the scope, content, and delivery of their curricula, and on the new professional knowledge that has emerged. Active Homework, or physical activity-related tasks assigned to students by teachers that are meant to be carried out before, after and away from school, that students can do on their own or with family members, is not a new idea, but the enforced changes to school provision have made it considerably more common since the pandemic. Perhaps Active Homework is a concept worth retaining as schools start to return to “normal”? We offer a typology of Active Homework, and examine opportunities to expand, extend, and enhance physical education and physical activity opportunities by breaking down the presumed boundary between school and home. In conclusion, we suggest that Active Homework is worth exploring as a potentially valuable approach to enhancing the quantity and quality of students' school-based health-related physical activity. If so, considerably more research and curriculum development is needed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T03:34:04Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e4c5a39ac5424731b39b1df6a913e79e |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2327-8994 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T03:34:04Z |
| publishDate | 2022-04-01 |
| publisher | AIMS Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | AIMS Public Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-e4c5a39ac5424731b39b1df6a913e79e2022-12-22T00:39:51ZengAIMS PressAIMS Public Health2327-89942022-04-019242343910.3934/publichealth.2022029The COVID-19 pandemic as a fortuitous disruptor in physical education: the case of active homeworkRichard Bailey0Claude Scheuer11. Centre for Academic Partnerships and Engagement, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia2. Institute for Teaching and Learning, Department of Education and Social Work, University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, LuxembourgMeasures devised to contain the COVID-19, including isolation, social distancing, and quarantine, have profoundly affected people's lives around the world. One of the consequences of these actions has been a general reduction in the habitual daily physical activity among children and young people for whom schools represent the major setting for the promotion of sports, physically active play, movement skills learning, and other activity supportive of healthy, active lifestyles. Whilst acknowledging the seriousness of these changes, and their concomitant health risks, we suggest that COVID-19 offers an opportunity to think again about important features of school-based activity promotion in light of new lessons learnt during lockdown, emerging technologies, and adapted pedagogies. In these specific cases, COVID-19 could be judged a “fortuitous disruptor” to the extent that it has opened a window of opportunity to schools and teachers to reflect on their assumptions about the scope, content, and delivery of their curricula, and on the new professional knowledge that has emerged. Active Homework, or physical activity-related tasks assigned to students by teachers that are meant to be carried out before, after and away from school, that students can do on their own or with family members, is not a new idea, but the enforced changes to school provision have made it considerably more common since the pandemic. Perhaps Active Homework is a concept worth retaining as schools start to return to “normal”? We offer a typology of Active Homework, and examine opportunities to expand, extend, and enhance physical education and physical activity opportunities by breaking down the presumed boundary between school and home. In conclusion, we suggest that Active Homework is worth exploring as a potentially valuable approach to enhancing the quantity and quality of students' school-based health-related physical activity. If so, considerably more research and curriculum development is needed.https://www.aimspress.com/article/doi/10.3934/publichealth.2022029?viewType=HTMLschoolshomeworkhealth-enhancing physical activitycovid-19lockdownonline |
| spellingShingle | Richard Bailey Claude Scheuer The COVID-19 pandemic as a fortuitous disruptor in physical education: the case of active homework AIMS Public Health schools homework health-enhancing physical activity covid-19 lockdown online |
| title | The COVID-19 pandemic as a fortuitous disruptor in physical education: the case of active homework |
| title_full | The COVID-19 pandemic as a fortuitous disruptor in physical education: the case of active homework |
| title_fullStr | The COVID-19 pandemic as a fortuitous disruptor in physical education: the case of active homework |
| title_full_unstemmed | The COVID-19 pandemic as a fortuitous disruptor in physical education: the case of active homework |
| title_short | The COVID-19 pandemic as a fortuitous disruptor in physical education: the case of active homework |
| title_sort | covid 19 pandemic as a fortuitous disruptor in physical education the case of active homework |
| topic | schools homework health-enhancing physical activity covid-19 lockdown online |
| url | https://www.aimspress.com/article/doi/10.3934/publichealth.2022029?viewType=HTML |
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