Physical Literacy - A Journey of Individual Enrichment: An Ecological Dynamics Rationale for Enhancing Performance and Physical Activity in All

Abstract

Internationally, governments, health and exercise practitioners are struggling with the threat posed by physical inactivity leading to worsening outcomes in health and life expectancy and the associated high economic costs. To meet this challenge it is important to enhance the quality, and quantity, of participation in sports and physical activity throughout the life course to sustain healthy and active lifestyles. This paper supports the need to develop a physically literate population, who meaningfully engage in play and physical activity through the development of functional movement skills in enriched environments. This is a shift away from reductionist approaches to physical activity engagement and maintenance to an ecological dynamics approach that focuses on enrichment to support functional movement skill learning and development. This is an embedded approach to physical literacy that allows learners the space and time to “explore–discover” (ecological psychology) within environments that will lead to a concomitant self-organization of highly intricate network of co-dependent sub-systems (anatomical, respiratory, circulatory, nervous, and perceptual-cognitive) resulting in functional movement solutions for the performance task and enduring positive adaptations to subsystems supporting the physical literacy journey across the life course. “Explore-discover adapt” is at the heart of two contemporary learner-centered pedagogies: Non-linear Pedagogy (NLP) and the Athletic Skills Model (ASM). Both emphasize the importance of enrichment experiences from an early age, and throughout life course, and both appreciate the inherent complexity involved in the learning process and the importance of designing a rich and varied range of athletic, participatory experiences that will support the embedded development of physical literacy leading to ongoing physical activity for all. The final part of this paper will demonstrate the potential of an ecological dynamics approach for supporting the concept of physical literacy by providing a roadmap for a reliable and valid measurement of physical literacy when considered from both an ecological dynamics perspective and the phenomenology understanding of physical literacy.

The Poor “Wealth” of Brazilian Football: How Poverty May Shape Skill and Expertise of Players

“…Such activities encourage creativity, improvisation, adaptive skills, and ultimately the overall development of perceptual-cognitive-motor skills (see Louv, 2005 ). Exposure to a range of outdoor environments and opportunities to adapt to dynamic constraints has been recently recognized within the ecological dynamics framework as an important means to promote lifespan skill development (e.g., Rudd et al, 2020 ).…”

A Perspective on Implementing Movement Sonification to Influence Movement (and Eventually Cognitive) Creativity

“…For example, a variety of actions can be performed in a school gym, but a ball on the ground and a goal create intentionality for most children to perform a kicking action. Creative movement however emerges overtime and from a transformational process, involving search, exploration and discovery of novel, and functionally efficient actions (Hristovski et al, 2009; for an example in dance improvisation, see Kimmel et al, 2018;Rudd et al, 2020). Hypothetically, humans have both opportunities and capacities to perform different creative movements to achieve the same or different goals.…”

Effect of Linear and Nonlinear Pedagogy Physical Education Interventions on Children’s Physical Activity: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial (SAMPLE-PE)

“…While several studies have examined associations between movement competence and PA, there is limited evidence about how the quality of movement learning experienced through PE influences participation in PA [ 21 , 41 , 43 ]. PE pedagogical approaches underpinned by motor learning theories from contrasting standpoints, such as linear pedagogy and nonlinear pedagogy might affect both movement competence development as well as PA engagement [ 21 , 43 , 44 ]…”

“…Lastly, in nonlinear pedagogy, teachers should encourage an external focus of attention to support self-organization. Several authors have proposed that nonlinear pedagogy could support children’s basic psychological needs of autonomy, relatedness and competence from a self-determination theory perspective and, therefore, could lead to higher levels of motivation towards PA engagement that might positively affect PA levels in children compared to traditional teaching approaches [ 44 , 55 , 56 ].…”

“…While several studies have examined associations between movement competence and PA, there is limited evidence about how the quality of movement learning experienced through PE influences participation in PA [21,41,43]. PE pedagogical approaches underpinned by motor learning theories from contrasting standpoints, such as linear pedagogy and nonlinear pedagogy might affect both movement competence development as well as PA engagement [21,43,44] Linear pedagogy is based on the Information Processing Theory [45] about learning. Information processing theory explains how specific inputs (sensory inputs and desired movement outcomes) experienced by learners are elaborated together with previous experiences before commencing the action and during the action based on sensory feedback to produce specific movement outcomes, leading to learning outcomes (schemas and skill learning) [46].…”