Integrating Physical Literacy into Indonesian Physical Education

Curriculum

Wawan Sundawan Suherman

Faculty of Sport Sciences, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Colombo Street No.1, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Keywords: Physical Literacy, Integrating, Physical Education, Curriculum.

Abstract: Physical literacy is the part and the objective of physical education. This paper will discuss the definition of

physical literacy, the benefits of legislation for physical literacy, the integration of physical literacy into

physical education curriculum, and the benefits of physical literacy for school-age children. The conclusion

is that physical literacy not only deals with physical ability, but also relates to knowledge, attitudes, and

movement ability. Legislation is important for physical literacy movement in Indonesia so that the policies

run effectively. Besides, the four patterns of integration are philosophy, learning method, curriculum

content, and goals. Physical literacy is important for school-age children.

1 INTRODUCTION

The Jakarta Post newspaper on May 31, 2016

released the results of journalistic investigation

entitled The Fitness Phenomena written by Dian

Arthen (Dian, A, 2016). This article presented the

phenomenon of fitness culture loved by middle class

community of Jakarta. At present, Jakarta's middle-

class community have the awareness to have good

fitness, they go to aerobics class, gym, fitness center,

and studios to do regular fitness exercises.

Millennials from Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang,

Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Palembang, Medan,

Makassar, and Manado have realized that sport

activities are very important for maintaining health.

Sport training activities must be done regularly so

that the fitness is maintained. Types of sports

favored by millennials are running, gym, Muay

Thai, Zumba, yoga, cycling, archery, Pilates, squash,

and Freeletics (Litbang Koran Sindo, 2019).

It is just a shame that the two results of the

investigation are not equipped with data on how

much the fitness level of the millennials is. Results

of several studies on the level of fitness of school-

age children show that on average, only 15 percent

of children have good fitness levels, and the rest are

sufficient and lack. This condition indicates that the

hobby in doing exercises has not been significantly

correlated with the level of fitness (Agus, A,

Sulistiyono, 2014). exercises, but also deals with the

awareness of the importance of the exercise and

good level of physical fitness.

Government of the Republic of Indonesia

recognizes that physical fitness and physical literacy

are very important for school-age children. In

curriculum 2013, basic competencies for all levels of

education include awareness of regular physical

activity, fitness, and exercise benefits. Thus, by

design, the curriculum contains physical literacy

material. The government has incorporated physical

literacy into physical education material. However,

after reviewing the regulation, there is not any

governing law on physical literacy movement for

school communities even though we know how

important physical literacy for the future of the

nation is. Thus, this article will discuss the following

aspects. What physical literacy is? Why is the legal

regulation important for the physical literacy

movement? How to integrate physical literacy into

physical education curriculum? Why is physical

literacy important for school-age children?

2 DISCUSSION

2.1 Physical Literacy

The illustration of Jakarta community and

millennials above shows that some Indonesian

people have practiced physical literacy, but the

224

Suherman, W.

Integrating Physical Literacy into Indonesian Physical Education Curriculum.

DOI: 10.5220/0009309302240227

In Proceedings of the 3rd Yogyakarta International Seminar on Health, Physical Education, and Sport Science in conjunction with the 2nd Conference on Interdisciplinary Approach in Sports

(YISHPESS and CoIS 2019), pages 224-227

ISBN: 978-989-758-457-2

concept of physical literacy has not been fully

explored. The term ‘literacy’ is used globally to

describe movements to improve reading and writing

skills. Currently, the literacy movement has

expanded into various fields, one of which is in the

field of physical literacy.

The physical literacy movement began to grow

in the 1990s. The pioneer figure of physical literacy

is Dr. Margaret Whitehead who was persistent,

tenacious, and persistent in promoting physical

literacy. In 2010, she refines the concept of physical

literacy as “the motivation, confidence, physical

competence, knowledge and understanding to

maintain physical activity (PA) throughout the life

course” (Lundvall & Suzanne, 2015).

Movement of physical literacy has continued to

grow around the world with its various definitions.

Physical literacy movement grows with the birth of

the International Physical Literacy Association

(IPLA). The results of The Alpen Institute show that

definition of physical literacy is a disposition that

capitalizes on the human- embodied capability,

where the individual has the motivation, confidence,

physical competence, knowledge, and understanding

to value and take responsibility for engagement in

physical activity for life (Spengler, J.O., & Cohen, J,

2015).

The definition of physical literacy indicates that

physical literacy is not only related to physical

ability, but also related to affective (motivation,

confidence, and valuing/ responsibility), cognitive

(knowledge, understanding), and attitude (lifestyle).

physical literacy should be viewed as an umbrella

concept that captures the knowledge, skills,

understandings, and values related to taking

responsibility for purposeful physical activity and

human movement across life course, regardless the

physical or psychological constraint. There are four

core elements contained within a model of physical

literacy that can manifest in observable student

behavior. Those core elements are (a) movement

competencies; (b) rules, tactics, and strategies of

movement; (c) motivational and behavioral skills of

movement; and (d) personal and social attributes of

movement (Dudley, Dean A, 2015).

Therefore, the purpose of physical literacy is to

enable people to have positive, meaningful

experiences in their involvement in a wide range of

physical activities, with the outcome that they are

motivated and confident to value and take

responsibility for their own physical activity

throughout life.

2.2 The Importance of Rule for Physical

Literacy

In some countries, physical literacy has become

public-led movement with support of public policy

in the form of legal regulations. The same should be

true in Indonesia. In general, literacy movement

already has legal regulation, but it is not for physical

literacy movement. Indonesia embraces

continentalist pattern of public policy (Nugroho, R.,

2011). According to the continentalist view, the law

is one of the public policies, whether its form, the

product, process, or the burden. From product side

or the form, public policy can be a rule of law; it can

be a convention or an agreement. From a procedural

standpoint, the law is a product of state or

government, so that the public or the community is

more likely to be the product or recipient of the

state's behavior.

The impact of a continentalist pattern is that a

policy can be fully implemented effectively when

there are many policies. Therefore, the physical

literacy movement needs to be governed by a

comprehensive set of rules, namely, macro, meso,

and micro - policies. This means that every

government regulation will be effective as soon as it

is available to be implemented. For instance:

government regulations on physical literacy

movement followed by the implementation of the

regulation of the Ministerial Regulation on physical

literacy movement.

This is necessary as Indonesia adheres to

continental public policy. According to previous

research, physical literacy movement for the public

has its own rules of Ministry of Youth and Sport

Regulation No. 18 of 2017 on Movement of Doing

Sports (Ayo Olahraga). The purpose of the sports

movement is very similar to the goal of physical

literacy. It is related to the public awareness

regarding the importance of physical and sport

activities which aims at: improving health and

fitness of the community towards the emergence of

healthy, fit, productive society; building the

character of the nation; preserving and growing the

sport culture; and making efforts to make available

time to prevent destructive harm

This is necessary as Indonesia adheres to

continental public policy. According to previous

research, physical literacy movement for the public

has its own rules of Ministry of Youth and Sport

Regulation No. 18 of 2017 on Movement of Doing

Sports (Ayo Olahraga). The purpose of the sports

movement is very similar to the goal of physical

literacy. It is related to the public awareness

Integrating Physical Literacy into Indonesian Physical Education Curriculum

225

regarding the importance of physical and sport

activities which aims at: improving health and

fitness of the community towards the emergence of

healthy, fit, productive society; building the

character of the nation; preserving and growing the

sport culture; and making efforts to make available

time to prevent destructive harm. However, the legal

regulation of the physical literacy movement for

school society is not yet available, although it is still

widely possible to use Permenpora/ Ministry of

Youth and Sport Regulation as it applies to

performance, recreational, and educational sports.

Educational sports involve sports activities held in

schools.

2.3 Integrating Physical Literacy into

Physical Education Curriculum

Physical literacy is a part of physical education

because physical literacy is the philosophy and the

purpose of physical education (Lundvall & Suzanne,

2015). Lundvall's thinking was reinforced that the

concept of physical literacy may prompt the

reconsideration of both (typical) curriculum content

as well as the methods of the instruction or the

delivery - and this would likely constitute a new

self-contained pedagogical model (Australian Sport

Commission, 2017).

Physical literacy is not only part of physical

education, either as a philosophy that is the

foundation of physical education or as a goal to be

achieved from physical education, but also part of

curriculum content and new form of physical

education learning method. Therefore, the

integration of physical literacy in physical education

can work as (1) science-based philosophy on why

physical education is needed by learners; (2) the

purpose of physical education that is the target of

why physical education is taught; (3) method of

learning that delivers content or lesson materials to

be understood by the learners; and (4) curriculum

content or teaching material that need to be

delivered to the learners.

Government of the Republic of Indonesia has

fully realized that physical fitness is an important

part of the lives of its citizens. Physical fitness is

considered as having the potential to affect various

people's life sides, such as productivity, health, and

ultimately human well-being. Therefore, upon closer

scrutiny, the Government of the Republic of

Indonesia has implemented the physical literacy

movement in Gerakan Ayo Olahraga/ Let's Do

Sports movement under Regulation of Minister of

Youth and Sports No. 18 of 2017 on Gerakan Ayo

Olahraga Movement. Within the movement, there is

an effort to develop attitudes, skills, and knowledge

regarding the importance of physical activity and

sports in realizing sport culture in healthy, fit, and

productive society that has noble character

(Lembaran Negara, 2017).

In addition, the Government of Indonesia has

included physical literacy movement in Physical

Education, Sport, and health subject (Penjasorkes)

in Curriculum 13. Objectives of Penjasorkes include

four competencies, namely (1) spiritual attitude, (2)

social attitude, (3) knowledge, and (4) basic

movement skills, self-development, games, athletics,

aquatics, gymnastics, rhythmic activities, physical

fitness, and healthy lifestyles (Permendikbud, 2016).

The objectives of Penjasorkes in Curriculum 2013

indicate that physical literacy is included in

Penjasorkes objective.

If studied deeper, as logical consequence of the

purpose of physical literacy which is in line with the

goal of Physical Education, this will be implied in

the physical education curriculum content in

Physical Literacy. This indicates that the

Government of Indonesia has integrated physical

literacy into the physical education of curriculum

content. Thus, out of the four integration patterns,

there are two patterns that have yet to be

implemented: physical literacy philosophy and the

use of physical literacy instructional method.

However, this temporary conclusion still needs to be

completed with further studies on integration

patterns to obtain more valid and accurate data.

2.4 The Effect of Physical Literacy on

School Age Child

It is well-realized that physical literacy is closely

linked to physical education, especially to physical

fitness and much-needed healthy lifestyle today.

When physical literacy is well implemented, it will

impact on physical competences, understanding, and

knowledge of physical activity, motivation and

confidence benefits in performing physical activity

because it contains adequate motor skills and social

competence to interact in sport activities.

Physical literacy (PL) has great benefits for its

actors (Basoglu, Umut D, 2018). PL educates

individuals to manage their movements in changing

and challenging environmental conditions; about

how to maintain their courage, balance,

coordination, and speed. PL forms the basis for

characteristics, qualifications, behaviors, awareness,

knowledge and understanding of the development of

healthy active living and physical recreation

YISHPESS and CoIS 2019 - The 3rd Yogyakarta International Seminar on Health, Physical Education, and Sport Science (YISHPESS

2019) in conjunction with The 2nd Conference on Interdisciplinary Approach in Sports (CoIS 2019)

226

opportunities. PL has four inter-related core

domains: (a) physical fitness (cardio-respiratory,

muscular strength and flexibility), (b) motor

behavior (fundamental motor skill proficiency), (c)

physical activity behavior (directly measured daily

activity), and (d) psycho-social/ cognitive factors

(attitudes, knowledge, and feelings). Physical

literacy provides a foundation for elite sport, public

health, recreation and physical education rather than

merely being a term used to improve public

perceptions.

Literacy has been defined in the field of physical

education, as the foundation of physical education

programs. Furthermore, individuals who are

physically literate move with competence and

confidence in wide variety of multiple environments

that benefit the healthy development of the whole

person”( Stoddart, A.L., and Humbert, ML., 2017).

The objectives of physical education emphasize

that students should become physically literate as a

result of the curriculum being taught effectively.

Although the curricula state that physical literacy is

an expected outcome of physical education, this

outcome can only be attained if the teachers are

teaching the curriculum effectively. Due to the

important role that PE teacher plays in the overall

development of children; it is vital for the teachers

of physical education to understand physical

literacy.

3 CONCLUSIONS

A closer look at the problems and discussions

above shows that physical literacy is defined as an

‘umbrella concept’ that captures knowledge, skills,

understandings, and values related to taking

responsibility for purposeful physical activity and

human movement across the life course. Indonesia

already has the legal regulation of the physical

literacy movement in Permenpora/ Ministry of

Youth and Sport Regulation No. 18 of 2017 on

Gerakan Ayo Olahraga/ Let’s Do Sports Movement.

Since Indonesia uses continental pattern of public

policy systems, the policy will work effectively if it

is equipped with the complete legal regulations.

The integration of physical literacy in physical

education has been done in terms of setting the goals

of the teachers and the content of the curriculum for

teachers. Physical literacy is important for school-

age children because this enables them to develop

their whole potential through physical activity.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thank you to the Rector of Universitas Negeri

Yogyakarta, Dean of Faculty of Sports Science,

Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Head of Department

of Health and Recreation education, and organizing

committee who give me opportunity to proceed this

paper.

REFERENCES

Arthen, Dian. “The Fitness Phenomenon”. The Jakarta

Post. May 31

, 2016.

Litbang Koran Sindo. “Lari hingga Muay thai: Olahraga

Favorit para Milenial”. Koran Sindo, 1 Agustus 2019.

Pg 8-9.

Sulistyono, Agus A. “Basic and secondary school student

physical fitness at West Java” Jurnal Pendidikan dan

Kebudayaan, Vol. 20, No. 2, Juni 2014.

Lundvall, Suzanne. “Physical Literacy in the field of

Physical Education – a challenge and a possibility”,

Journal of Health, Sport, and Exercise. (2015), pgs 1-

6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jshs.2015.02.001.

Spengler, J.O., & Cohen, J. “Physical Literacy: A Global

Environmental Scan”. The Aspen Institute Project

Play. 2015. Pg. 1-32. www.ProjectPlay.us

Dudley, Dean A. “An observational model of physical

literacy” The Physical educator, v. 72. 2015. Pgs 236-

260.

Nugroho, R., 2011. Public policy: Dinamika kebijakan –

analisis kebijakan – manajemen kebijakan. Edisi ke-3.

PT. Elex Media Komputindo. Pg. 31. Jakarta.

Australian Sport Commission. “Physical literacy:

Informing the definition and standard for Australia”.

2017. www.ausport.gov.au.

Lembaran Negara. Peraturan Menteri Pemuda dan

Olahraga nomor 18 Tahun 2017 tentang Gerakan Ayo

Olahraga.

Lampiran nomor 21 Permendikbud nomor 024 Tahun

2016 tentang Kompetensi Inti dan Kompetensi Dasar

Penjasorkes SD/MI.

Lampiran nomor 22 Permendikbud nomor 024 Tahun

2016 tentang Kompetensi Inti dan Kompetensi Dasar

SMP/MTs.

Lampiran nomor 23 Permendikbud nomor 024 Tahun

2016 tentang Kompetensi Inti dan Kompetensi Dasar

SMA/MA.

Basoglu, Umut D. “The Importance of Physical Literacy

for Physical Education and Recreation”. Journal of

Education and Training Studies. Vol. 6, No. 4; April

2018. http://jets.redfame.com

Stoddart, A.L., and Humbert, ML. “Physical Literacy is...?

What Teachers Really Know” PHEnex Journal, no 8

no 3. Pgs 1-18. 2017.

Integrating Physical Literacy into Indonesian Physical Education Curriculum

227