“Fit for Work, Fit for Play, Fit for Life”
Goal
1. The goal Fit for Work, Fit for Play, Fit for Life depicts a person with a zest for life. It encapsulates a person’s commitment to lead a healthy and dynamic life, developing the strengths of mind and body and building a capacity for wellness and survival.
2. Wellness, according to Dunn (1977), is “an integrated method of functioning which is oriented toward maximizing the potential of which the individual is capable, within the environment where he is functioning.”
3. In other words, wellness1 refers to the process of trying to achieve one’s individual potential in each of the different dimensions of health, within the limits of one’s capacity.
4. SST Sports and Wellness programme aims to inculcate in students healthy habits by equipping them with the relevant knowledge, skills, experiences, aptitudes and attitudes so that they will make a personal choice and commitment to pursue a lifelong physically active and healthy lifestyle.
Heart of the Discipline
5. Physical education is unique because it contributes to the development of the entire domains; cognitive, moral, social, aesthetics and in particular the physical. Traditionally, the basic philosophy of physical education was education of the physical whereby the focus was mainly on the development of physical fitness. However with the increased understanding of wellness in the present context, education of the physical is too uni-dimensional and inadequate to meet the needs of inculcating a healthy and active citizenship.
Curriculum
6. In SST, the Sports and Wellness curriculum is based on the philosophy of education through the physical, which provides a multi-dimensional approach to develop the student holistically through sports and games. Physical activity will continue to be the cornerstone of the programme while the curriculum has been broadened to include other aspects like character education and leadership development.
7. The department works closely with the Student Development Department and collaboratively develops programmes to cater to the total well-being of the students.
8. The syllabus would be based on eccletic2 model that encompasses different education models in physical education. It covers mainly four broad areas namely Sports, Olympics, Fitness and Health Education. In addition, students will also strive for the Sports Leader Award through the Sports Leader module.
Assessment
9. Students would be assessed on their understanding of games concepts, skills acquisition, attitudes towards physical activity, level of fitness and application of fitness and health education knowledge. The performance tasks include skills tests, games play, personal fitness and diet plan, personal reflections and organization of health promoting activities.
Pedagogical Approaches
10. Enjoying Sports through Participation
To stimulate their interests and enjoyment in sports, students would participate in sports competitions either organized by their peers or by the school. They would also be encouraged to participate or serve in community sports events organized by private organizations.
11. Applied Learning Approaches
SST will adopt a variety of applied learning pedagogical approaches such as Games Concept and Sports Education, Problem Based Learning, Experiential Learning and Challenge Based Learning in the delivery of the Sports and Wellness curriculum. Through understanding the games concepts in a real game situation, playing the roles of various sports occupations, solving problems related to games strategy, heath and fitness, students would be able to experience sports and wellness in a real world context.
12. Strategies for Active and Independent Learning (SAIL)
Lastly, the curriculum would leverage on the Strategies for Active and Independent Learning (SAIL) approach to nurture independent and motivated students to strive for greater achievements in the areas of Sports and Wellness.
Reference
1. Chia, M., Leong, L.K. and Quek, J.J. (2001). Healthy Well & Wise: Take Personal Responsibility in Daily Effort for a Life of Wellness, Singapore: National Institute of Education
2. Kell, L.E. and Melograno, V.J. (2004). Developing the Physical Education Curriculum, An Achievement Based Approach, United States: Human Kinetics
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