Redesigning the Pedagogies of Physical Literacy: Using Design Thinking as an innovation approach

Abstract

Clearly, physical literacy is a broad concept. Whilst the original term had strong philosophical orientations towards the concepts of phenomenology and existentialism, recent developments of the concept have largely focused on a more pragmatic interpretation in physical education, physical activity and sport; it appears that the application of the concept of physical literacy has led to a focus on learning more rudimentary skills. This has moved physical literacy away from its original and more holistic focus, intended by Whitehead (2007; 2013). The design challenge, therefore, is how to reimagine the pedagogy of physical literacy such that it remains relevant to its holistic origins. This is a complex problem to which we applied a human-centred innovation process called design thinking at a recent AIESEP workshop (with 92 stakeholders from 17 countries). In the workshop, teams innovated four new prototypes (solutions) in response to the problem statement. Across these prototypes, five core aspects of effective physical literacy pedagogy were identified using thematic analysis: (1) a life-long and life-wide focus; (2) Interdisciplinary design teams are needed to design and implement it; (3) the need for hybrid pedagogies i.e., both face-to-face and virtual; (4) space (virtual and physical) as an enabler; (5) how to nurture the symbiotic relationship between physical literacy and physical education. Further to this the D3 Prism of Innovation Praxis (Chambers & Sammon, in press) provided a sophisticated framework for this design challenge. It is intended to develop an overarching (prototype) solution which embraces these five aspects at a follow-on AIESEP workshop in 2021.