Traditional physical education in trouble albeit still alive - doi: 10.4025/actascieduc.v36i1.21583

Abstract

Sportive, militaristic, disciplinarian, uncritical... these adjectives are used to describe negatively traditional Physical Education. The above brought forth immediate interest in checking whether such criticism was well founded and triggered a brief discussion on the possibility of using traditional elements in current school Physical Education. Accordingly, research in the history of Physical Education inBrazilto justify such criticism was endeavored. Further, Didactics was analyzed to foreground traditional Pedagogy and apply the concept to Physical Education so that it could also be called traditional. Certain criticism for such traditionalism was investigated to determine whether it was correctly well founded. Finally, a conclusion was reached that if certain criticism was traditional, other types were ambiguous. There is actually an important conceptual confusion when the term traditional is used in Physical Education. It may be suggested that traditional Physical Education still has a place in current Physical Education in the school.