1 / 1

Introduction

    Following the Lisbon European Council of 2000, the EU began the long process by which proposals were made to define and develop citizens’ competences. Finally, in 2006, the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union made the following recommendation on competences for lifelong learning.

    Competences are defined here as a combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the context. Key competences are those which all individuals need for personal fulfilment and development, active citizenship, social inclusion and employment. (European Union, 2006, L 394/13)

    If in other periods the onus had been on observable and measurable behavioural competences, the new curricular models reflected the institutional belief that young people’s competence would be better served by mobilising their practical skills, knowledge, motivation, ethical values, attitudes, emotions and other social and behavioural traits (Escamilla, 2008; European Commission, 2004; European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2012; Halász & Michel 2011; Marco, 2007; OCDE (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development), 2005; Rychen & Hersh, 2003; Zabala & Arnau, 2007). Most of the literature also emphasises the importance of combining the mobilisation and use of the resources available to the individual, which Le Boterf (2000) typifies as knowledge, information networks, social networks and know-how. Another key point in the literature is the applicability of learning outcomes in specific contexts. As Zabala & Arnau (2007) states, a person cannot be considered capable of demonstrating a level of competence until the moment he or she applies knowledge, skills and attitudes in the right context to effectively solve a specific problem. In this sense, competences are determined by context, meaning the moment when knowledge, skills and attitudes are applied to the tasks that individuals must complete.

    Harnessing the competences they have acquired, therefore, young people in education must be able to identify real-life demands and choose, under each set of circumstances, the knowledge and skills that serve them best. This makes particular sense in modern life, where the complexity of our versatile, globalised, technological and, above all, unpredictable world requires us to juggle the full range of our competences to successfully engage with a host of changing contexts.

    For the first time, Spain’s national school curriculum (Real Decreto 1513/2006 & Real Decreto 1631/2006) defines the key competences that young people must acquire in their education to complete their own personal process of growth, meet the challenges of the world at large and pursue a profession that benefits society. Further legislation passed in Spain in December 2013, the Ley Orgánica para la Mejora de la Calidad Educativa (The Improvement of the Quality of Education Act, known as LOMCE), also includes the European key competences as a component of the curriculum (Orden ECD/65/2015). These key competences must be useful in different contexts and reflect the students’ use of learning outcomes that resolve the problems encountered in everyday life. They must therefore be interdisciplinary and transversal, meaning that they combine learning outcomes from different subject areas (Buscà & Capllonch, 2008; Escamilla, 2008: Marco, 2007; Sarramona, 2004; Zabala & Arnau, 2007). Finally, if education systems are to foster equal opportunities amongst school leavers, these competences must also be within the reach of all students.

    Following EU guidelines (European Union, 2006) the key competences identified in the Spanish national curriculum are: Linguistic communication; Mathematical competence and basic competences in science and technology; Digital competence; Learning to learn; Social and civic competences; Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship; Cultural awareness and expression. Adopting this competence-based approach, educators will assign greater importance to the societal, family and educational dimensions of skills learning and help students acquire and apply such skills in their school setting and then transfer them to their experience of further or higher education, or to social and family settings. Most authors state that the process of the implementation of competencies at school requires not only the specification of these competencies in the curriculum, but also the development of appropriate teaching methods (Dąbrowski and Wiśniewski, 2011; Grayson, 2014). According to Blázquez & Bofill (2009) competence-based education is delivered using teaching methodologies that require students to address situations, conflicts and problems that are close to their experience of everyday life.

    Because of this, as these authors observe, in a competence-based model of education students are not expected to be competent per se but to demonstrate a greater or lesser degree of competence that will allow them to effectively address a problem in the future. In a competence-based approach, students gain skills to address problems by using previously acquired knowledge and abilities. In the teaching of physical education, therefore, a competence-based approach will be one that helps students acquire and integrate knowledge, skills and attitudes to act effectively in a specific social setting. It will put emphasis on the learning outcomes that motivate students to pursue physical activity as a rewarding part of a lifelong process and focus on the promotion and acquisition of an active and healthy life style. A curricular design based on key competences will also facilitate the decision making process by which learning objectives are selected and help define teaching content, strategies and assessment. It will ensure that when teachers teach motor skills, they focus on skills that are genuinely relevant and useful for learners, so that the learning processes that take place in a school setting or originate from that setting will be relevant and have practical value elsewhere. And the first step towards ensuring this is to establish the particular dimensions of the competences that are to be taught, and then relate these to the other elements in the school curriculum.

    As a school subject, physical education can be directly and clearly related to the attainment of key competences. As observed by Salmerón (2010), the human body is an essential element in the interrelation between people and their environment, and physical education is directly concerned with the acquisition of optimal physical, mental and social well-being in a healthy environment. But as well as helping people acquire instrumental skills or regular habits in the practice of physical activity, physical education can also be used to relate physical activity to a scale of values, attitudes and rules and to the knowledge of the effect this has on personal development. It can become a highly effective means of developing students’ key competences because it attempts to educate individuals in the round, because it is interdisciplinary and because it teaches useful life skills. This paper aims to establish the dimensions that characterise the Spanish national curriculum’s eight key competences and to identify the contributions that physical education can make to do these.

Methodology

    The method used is that of the “literature survey”. The sources analyzed are classified into two groups: legal documents referring to European and Spanish curricula and curriculum guidelines; and scientific papers drawn from the main educational databases.

    The research was completed in the following stages:

• Key competences were identified in the European reference framework document of 2006, the Spanish Organic Law on Education of 2006 and, from the same year, the two Spanish decrees on minimum teaching requirements in the national curriculum in compulsory primary and secondary education (ISCED 1–3) (Decree 1513 of 7 December 2006 and Decree 16131 of 29 December 2006).

• The literature was reviewed to identify other proposals.

• The dimensions for each competence were established according to the two decrees described above in (a).

• The contribution made by physical education was identified for each dimension.

• A workshop discussion was conducted, taking into account the new law on Education of 2013.

• A document was prepared to describe the aspects of physical education (knowledge, skills and attitudes) that should be used to teach the dimensions of key competences.

Results

    Our research results are described in the following tables.

Table 1. Contribution of physical education to Linguistic Communication

Dimension	Contribution
Communication	Communication through physical activity Body language Conflict resolution in the practice of physical activity
Communication in a foreign language	Comprehension of messages and their association with motor responses Use of the foreign language in the practice of physical activity
Representation and interpretation of reality	Vocabulary associated with physical activity and sport (materials, installations, techniques, strategies and rules) Interpretation of the rules of games and sports
Self-control of emotions and behaviour	Description of one’s physical actions and the physical actions of others

 

Table 2. Contribution of physical education to Mathematical competence

Dimension	Contribution
Use and association of numbers and basic numerical operations	Use of basic notions of mathematics in the practice of physical activity (measuring distances and frequencies, counting repetitions, calculating periods of duration and pauses)
Mathematical reasoning	Solving motor problems
Interpreting the spatial dimension of reality	Spatial awareness in physical activities

 

Table 3. Contribution of physical education to Basic competences in science and technology

Dimension	Contribution
Protection of individual and community health	Knowledge of one’s own body Physical fitness Safety in physical activity
Looking after the environment	Responsible approach to the natural environment in which physical activities take place
Reasonable use of material resources and responsible eating habits	Reasonable use of resources associated with physical activity (installations, equipment and sports kits) and responsible eating habits

 

Table 4. Contribution of physical education to Digital competence

Dimension	Contribution
Selection of information	Retrieving useful information
Information processing	Critical awareness of media stereotypes about the body Critical analysis of information about sport
Use of ICT	Use of ICT in team projects in physical activity and sport Understanding the risks of sedentary, ICT-related leisure activities

 

Table 5. Contribution of Physical Education to Learning to learn

Dimension	Contribution
Awareness of personal abilities	Knowledge of personal physical abilities and limits
Possession of learning strategies	Diversity of physical response Teamwork
Sense of personal ability	Personal objectives in physical activity Constructive management of physical effort
Application of learning outcomes	Physical activity in free time

 

Table 6. Contribution of physical education to Social and civic competences

Dimension	Contribution
Knowledge and understanding of social reality	Sport as a social phenomenon Conflict resolution in physical education
Valuing multiculturalism	Games and activities to assist multicultural expression
Acquisition of social skills	Cooperation in physical activities Negotiation
Creation of a personal values system	Resolution of problems in the practice of physical activity
Commitment to democratic participation	Participation in the organization of physical activities

 

Table 7. Contribution of Physical Education to Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship

Dimension	Contribution
Personal development	Overcoming adversity, diligence, and a positive attitude towards tasks
Personal criteria in selection processes	Decision making in the completion of tasks in physical activity and sport Responsibility and honesty in the observation of rules
Turning ideas into action	Organization of physical and sports activities and activities of personal expression

 

Table 8. Contribution of Physical Education to Cultural awareness and expression

Dimension	Contribution
Appreciation and enjoyment of art and other expressions of culture	Physical activities as expressions of culture (traditional games, sports, physical theatre, dance)
Artistic creation	Physical expression

Discussion and conclusions

    Our results identify the aspects of physical education (knowledge, skills and attitudes) that should be used to teach the dimensions of the Spanish national curriculum’s key competences. They support the general consensus that education policy actors need to analyze the capabilities implicit in each of these competences and formulate these as dimensions and sub-dimensions (Escamilla, 2008; Marco, 2007). Our research also shows that where it addresses the physiological, social and cultural aspects of the body and of human movement, physical education can contribute substantially to the acquisition of the Basic competences in science and technology, Social and civic competence and Cultural awareness and expression. This is supported by most of the authors who analyze the contribution of physical education to key competences (Contreras & Cuevas, 2011; Díaz Barahona (et al.), 2008; García Cortés, 2010; López Pacheco, 2010; Lleixà, 2007, 2010; Vaca, 2008). More specifically and about the contribution physical education makes to Basic competences in science and technology, González Arévalo (2011) observes that PE becomes a core subject. When students conclude their compulsory education they should understand how their bodies work and what to do to keep fit and maintain the personal challenge of a series of healthy habits that can be practised during the rest of their lives

    Note that the remaining competences are also favoured by the practice of physical education insofar as this subject encourages learners to develop autonomy in learning and in the management of what should become a lifelong practice. The close ties between physical education and Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship have been observed in particular detail by Zagalaz, Lara & Cachón (2011), who argue that physical education contributes substantially to this competence. Cañabate & Zagalaz (2010) provide an exhaustive analysis of the contribution physical education can make to Learning to learn. On its contribution to Linguistic Communication, the reader should note the importance in physical education classes of body language; and we agree with Coral & Lleixà (2014) that when physical education is taught in a foreign language, the functional use of language forms part of the subject’s learning objectives. Finally, we also propose that physical education can contribute to the acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes in Mathematical competence and digital competence, as indicated in our research results.

Acknowledgements

    We thank the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of Spain for providing funding for this research (Ref: DEP2012-33296).

References

• Blázquez. D. & Bofill, A. (2009). Estrategias didácticas para la enseñanza de competencias en Educación Física. En D. Blázquez, y E. Sebastiani (Eds.). Enseñar por competencias en educación física (p. 139-162). Barcelona: INDE.

• Buscà, F. & Capllonch, M. (2008). De las competencias básicas a las competencias profesionales transversales. Aportaciones desde el ámbito de la educación física. Tándem, 26, 34-51.

• Cañabate, D. & Zagalaz, M.L. (2010). Aportaciones del área de educación física a la competencia básica “Aprender a Aprender”. Retos. Nuevas tendencias en educación física, deporte y recreación, 18, 52-55.

• Contreras, O., & Cuevas, R. (2011). Las competencias básicas desde la educación física (1st ed.) INDE Publicaciones.

• Coral, J. & Lleixà T. (2014). Physical education in content and language integrated learning: successful interaction between physical education and English as a foreign language. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2014.977766 Published online: 1-19.

• Dąbrowski, M. & Wiśniewski J. (2011) Translating Key Competences into the School Curriculum: lessons from the Polish experience. European Journal of Education, 46, 323-334.

• Díaz Barahona, J., Campos, M.; Pérez, C.M.; Guerras, A., Casado, M.V.; Feltrer, J.; Iranzo, S. & Bilbao, A. (2008). El desarrollo de las competencias básicas a través de la Educación Física. EF Deportes. Revista Digital. 118. Retrieved from: http://www.efdeportes.com/efd118/desarrollo-de-las-competencias-basicas-a-traves-de-la-educacion-fisica.htm

• Escamilla, A. (2008). Las competencias básicas: Claves y propuestas para su desarrollo en los centros. Barcelona: Graó.

• European Comission (2004). Competencias clave para un aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida. Un marco de referencia europeo. Retrieved from: http://www.educastur.princast.es/info/calidad/indicadores/doc/comision_europea.pdf

• European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice (2012). Developing Key Competences at School in Europe: Challenges and Opportunities for Policy. Eurydice Report. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

• European Union. (2006). Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December, on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning (2006/962/EC). Official Journal of the Europe from 30.12.2006, L394/10-L394/18.

• García Cortés, M. J. (2010). Aportaciones al desarrollo de competencias básicas desde el área de educación física. Wanceulen: Educación Física Digital, 6, 52-56.

• Grayson, H. (2014). Key Competence Development in School Education in Europe. KeyCoNet’s Review of the Literature: A Summary, Brussels: European Schoolnet. Retrieved from: http://keyconet.eun.org/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=bf5517b8-2fb6-42be-981a-a011ed42a8b2&groupId=11028

• Halász, G & Michel, A. (2011). Key Competences in Europe: interpretation, policy formulation and implementation. European Journal of Education, 46, 289-306.

• Le Boterf, G. (2000). Construire les compétences individuelles et collectives. Paris: Editions d'Organization.

• Lleixà, T. (2007). Educación física y competencias básicas. Contribución del área a la adquisición de las competencias básicas del currículo. Tándem. Didáctica de la Educación Física, 23, 31-37.

• Lleixà, T. (2010). La educación física en el currículo competencial. In C. González, & T. Lleixà (Eds.), Educación física. complementos de formación disciplinar (pp. 45-57). Barcelona: Graó.

• López Pacheco, J. (2010). Contribución de la educación física a la adquisición de las competencias básicas en bachillerato. EmásF: Revista Digital De Educación Física, 6, 36-46.

• Marco, B. (2007) Competencias básicas: hacia un nuevo paradigma educativo. Madrid: MEPSYD /Narcea.

• OCDE. (2005). The definition and selection of key competencies. Executive summary. Retrieved from: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/47/61/35070367.pdf

• Orden ECD/65/2015, de 21 de enero, por la que se describen las relaciones entre las competencias, los contenidos y los criterios de evaluación de la educación primaria, la educación secundaria obligatoria y el bachillerato. BOE nº 2015, de 29 de enero de 2015.

• Pérez Gómez, A. (2007). La naturaleza de las competencias básicas y sus aplicaciones pedagógicas. Cuadernos a educación de Cantabria. 1. Consejería de Educación de Cantabria.

• Real Decreto 1513/2006, de 7 de diciembre, por el que se establecen las enseñanzas mínimas de la Educación primaria. BOE núm. 293 de 8 de diciembre de 2006.

• Real Decreto 1631/2006, de 29 de diciembre, por el que se establecen las enseñanzas mínimas correspondientes a la Educación Secundaria Obligatoria. BOE núm. 5, de 5 de enero de 2007.

• Rychen DS & Salganik LH. (2003) Key Competencies for a Successful Life and Well-functioning Society, Göttingen: Hogrefe & Huber.

• Salmerón, M. (2010). Programación de aula por competencias básicas para Educación Física en primaria. EFDeportes.com. Revista Digital, 40. Retrieved from: http://www.efdeportes.com/efd140/programacion-por-competencias-basicas-para-educacion-fisica.htm

• Zabala, A. & Arnau L. (2007): 11 ideas clave. Cómo aprender y enseñar competencias. Barcelona: Graó.

• Zagalaz, M. L., Lara, A. J. & Cachón, J. (2011): Aportaciones de la educación física al desarrollo de la competencia básica: autonomía e iniciativa personal. Tándem. Didáctica de la Educación Física, 37, 69-77.

Another articles in English

EFDeportes.com, Revista Digital · Año 20 · N° 213 | Buenos Aires, Febrero de 2016 Lecturas: Educación Física y Deportes - ISSN 1514-3465 - © 1997-2016 Derechos reservados