Teaching and facilitating the transference of values and life skills through physical education and sports in Singapore schools

Abstract

The contemporary discourse that sport contributes to the holistic development of adolescents remains fervidly deliberated. While there is increasing recognition that sport can potentially promote positive youth outcomes, researchers also contended that mere participation in youth sports does not necessarily translate to adaptive outcomes. Positive youth development (PYD) through sports does not occur automatically; attaining optimal positive outcomes through Physical Education and sports (PES) participation requires meticulous planning and deliberate implementation of well-designed programmes. Through careful planning and systematic efforts from the different stakeholders in the school and at home, this potential in PES could be capitalised to teach youth to embrace the best of the human character. Although this research area has gained traction in recent years, there is still a lack of studies on practitioners’ understanding of the application of strategies to teach values and life skills (VLS) and facilitate their transference to other contexts beyond PES in Asian contexts. To optimise the effectiveness of school-based sports programmes in positive youth development, there is a need to examine the educational initiatives to cater to the pedagogical needs of the Physical Education teachers and sports coaches (PETSC) in facilitating the development of VLS through PES and the transference to other contexts.<br><br>The three studies in this research culminate to address the current gaps in the literature and practices. Mixed methods were used in this research to harness the strengths of both the quantitative and qualitative approaches and increase generalizability. A qualitative approach was used in Study 1 to examine how outstanding PETSC teach VLS and facilitate the transference of the acquired VLS beyond PES contexts. The synthesis of the findings from Study 1 and the relevant literature guided the design of a robust 10-week T2VLSPES intervention programme for Study 2. The effectiveness was assessed with quantitative and qualitative data collected before and after the intervention. The longitudinal effect of the intervention programme was examined six months after the completion of the intervention programme. Study 3 further investigated the mechanism that brings about the changes in VLS outcomes.<br><br>The findings from Studies 2 and 3 reported significant and positive effects both quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative analyses by repeated measure MANCOVA and MANCOVA reported significant differences across all outcome variables between the intervention and control groups. The qualitative analyses concurred with the quantitative findings on the effectiveness of the intervention. The findings of the path analyses indicate that the change in the perceived autonomy-supportive climate significantly predicted the change in the motivation and engagement mediators and VLS outcomes. The change in the motivation and engagement mediators, particularly dedication, strongly mediated the change in the VLS outcomes. The qualitative findings concurred with the results from the quantitative analyses. The effective use of the prescribed strategies fostered an autonomy-supportive climate that strongly predicted the change in motivation and engagement and successively mediated the VLS outcomes.<br><br>The present research was conceptualised to address the literature gaps and provide policymakers, schools, and practitioners with a comprehensive T2VLSPES intervention programme to develop VLS through PES. T2VLSPES is one of the few compendious PYD intervention programmes designed to support the PES community to promote PYD in Singapore schools. The limitation and future directions were also presented to contextualise this research and recommend future directions in this area of research.