Transcendence Of Skills:Research On The Cultural Character Of Middle School Physical Instruction

Physical instruction has the value of educating people with culture. It is a cultural ecological system, consisting of life culture, spiritual culture, aesthetic culture, behavioral culture and ethnic culture. At the same time, it also has the character of sports and education. Therefore, physical education is not only the instruction of physical skills, but also the spread of sports culture, educational culture and humanistic culture. However, due to the lack of cultural elements and instrumentalism, the current physical education in our country has become a mere teaching of skills and movement, in which the teaching of culture is lacking and the mission of cultural education and inheritance is not fulfilled. Based on a reflection on the loss of cultural character in current middle school sports teaching, my personal working and learning experience, as well as theoretical thinking of physical education reform, this research puts forward the issue of the cultural character in middle school physical education. In a crucial period of curriculum reform in elementary education, a discussion of cultural character in physical education contributes to optimizing middle school sports teaching, improving the teaching quality and guiding the practice of middle school physical education as well as promoting the implementation of new curriculum.With the idea that middle school physical education should surpass the mere instruction of skills and return to the education of people with culture, this thesis, following the logical clue of "what", "why", "how", attempts to examine the following three questions. First, why should the cultural character of physical education be highlighted? Second, what kind of cultural character is physical education supposed to have? Third, how does physical education display its cultural character? Based on these questions, this thesis puts forward a hypothesis that physical education is not a mere instruction of skills, but has rich cultural character, including the character of life, spirit, aesthetics and ethnic.This thesis also puts forward three other hypotheses. First, the overall level of present middle school physical education is good. Second, the level varies significantly; Three, there are many factors within the educational system affecting cultural character in middle school physical education. For these purposes, this study uses a combination of theoretical research and empirical research, specifically, documentary method, survey-based approach, observational method and case method to analyze the value of physical education in educating people with culture and its multiple cultural character to reflect the loss of cultural character in current middle school sports teaching in order to put forward a strategic system to highlight cultural character in physical education and reconstruct the idea and path for the current middle school physical education. In this study, four specific problems to be solved are:First, a comprehensive literature review on cultural character is carried out. The concepts of "cultural character", "physical education", "culture of physical education" and "cultural character in physical education" are clearly defined. This thesis also gives a literature review and comment on the formation of cultural character in teaching, its mode of action, its loss and how to surpass practice. Secondly, the basic principle and cultural representation of educating people with culture are also discussed, including its possibility, practical appeal and five mechanisms. On this basis, the cultural character of physical education is summed up as life character, spiritual character, aesthetic character, behavioral character and ethnic character. Thirdly, empirical study and qualitative interviews of cultural character in middle school physical education have been conducted in Fujian, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Hubei, Henan, Chongqing, Sichuan, as well as an analysis of the multiple reasons for the disregard of cultural character in physical education. Finally, according to the actual data and analysis, this thesis indicates direction to the transcendence of cultural character in physical education. Based on the above studies, this thesis comes to the following conclusions.First, physical education, as a cultural practice of human activity, has a significant cultural character and function of educating people with culture. The activation of educating people with sports responds to the appeal of humanistic education and is a reposition of health with the development of era. It is not only a correction of the domination of instrumental rationality, but also the practical call of physical education reform. The aim of cultural education via sports teaching can be realized in way of spiritual education, environmental education, and education through system, practice and emotion. It also has the characteristics of being lively, constructive and practical.Second, physical education is a cultural ecological system, including life culture, spiritual culture, aesthetic culture, behavioral culture and ethnic culture. Because physical education is a human activity, it bears the characteristic of life culture; Spiritual culture is represented in the spirit of humanism, fighting, cooperation and science in physical education. Aesthetic culture is embodied in the beauty of human body and movement, as well as spirit, teaching methods and content. Behavioral culture is shown in the behavior of students, teachers and schools. The ethnic culture can be seen in the diversified ethnic cultures, their inheritance and development on the part of physical education.Third, the present middle school physical education is not ideal. Analysizing the collected 263 questionnaires and 32 interviews by using descriptive statistical analysis, difference and correlation analysis, it has been found out that:(1) The overall level of cultural character in middle school sports teaching is not high; (2) The level varies significantly; (3) There are many factors affecting cultural character in middle school physical education.Fourth, many factors contribute to the disregard of cultural character in physical education, mainly the indifference towards the cultural value of physical education, the loss of humanism, the utilitarianism of physical education and the domination of skill teaching. To be specific, the marginalization and decline of sports curriculum, the extrusion of science on teaching; the single dimensional understanding of physical education, the rigid standards of sports skills, the dull teaching contents, static preset teaching procedures, school’s pursuit of profit, the utilitarian nature of teaching, students opportunistic tendency to seek shortcut, the degradation of sports teaching resulted from mixed-up orientation in physical education, the recreational tendency in physical education and the absolute evaluation of teaching.Therefore, to get rid of the marginalization of physical education, to define its identity, to reshape its mission and to move towards reform, the following aspects should be highlighted:the first one is to restore the idea of cultural reenchantment of physical education, reflect on its cultural implication, adjust conflict in sports teaching to restore the ultimate aim of physical education. The second is to remodel the integrity of the life of students, to specify and reconstruct the teaching objectives agreeable to both students and teachers. The third one is to design real-life teaching content, specify the basis of its selection and emphasize its structure. The fourth one is to display an interactive teaching process, select suitable and effective teaching methods for students’ development so as to change the organization of teaching. The last one is to adopt a diversified and scientific teaching evaluation system, upgrade the idea of teaching assessment and enlarge the content of evaluation. By using the five-in one formation mechanism, the vitality and culture tension of physical education can be regained so as to realize the restoration of humanism and life requirement in physical education.