I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience throughout EPHE 246 this semester! For me, I would say that the concept of physical literacy is what stood out to me the most. At the beginning of this course, I had no idea that motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge, and understanding played such a crucial role in creating meaningful engagement in physical activity.

 

Motivation:

Prior to taking this course I knew that motivation played a large part in physical activity. Physical activity must always begin with the desire, or in this case the motivation to take the first step to engage in physical activity. After vastly expanding my knowledge on physical literacy, I do still believe that motivation is the aspect that allows all of the other key aspects such as confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding to flourish. Motivation is something that cannot be taught, whereas with proper motivation the other competencies can be developed over time. 

Confidence and Competence: 

Confidence and Competence are aspects that can be built up over time. For example, someone first starting off with weightlifting may lack confidence and competence for the first portion of their journey. If the motivation is there, these individuals will begin to see progress over time that will eventually begin to improve their confidence and competence. Over time they will have an improvement in self-esteem, perceptions of competence, and self-efficacy. 

Knowledge and Understanding:

Knowledge and understanding is something that can allow one to speed up their progression along the other factors of physical literacy. Circling back to the example of someone starting off with weightlifting, they may hire a personal trainer or a coach in order to gain base knowledge and understanding. These skills will not be developed overnight, although through consistency it can allow one to change the course of their life and active health journey. 

I believe that the reason I was able to retain the information regarding physical literacy is because it was the concept that caught my interest the most. When I first began my workout routine in the gym I lacked all factors except for motivation. At the beginning I was very unsure with what I was doing and saw very little progress. It wasn’t until my physical competence, knowledge and understanding started to grow when finally I began to build some confidence. 

Taking this course as someone who does not want to be a teacher, but rather in the business program I originally did not think that I would take much away from this class. Reflecting back, I now realize that almost all the concepts that I learned can be applied to the world of business to build stronger communities and connections. The biggest concept that I will take with me into the world of business is the UDL. Although in my case it is not so much about being a teacher, creating equal opportunities for all employees, allowing them to freely express themselves can be beneficial to all parties involved. I would absolutely love to educate myself further on not just the UDL but the overall idea of allowing those with disabilities or neurodivergent people to make meaningful contributions to whatever team I am a part of in the future. 

Final Thoughts

With my sister being a teacher at Braefoot Elementary, it was very interesting to understand how much effort and analysis goes into developing a lesson plan, and making meaningful change in the lives of students. Again, I have no plans of becoming a teacher, but I believe that all of these lessons I learned can be translated into nearly any situation.