Physical Education for Girls: How to
Support Specific User Needs and
Values to Make Moving Engaging
Ana Milosevic
MA student in ICT-based educational
design, Aarhus University
Korfuvej 13, 2.
2300 København S, DK
[email protected]
Joy Bryde
MA student in ICT-based educational
design, Aarhus University
Frilands Allé 23
2500 Valby, DK
[email protected]
Ane-Kathrine Petersen
MA student in ICT-based educational
design, Aarhus University
Emiliedalsvej 3, st. lejl. 4
8270 Højbjerg, DK
[email protected]
Rikke Toft Nørgård
Assistant Prof, PhD.
Center for Teaching Development
and Digital Media, Aarhus University
Paludan-Müllers Vej 48
8200 Aarhus N, DK
[email protected]
Ida Arbirk
MA student in ICT-based educational
design, Aarhus University
Kagså Kollegiet 171
2730 Herlev, DK
[email protected]
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FabLearn Europe, 16 June 2014, Aarhus University, Denmark.
Abstract
This student project sets out to investigate what values
and need we have to support and take into account if
we want to design for a good physical education for
girls in lower secondary education. Based on physical
education for 7th grade at Tre Falke Skolen in
Copenhagen the project showcases how we might make
moving more motivational and engaging if we allow for
specific user needs and values in physical education.
The project’s case gives insight into and present
findings from our effort to circumvent some of the
constraints and challenges holding girls back in todays
physical education.
Author Keywords
Physical education; Design process; Girls’ needs and
values; Digital fabrication
Introduction and background
As people become increasingly less physically active,
direct interventions are called for by politicans in
relation to ensuring a minimum amount of exercise and
physically demanding activities in our schools and
kindergartens. The new Danish school reform is one
Case: Digital fabrication in
physical education to support
specific user needs and
values.
Process: Fieldwork among
girls partaking in physical
education, interviews with
the girls and a Makey Makey
workshop with the girls as codesigners of future physical
education.
such example of this growing trend. We are as society
today more observant regarding children's active
participation in and motivation for physical activities
such as sports and exertion games [3]
Activities/Outcome: A
workshop with digital
fabrication technologies to
make girls active codesigners of their own
physical education and to
uncover what motivates and
engages them in order to
make better physical
education in the future.
In [1] Freire calls attention to the fact that “Students
project should be deeply connected with meaningful
problems, either at a personal or community level, and
designing solutions to those problems would become
both educational and empowering.” [1]. Taking this
quote as an underlying foundation the project forms
around the problems, obstacles and challenges girls
articulate they face in physical education.
Theoretical foundation
Table 1. In which context do you excerise? Distributed
by gender and age in percentage. From [3] p. 34 (our
translation).
Also in [1] Papert claims that “the construction of
knowledge happens remarkably well when students
build, make, and public share objects.” [1].
Acknowledging this fact, we have decided to engage
girls’ needs and values in physical education through a
MaKeyMaKey workshop aimed at making girls access
their motivations and incentives for being physically
active. That is, can we, trough involving girls in
different digital fabrication processes and activities get
them to help us identify which kind of physical activities
that are most pertinent and engaging for them? And
can we, thus, perhaps also counter the tendency
shoved in Table 1 where exercise and sports habits
drops from the age of 10-12 years due to a growing
social life? In the table we can se how every 8th child
out of 10, in the age of 13-15 is not physically active
outside of physical education.
About the project/demo
We have worked together with 24 girls from Tre Falke
Skolen in Copenhagen in four different sessions each
lasting 1 hour and 30 minutes. During fieldwork we
have observed the girls as they were engaged in
physical education and we have furthermore
interviewed them about their motivation, needs and
values in relation to physical education.
During the interviews the girls specified that the social
aspect of physical education is very important to them.
They love competing, though preferably in groups,
where the competition can give them a sense of unity.
However, they underlined the fact that individual
performance was also important – not so they can feel
superior – but to experience a sort of personal success
as they get recognition for having improved their
results in physical education.
Based on our observations of and interviews with the
girls we decided to spend at least another 6 hours with
them to get a deeper understanding of their needs and
values. We asked the girls to participate in a ‘physical
Tetris’ workshop using MaKeyMaKey. During this
workshop we would like to observe and get the girls to
help us identify how they relate to group and individual
cooperation with and without a competition (see figure
2). We would also like to gain a deeper understanding
of what motivates and engages the girls the most, and
how they believe that they learn most rewardingly in
physical education.
education through discovering might make moving
more motivational and engaging [2]. The hope is that
the combined project will give us the ability to
circumvent some of the constraints and challenges that
hold girls back in today’s physical education. And,
ultimately, that the girls through being able to structure
their physical education based on their identified
preferences on the grounds of the analytical framework
and the MaKeyMaKey workshop will be better
motivated and more engaged in physical education.
Project presentation and presenters
The project will be presented in the form of a video
illustrating how the girls work with ‘physical Tetris’
using MaKeyMaKey. There will also be select student
products showcasing how the girls work to improve
physical education. Presenters will be Ana Milosevic
(teacher), Ane-Kathrine Petersen (physical education
teacher), Ida Arbirk (teacher with physical education
experience) and Joy Bryde (outdoor activities and
physical movement development pedagogue). All
presenters are currently undertaking a Masters Degree
in ICT-based educational design at Aarhus University.
References
Figure 2 Analytical framework for identifying certain needs
and values in girls physical education in lower secondary
education.
Accordingly, the next step in the project will be to
organize and conduct the ‘physical Tetris’ workshop in
order to, together with the girls, to chart when the girls
are most deeply motivation and engaged. The goal of
the MaKeyMaKey workshop is to collaborate with the
girls through digital fabrication to improve physical
[1] Herrmann, J.W. & Büching, C. (eds.) “FabLab of
machines, Makers and Inventors”, Thing-O-Matic, 2013
[2] Hansen, E.I.K. and Iversen, O.S. (2013). You are
the real experts! Studying teenagers’ motivation in
Participatory Design. In Proc. of the 12th IDC
conference. ACM, pp. 328-331
[3] Laub, T.B. “Danskernes motions og sportsvaner”,
Rosendahls Forlag, 2011