Prof. Øyvind Standal: Phenomenology, ‘Deep and ‘Shallow’, and Meaning in Physical Education

Professor Øyvind Standal has written extensively about phenomenology, skills, habits, embodiment and meaning in physical education. He shared his insights in the Meaningful Sport podcast.

Part 1 here:

Meaning has been a core concept for physical educators for a very long time, and often explored through a phenomenological perspective. In the first part of our conversation, we discuss the reasons why phenomenology is central for understanding meaningful movement and physical education. The focus is on Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy and his key concepts. Are habits more than automated actions and important for meaning?

In the second part of the conversation, we moved on to exploring the ‘deep’ and ‘shallow’ in education. A buzzword in Norwegian Educational system is ‘deep learning’, that is, moving beyond memorizing facts to making connections across domains and building upon previous knowledge that students have accumulated. Yet, the ‘deep’ and ‘shallow’ forms of learning have been primarily theorised in ‘hard’ school subjects. What does ‘deep’ or ‘shallow’ learning look like in physical education?

From exploring ‘deep’ and ‘shallow’ learning, we move on to ‘deep’ and ‘shallow’ meaning. Drawing on the work of R. Scott Kretchmar, we delve into exploring which meanings in PE could be considered ‘deep’ and which ones ‘shallow’.

Part 2 here:

Øyvind Standal is a Professor at the Faculty of Education and International Studies at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway.

Øyvind has published extensively on physical education, especially in relation to the philosophy of physical education and phenomenology, embodiment, skills and habits. He is the author of the book Phenomenology and Pedagogy in Physical Education (Routledge, 2015).

Published by Noora Ronkainen

Researcher | Author | Meaningful Sport | Co-host Physical Activity Researcher Podcast

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