Role of Character Building in China’s Physical Education

Focusing on the 1980s

Abstract

Social problems caused by young people, such as youth violence, internet addiction and so on, are causing more and more attention in China nowadays. In order to solve those problems, it is needed to strengthen school education. Past researches from Japan and United States have indicated that physical education (PE) is an effective approach for character building, providing students experience of group accomplishment and self-efficacy through physical activities. In China, on the other hand, although the objectives of character building have been proposed and established in the current PE national curriculum, lessons are mainly focused on the development of students’ body. The content for implementation of character building is still very limited. Before solving this problem, first of all, it is necessary to review and clarify the history of PE development in China. For this purpose, this study focuses on the history of the 1980s, which is regarded as the epoch-making period during the development of education in China.<br>The approach in this study was started from reviewing related literatures, to clarify development process of the objectives in 1980s PE national curriculum. Furthermore, from the viewpoint of character building, the content of PE national curriculum was discussed and analyzed. <br>The conclusions are as follows: <br>Firstly, the objectives of character building were proposed in 1980s for the first time,on the basis of reviewing and referring to PE overseas,and undergoing public comment. On the other hand, the policy from China government still focused on strengthening physical fitness in national curriculum. Meanwhile, character building in PE was not emphasized during the whole 1980s.<br>Secondly,PE national curriculum was converted from the pattern of physical fitness and military trainings to the personal demand-aimed pattern by introducing the thoughts of character building primitively. However, the objectives of character building were not divided into details that were able to be implemented in practical activities. Accordingly, in PE lessons, character building was blank. As a result, character building was very primitive in 1980s PE.