EDITORIAL

Ricardo Catunda^1,*; Elisabete Laurindo²

¹ State University of Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil.
² Avantis College, Balneário, Camboriú, Brazil.

In order not only to promote the debate on physical activity and health promotion at school but also to think of qualified joint actions about the problems related to the subject, the Center for Research on Physical Activity in School (NIAFE) held CINAPSE - the International Conference of Physical Activity and Health Promotion at School: "Building a healthy environment", through a partnership among renowned institutions, such as the State University of Ceará; the Federal Council of Physical Education - CONFEF; the Regional Council of Physical Education of Ceará - CREF5 / CE; the Association of the State of Ceará Municipalities - APRECE, and the Sports Virtual Center - CEV, as well as professionals from three countries: Brazil, Spain and Portugal, with representatives from 15 states and 8 researchers groups, where everyone was engaged in fostering discussions about physical activity in the school environment in the perspective of health promotion, involving national and international references and the Brazilian academic community in the debate through Panels, Conferences, Presentation and publication of scientific works, courses, besides the integration of 15 study groups.

The opening panel wad focused on "Recommendations of public institutions about health promotion at school", with the speaker Mr. Jorge Steinhilber, president of CONFEF, who highlighted the importance of the involvement of parliamentarians’ involvement, particularly regarded as the demand of the implementation of laws and documents already drawn up by expertise people involved in it. On this field, it should be reflected and analysed how all knowledge acquired is being applied, mainly by physical education teachers, who have an important role in people's lives, moving towards the health area.

With the breakthrough of the Profession Regulation, through Law no. 9696 1998, professionals in the field have sought to specialize and integrate with other knowledge areas, especially in inter-sectoral public policies, such as the bodily practices and promoting physical activity in the Family Health Support Center - NASF, the Health Gyms, the Health in School Program - PSE, the National School Meal Program - PNAE, among others.

We live in a globalized world, which problems related to social issues are portrayed by inactivity, increase of nutritional options - usually the inadequate ones -, the decrease of the population’s physical activity, the constraint of children’s movement with the use of new technologies growing up, combined with the increased rates of urban violence.

In face of this reality, there is an urgent need to reaffirm the importance of physical activity as an essential condition to a healthy lifestyle at all stages. However, it is at school where we can enhance an awareness movement with families about the importance of their participation, as a means of reinforce proactive actions to develop healthy habits. Therefore, IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT:

·public bodies involved in the implementation and control of public policies should recognize we live in an unstable reality in the Brazilian educational context, caused by the mismatch among managers, teachers, students and community, where there is a need to promote professional and qualified interventions in the school context, creating healthy and suitable environments to human needs;

·public policies can reflect the needs and desires of the people involved;

·Physical Education, as a curriculum component, ought to be valued as a health promoter in its broader aspects and, professionals with proper skills and knowledge should get involved as protagonists in the execution process of the objectives to be achieved;

·successful experiences, both in schools and in universities, can be disseminated and replicated in order to generate a common knowledge compilation;

·we must recognize that 80% of Brazilian children are in public schools, and there is the only place where can provide knowledge about the importance of acquiring healthy habits to promote health throughout life;

·we must understand it is unquestionable to bridge the academic field of scientific research, seeking their effectiveness through the practical application of the results, promoting concrete interventions in the daily life of Brazilian schools;

·the profession of physical education, recognized and regulated by Law No. 9,696 / 1998, must be respected and valued in schools;

·besides physical education classes, it is important and necessary to promote sports activities after their regular schedule, in order to minimize the condition effects of health problems throughout life;

·it is necessary to optimize children’s free time and promote human values and healthy habits;

·governments must maintain schools in appropriate and safe conditions.

At the Conference I: "Health promotion: the new trustworthy paradigm of School Physical Education", given by professor Dr. Adilson Marques, University of Lisboa / FMH, Portugal, he pointed out the reasons for an area of expertise integrates the school curriculum and therefore is justified, this area needs to have a socially acceptable meaning, in other words, when it is important; when you have a body of specific knowledge. In this sense, the Physical Education in Brazil have been determined by some legitimizing systems throughout history. Initially these systems were considered only as gymnastics activities, later they were used to legitimate the superiority of the countries, to strengthen the body and race vigour, then to the health and nationalism, and also for the sport.

As it has been recorded in the 1950s, when physical activity and health were discussed about, recent studies again have showed the connection between them, pointing a considerable death rate as a consequence of a sedentary lifestyle. In this regard, today's social message sees a legitimizing factor of the physical education in physical activity, sport and exercise, which is more focused on health promotion, but with a condition that is under the teachers’ responsibility, the teaching - the way of teaching. It is a sine qua non that people have "physical literacy", ie, they need to learn to do - learn to want to do. One can also sees a significant increase in the number of and scientific studies publications on the subject, in one hand expanding knowledge, but on the other hand, the practice of physical activity suffering a downward trend throughout the world.

In this aspect, the main consensus indicates that regular physical activity benefits health. So, IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT:

·every person should be "physically educated" to maintain the health and quality of life;

·actions involving physical activity and various sports ought to be developed in schools and communities, in order to minimize the prevalence of obesity;

·the School Physical Education should be legitimized as a proper area of expertise in Education;

·the Physical Education teacher uses appropriate strategies for teaching;

·every effort must be invested in prevention: first address health and not disease.

At the Conference II: "Physical Education Evidence-based", given by professor Dr. José Airton Pontes Junior, the State University of Ceará, a reflection on some challenges of today as the use of new technologies in physical education classes; the inclusion of children with disabilities and; mainly on effectiveness level of lessons, questioning the poor results at the National High School Exam (ENEM), especially in the North and Northeast regions, which presented a low performance, compared to the other Brazilian regions.

In this sense, IT IS RECOMMENDED for Physical Education in school:

·the use of technology in everyday school life;

·teacher training with significant practice and the adequate evaluation tools;

·the condition of quantitative studies on socio-cultural and educational variations in physical education students in teaching, management and the community dimensions;

·the mapping of reports of successful experiences and interventional research;

·to develop a "Cochrane" collaboration for making evidence-based decisions through good quality information in the field of Physical Education;

·to maintain a permanent relationship between school and university, investing in professional masters’ degree and projects involving the community;

·to overcome the laziness and comfortable situation the Brazilian education is placed nowadays;

·to increase the children’s level of stimulation for their full motor development;

·to include the curricular component "Health promotion" in the syllabus of undergraduate courses in Physical Education, teaching future teachers how to work in an interdisciplinary approach at school.

At the Conference III: "Physical Education: from research to intervention", done by Professor Dr. Nadia Cristina Valentini, the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, it was emphasized the need for understanding about the true role of physical education in school. We must recognize that there are differences in performance because there are no common goals, but there are difficulties in action which are common. It is therefore urgent to break paradigms and be aware that most of Brazilian children have opportunities of movement only at school and have motor delays with significant impacts, an alarming increase in the reduction of development of their basic motor skills.

Besides the children’s low motor competence, another fact to be highlighted is the decreasing proficiency movement in children who start school from the age of 6 years old, demonstrating that the possibility of movement have decreased, rather than increased. Other problems were also observed from the research, such as: the delay  of motor skills in 18% of children in Brazil; the high level of impairment in the poorest children; the reduction of appropriate areas for activities which stimulate movement; the decline in physical fitness; the high rates of obesity, especially in the suburban and central urban areas; the fragility of the self-concept, that is, children see themselves as more incapable and; the important finding that children with motor difficulties also present cognitive difficulties.

Faced with the problems presented, it is evident that the qualified intervention of the Physical Education teacher is the main factor to transform this reality, also resulting in some questions elicited: How is the children’s cognitive development? How can children's skills be changed? What would stable and consistent solutions be? We must disturb the stability and break the lack of proficiency barrier. We must agree that the traditional P.E. classes do not promote proficiency, movement mastery and success in the correct execution of the movement. Therefore, IT IS RECOMMENDED:

·class time should be optimized to provide children’s autonomy;

·the materials used in class should be diversified to enable the work in different stations;

·We must respect the own pace of each child;

·It is essential to vary the levels of challenges and skills of children;

·It is necessary to allow the exploration of the body by their own;

·to establish protocols between teachers and students;

·individual achievements must be valued;

·to promote parental involvement with the school and their children’s lives;

·the self-monitoring of the child's progress and the learners’ engagement in this process must be encouraged;

·children with special needs or other disabilities must be included in classes and school activities;

·the awareness that 24 classes with a high quality can modify the children’s motor development and motor skills;

At the Conference IV: "Intervention programs for the development of physical activity and health promotion in school", performed by professor Dr. Valter Cordeiro Barbosa Filho,  the Federal University of Santa Catarina / NuPAF, the concept of health, established by World health organization in 1946, was remembered, and the relationship between health and disease was already stablished at that time, saying that health is not merely the absence of disease but a state of complete physical well-being. Health is, above all, the normal state of human body's functioning, it's essentially living in good physical and mental disposition, besides the welfare among the individuals.

It is necessary to expand the look at this complex, which is the health care. One must understand there are social aspects which are decisive, like people’s working conditions, the commitment of our governments, and also the involvement of the whole community, schools, parents and teachers.

In this context, Physical Education has an important role because it teaches people to act for themselves and for the others, both by physical activity and the moments of discussion and reflection. Physical education must have a crucial role on the proposal of health promotion. We are properly prepared and cannot be limited only to the speech. Thus, IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT:

·physical activity and health programs should be developed in an intrapersonal perspective - attitude, self-efficacy, and interpersonal;

·topics on health should be included in the curricula of all levels of education;

·diversified materials should be offered during the class breaks;

·to produce explanatory leaflets on health conditions;

·people involved in the subject should participate in the decision-making processes;

·to promote the approach between the school and the family context, with their different realities;

·to promote the teachers’ training for this new teaching perspective;

·to know the people with whom we are working, for the necessary school integration;

·to deconstruct our methodologies. We are used to getting things ready very fast, as if it was natural;

·to reflect on how our students are being taught. We need to stop saying what they have to do, we need to discuss the guidelines of how to increase the classes quality.

·it is necessary to leave the comfort zone and complex way of looking to reality in which we live to apply what we have learned, from the possibility of enjoyment, promotion of well-being, health, promotion of pleasure; the cultural construction of teachers and students;

·to challenge universities to build different and interdisciplinary ways to assist in the process of creating a different society, able to produce knowledge related to the practice of everyday school routine. The university needs to have "room" at the school;

·we need to identify what is our role in public policy is.

At the Conference V: "Teaching Styles for School Physical Education: increasing levels of physical activity in the classroom", done by professor João Martins, the Faculty of Human Kinetics at the University of Lisbon and Lusófona University / FEFD of Portugal says that physical activity is a public health priority and the school is a privileged and recognized agent to promote this practice, whether in active recreation, in school sports in the physical education classes and the community where they live. He corroborated the idea that the physical education teacher is the agent protagonist of these activities.

Updated data have shown that most people do not meet the minimum and necessary time of moderate to vigorous physical activity a day, either in physical education classes. The great challenge in our area is to make the classes more active and methodologically appropriate. Therefore, IT IS RECOMMENDED:

·to promote the increase of physical activity in the classroom, so that people have pleasure in exercise throughout his life, in leisure time, in health clubs, squares, etc;

·the need to change the characteristics of the classes, promoting activities in which everyone has opportunities to participate;

·motivate children and young people to become physically literate – they know to dance, play, make your walk, etc;

·what goals are set to be followed and awareness of the need for planning lessons, articulated with the whole school;

·time away from classes is optimized by reducing the time for instructions, in addition to the systematization of the routines;

·the available materials and spaces the school has should be maximized;

·to promote the inclusion of everyone;

·to make challenging classes, effectively in the instructions, minimizing errors and enhancing the leadership and autonomy of students to promote meaningful knowledge for life and lifelong;

·to give positive feedback, with individual orientations, in a favourable mood for mastery;

·to use a variety of cooperative activities by promoting a vast teaching repertoire;

·to organize the class into smaller groups to facilitate and streamline the intervention classes;

·to observe students’ affective, motor, cognitive, social and behavioural aspects;

At the Conference VI: "Building a healthy environment at school”, done by Professor Dr. Antonio Ricardo Catunda de Oliveira, the State University of Ceará, he addressed three key issues: the school and physical education; international consensus and the educational value of physical education.

On this track, it is clear that the Education and Physical Education have been changing over time, and the configuration of the current society. We recognize the benefits of physical activity for people's health, but we know that his practice has been decreasing over time. In today's context, what are the objectives of physical education in this context? Do we recognize that school is the only way most children can get physical activity instructions for them and their lives?

Some international consensus has been established, such as the UNESCO and WHO, which emphasize the importance of the excellence in Physical Education for the developing skills, abilities, attitudes, values, knowledge and understanding. In this sense, the physical education classes may be sufficient if fully exploited in the most time possible with the students’ participation, in a supportive environment, with everyone’s involvement and focusing on the activities to be performed. Therefore, the scenario is favourable to Physical Education, configuring itself as an excellent opportunity to deal with this new challenge it is presented.

Challenges such as students’ low engagement in class, the state of lethargy into which Education is found nowadays, the poor utilization of the youngest characteristics, like the preference for activities which offer challenges and problem-solving strategies, the lack of materials and suitable spaces for the practice of physical education, unmotivated teachers and, exceptionally, the first generation with lower life expectancy than their parents. Faced with these highlights of IT IS RECOMMENDED:

·to maintain community partnerships, involve managers, teachers, family and take advantage of the available inter-sectoral public policies;

·to use active methods in class;

·to make the school a healthy environment, motivating, engaging and promoting the well-being;

·programs targeted to teachers for permanent and progressive qualification;

·the appreciation of teachers offering better working conditions and salaries, the importance of their role in the school improvement;

·to promote motivation and commitment of the school community;

·to ensure physical education based on quality references at all educational levels;

·attention to Early Childhood Education mandating the presence of licensed teachers in Physical Education;

·to promote healthy habits through interdisciplinary projects for the practice of physical activities and healthy eating;

·to think about the school collectively, with goals shared by everyone.