Abstract:

There is a long tradition of education and learning, and the German bildung concept is said to build on Paideia from the ancient Greece, combined with Aristotle’s thinking about moral or ethical strength, character; one’s personal bundle of virtues.

“The concept of bildung” can be understood as a personal, and political building, and as a capability of active participation in a process of ongoing democratisation.

I have used Klafki’s bildung-concept; he believed that school and education should think categorically and critically-constructively. The aim of the teaching must be to promote human self-determination, co-determination and solidarity in combination.

In the Norwegian national curriculum bildung is a key element, and foundation for good education. These two lines from the curriculum illustrates this: “The school has both an educational and a bildung assignment. They are intertwined and mutually dependent on each other. The principles for working with learning, development and education will help schools to solve this double task.”

Assuming that learning is not a one-way process, but a process of the mutual construction of meaning between teachers and students (Bruner, 1990), and between students and students. As a teacher I can only provide some of the material to work with and an idea about what kind of process that would be motivating for the students.

My study question: Is it possible to learn Bildung through physical activity, and what kind of activity would be appropriate to do?
I gave the students some games to play, then we discussed whether these games could lead to - self-determination, co-determination and solidarity. Later on the students was to design their own new games to promote the same qualities.

The underlying idea is that bodily learning is more effective and more profound than pure cognitive learning. According to Damgaard Knudsen, the bodily experience, which man receives from specific situations in his surroundings, will be involved in determining the bildung experience, which in turn will provide guidelines for the reflection.

Keywords:

Bildung, teacher education, Physical Education, students work.