1 Introduction

This study aimed at evaluating the use of relational psychomotricity in circus activities taught to first graders in Physical Education (PE) classes. In the area of PE taught in schools, circus activities aim at giving students the opportunity to get in touch with some elements of the circus language. This paper intends neither to discuss circus arts broadly and profoundly nor develop circus professionals in PE classes; priority lies in the field of basic practical experience and in the generic conceptual debate (^{ONTAÑÓN; DUPRAT; BORTOLETO, 2012}). Academic production of contents related to the circus in schools not only reveals possibilities of much learning but also introduces body practices that take place among participants (^{ONTAÑÓN; BORTOLETO; SILVA, 2013}). Its potential does not lie only in the functional evolution of the human body and procedural aspects, but also in the development of attitudinal (^{INVERNÓ, 2004}), conceptual⁴ (^{DUPRAT, 2007}; ^{ONTAÑÓN, 2012}), aesthetic, creative and expressive aspects of motricity, thus, boosting body domain (^{BORTOLETO, 2006}).

Work that involves circus activities has been fast and superficial in schools (^{BORTOLETO, 2011}). It is fundamental to carry out studies that aim at providing the basis of teaching processes of circus activities in formal Education. According to ^{Bortoleto (2006}), ^{Duprat (2007}) and ^{Ontañón (2012}), pedagogical production has had scarce procedural and conceptual advances in content development. Other authors agree that the weak theoretical-practical framework leads to superficial approaches that collaborate neither on content development (^{ONTAÑÓN; BORTOLETO; SILVA, 2013}; ^{CARDANI et al., 2017}; ^{RODRIGUES et al., 2021}) nor on students’ development.

Regarding relational psychomotricity, it has been inserted in the area of PE in schools since the first half of the 1990’s (^{SELAU; FURINI, 2002}), based on children’s play activities (^{VIGOTSKI, 2008}) as the ones that mediate the pedagogical process (^{HAMMES; ARMAS CARVALHO; SELAU, 2018}). The theoretical basis of the practice is mostly L. S. Vigotski’s Cultural-historical Psychology (²⁰⁰¹, ²⁰⁰⁸), an approach that enables to study psyche in its system, as opposed to different psychological perspectives - based on the stimulus-response model - which have dominated since the first half of the 20th century (^{CORDEIRO; SELAU, 2023}).

Relational psychomotricity has been described as a non-guided methodology addressed to children who are over one year old. Its objectives are to provide multiple and diverse body experiences, to boost symbolic living and to trigger children’s verbal communication (^{NEGRINE, 2002}). According to ^{Bersch and Piske (2020}), the practice differs from others due to mediation and organization of the space, material, objects and strategies that contribute to participants’ behavioral and experiential evolution. Play has the main role and contributes to internal processes of superior thinking, as pointed out by ^{Vigotski (2008}):

Play provides a background for changes in needs and in consciousness of a much wider nature. Play is the source of development and creates the zone of proximal development (ZPD). Action in the imaginative sphere, in an imaginary situation, the creation of voluntary intentions and the formation of real-life plans and volitional motives - all appear in play and make it the highest level of preschool development, the main wave that rises from the deepest but relatively calm waters (^{VIGOTSKI, 2008}, p. 35, emphasis added).

The literature review which was conducted before the field study did not find any study that had specifically investigated relational psychomotricity to teach circus activities in school. Therefore, this fact shows the singular and innovative nature of this investigation. The next section deals with the method which led the study in the introduction and development of circus activities by means of relational psychomotricity.

2 Methodological Procedures

This study used the approach called pedagogical intervention which aims at contributing to find solutions for practical issues; thus, detailed description of procedures is fundamental (^{DAMIANI et al., 2013}; ^{SELAU; HAMMES; GRITTI, 2016}). This type of study must account for two methodological components: the “method of intervention” and the “method of intervention evaluation”. The applied method was found to be adequate to the object of study under investigation (^{LENCE; SELAU, 2023}).

This study was carried out with first graders who attended classes in a city public school in Bagé, Rio Grande do Sul (RS) state, Brazil, in 2022. The group was composed of seventeen 6-7-year-old children (six girls and eleven boys). One of the boys was physically impaired (he had no left arm). Box 1shows all participants and their attendance at the relational psychomotricity sessions, expressed as percentage.

Source: authors’ own elaboration

Box 1 Participants and their attendance at relational psychomotricity sessions 

Taking into consideration that the researcher did not belong to the school staff, he followed the students’ school routine for a week before the pedagogical intervention. Previous involvement with the children in school was based on ^{Luria (1990}) and aimed at reinforcing friendly relations and at ensuring their spontaneity in the experimental study. A diagnostic class and sixteen relational psychomotricity sessions were conducted. All sessions lasted sixty minutes, on average, and were held in an open space (six sessions) and in a classroom (ten sessions). They took place twice a week (on Tuesdays and Wednesdays), except in May, since there was only one session in a week and two sessions in another week. All requirements related to Ethics were met.

The method of intervention describes how all sixteen relational psychomotricity sessions⁵ that comprised the study were organized and developed in the processes of teaching and learning. The pedagogical practice was aligned with ^{Vigotski’s assumptions (2001}, 2008) in terms of the conception of the process of human development and of studies of children’s play. The basic principle of relational psychomotricity, i. e., to make play activities⁶ easier and ensure that children carry out different variations in their play development, was followed (^{NEGRINE, 1994}a). Body exteriorization was ensured to collaborate on the construction of a diverse psychomotor vocabulary (^{FURINI, 2010}) and symbolic movement (^{VIGOTSKI, 2001}). Every session had three moments: the beginning ritual, the session itself and the end ritual.

In the beginning ritual, which was aligned with assumptions of relational psychomotricity, the researcher talked about free play with the children, showed them the material and objects, limited the space of the session and, together, they established rules of social coexistence. Besides, the researcher attempted to find out about every child’s play by means of verbal communication. According to ^{Furini (2010}), the whole session development must be clear to the children, mainly its pedagogical strategies. This moment also involves circus concepts - either historicized or not - safety guidelines, procedural demonstrations and encouragement of circus play, according to ^{Duprat (2007}) and ^{Ontañón (2012}). The researcher used printed and illustrated material whose highlighted letters helped didactic explanations. The auxiliary material was used for introducing information on the beginning of the so-called “modern” circus in the mid-18th century (S1) (^{SILVA; ABREU, 2009}; ^{BRACHT, 2010}). It aimed at approximating circus equestrian presentations to children’s play. Illustrations were also used in S2, mainly images of the words “circus”, “balance board”, “tightrope” and “clown”. In S5, an image of circus performers, which shows children involved in the circus arts, is part of the beginning ritual. In S7, the story entitled “O circo chegou!”⁷ (“The circus has arrived!”, in Brazilian Portuguese) was read to the children to help contextualize and socialize circus elements audiovisually.

In the second part of the routine, the space and circus objects and material were made available to the children, besides the researcher’s availability and body implication. The pedagogical work aimed at helping play, exercises and social interaction. The researcher encouraged circus play, symbolic language (non-verbal), manipulation, balance skills, clown costumes and creativity. The pedagogical focus was to support both circus experiences and social interaction among children. Safety was managed throughout all activities. This study used three profiles of pedagogical intervention: functional, self-structuring and implementation activities (^{FURINI, 2010}), which showed children’s levels of autonomy while carrying out activities Box 2at relational psychomotricity sessions.

Source: part of ^{Furini’s table (2010})

Box 2 Teacher/student interactivity and types of pedagogical activities 

High control was directed to children to keep them safe when they were involved in balance on objects. Juggling and clown activities enabled them to be freer.

The end ritual aimed mainly at making children talk about what they had done in the session and at clarifying any doubt. The researcher listened, talked and encouraged oral communication. The children reported their experiences while the researcher listened and asked which circus activities they had done and which they had liked most. They talked about experiences proposed by the content, such as social rules, adequacy of circus experiences, use of objects and materials and safety issues. In end rituals in S4, S7 and S16, activities were in the scope of graphic exteriorization by means of drawings and paintings.

The approach to circus activities aimed at the body culture of movement, taking into consideration procedural, attitudinal and conceptual aspects of the content. According to ^{Bracht (2010}), the body culture of movement means that the body is seen mainly as a cultural, symbolic construction. From this perspective, there is “culturalization” of PE contents in school. All body practices refer to a certain historical and cultural context. PE contents in school have started to involve knowing how to do and knowledge about the activity, thus, approximating historicized circus meanings to children’s current experiences. This contextualization means addressing procedural relations - knowing how to do, conceptual relations -, historically produced meanings and attitudinal relations - resulting learning, attitudes and values in certain body practices (^{DARIDO, 2005}).

The theoretical framework of circus activities was based on studies which have discussed this content in schools since the beginning of the 2000’s (^{BORTOLETO; MACHADO, 2003}; ^{BORTOLETO, 2003}, ²⁰⁰⁶, ²⁰⁰⁸, ²⁰¹¹; ^{INVERNÓ, 2004}; ^{DUPRAT, 2007}; ^{ONTAÑÓN, 2012}). Several studies have collaborated on better pedagogical foundation of circus activities (^{DUPRAT; PÉREZ-GALLARDO, 2010}; ^{SERRA; BORTOLETO, 2011}; ^{ONTAÑÓN; BORTOLETO; SILVA, 2013}; ^{DUPRAT; ONTAÑÓN; BORTOLETO, 2017}; ^{CARDANI et al., 2017}; ^{RODRIGUES et al., 2021}; ^{MESSIAS; IMPOLCETTO, 2021}).

As a pedagogical resource, the classification of circus activities proposed by ^{Duprat and Pérez-Gallardo (2010}) was adapted to this study. Box 3shows the circus skills that were developed and evaluated by this study.

Source: adapted from ^{Duprat and Pérez-Gallardo (2010})

Box 3 Classification of circus activities into didactic-pedagogical units 

The main material and objects were juggling balls with different colors and characteristics, swing pois⁸, tulle scarves, wooden sticks, pool noodles⁹, conventional ropes, little wooden horses, pairs of “tin feet”, balance boards, hats, hairbands with ornaments, marabou necklaces, clown wigs, capes, little ties and a mirror. Some material and devices were made and others were bought in local stores.

Sessions were held in the classroom and in an open space, which was the yard located in front of the school. According to ^{Cardani et al. (2017}), circus activities may be developed in several open and closed places; the most important issue is to adapt circus skills to pedagogical objectives of interest. ^{Negrine (2002}) theorized clown skills, which were introduced in S1, S3, S4, S6, S7, S9, S11, S13, S14, S15 and S16 with the use of costumes. Another space of relational psychomotricity was the one of construction, which was explored in S3, S6 and S9. Finally, music was used in S1, S2, S7 and S15.

Teaching processes of circus activities were part of the whole proposal. It means that pedagogical intentions were found at the beginning, development and end of relational psychomotricity sessions. Box 3 shows circus skills developed in every session.

Source: authors’ own elaboration

Box 4 Circus skills developed in the sessions 

The method of intervention evaluation comprised participant observation from an outsider’s perspective, the focus group, video recording and images selected from the videos. According to ^{Alonso (2016}), participant observation is characterized as systematic monitoring of all activities carried out by the group under study. The researcher is immersed into participants’ routine as a member of the group. The advantage of applying participant observation from an outsider’s perspective is the credibility and the relationship of trust established between the researcher and the participants. However, subjectivity may become the weakness of this method (^{ALONSO, 2016}). Observation was used in the whole structure of sessions (routine).

^{Loizos (2002}) gives three reasons to use photography (image) and video (image in motion): to show temporal actions and real, concrete, material events; to provide visual information that may be kept for further inquiry; and to keep up with the means of communication that increasingly influence the contemporaneous world and whose results depend on visual elements. However, the use of these data collection tools is restricted. According to Loizos (2002), they may be manipulated and are mere representations or fragments of higher complexity of past actions. Since they were used for supporting observation, their use was found to be appropriate to this study.

Structured observation of social interaction was based on ^{Negrine (2002}). Seven questions composed the previously organized plan for observing every child: interaction with other children? interaction among gender? always the same interactions? was there imitative activity? does s/he share material and objects? is there aggressive behavior? does s/he isolate from the others?

Another tool was the focus group, a technique of qualitative research that aims at understanding people’s conceptions and perceptions of a certain theme (^{ALMEIDA, 2016}). The focus group was used either in the beginning ritual or in the end ritual. The following question was asked the children: “do you like to play circus?”. ^{Carvalho (2016}) evaluated his observation sessions and his focus group and found them useful to his study of relational psychomotricity, even though they were insufficient at certain moments since “when intervening with a small group, the teacher ends up missing the general view of the group” (^{CARVALHO, 2016}, p. 48). Therefore, video recording and images were used for helping to analyze empirical data.

The Discursive Textual Analysis (DTA) (^{MORAES, 2003}) and both software programs WebQDA (^{ANDRADE; LINHARES; COSTA, 2021}) and Excel were used for data treatment. The next section describes and discusses the main findings of this study.

3 Results and Discussion

Circus learning was organized and managed with the use of school spaces and furniture. Physical spaces were divided and controlled with chairs and tables to develop balance skills. This model of didactic organization collaborated on the introduction and advance in learning related to stilt walking and balance boards (OBSERVATIONS 3, 4, 8). During the talk in the beginning ritual, chairs enabled the children and the researcher to feel more comfortable (OBSERVATION 8). Outdoors, exercise mats were organized to avoid obstructing children’s free movement (OBSERVATION 5). Some pedagogical possibilities of using school furniture - which had not been reported by ^{Negrine (1994}a, 1994b, 1995, 2002) - were confirmed by this study, a fact that represents advances in the practice of relational psychomotricity. Even though there are studies in the literature that investigate didactic organization based on spaces that are available in schools (^{SITTA; MELLO, 2013}; ^{SIMIANO, 2017}; ^{COCITO; MARIN, 2018}; ^{MARQUES; CARNEIRO, 2022}), most focus on preschool rather than on early years in Elementary School.

The didactic organization also concentrated on specific restrictions and authorizations of the school. Music was not used in the classroom to avoid disturbing other classes (OBSERVATION 4). It was used in S1, S2, S7 and S15 outdoors and was well evaluated by this study since it enabled cultural approximation to the circus (OBSERVATIONS 2 and 15). These results corroborated the ones found by ^{Lobo (2002}) and ^{Messias and Impolcetto (2021}): the use of music supports the theme and triggers children’s participation in circus activities. In the classroom, swing pois, wooden sticks and balls were not used due to little space and certain risks, such as the possibility of breaking windowpanes. In this space, tulle scarves and marabou necklaces were more appropriate (OBSERVATION 16).

The types of pedagogical activities - based on ^{Furini (2010}) - collaborated on the introduction of circus activities, mainly the ones whose risks were higher and required more control related to safety (OBSERVATION 4). The use of non-structured objects and material, the ones that do not refer to use by any gender due to their physical and cultural characteristics, collaborated on diversification of play: “Children did not label any costume as belonging to a certain gender” (OBSERVATION 14). Regarding costumes, children did not avoid using any object or material because it was “a girl’s one” or “a boy’s one”. When they played in a group, no child was excluded because of the material s/he used. Thinking about the non-structured pedagogical material led to quality in diversification of motor actions and interaction among children (OBSERVATION 15). ^{Carvalho (2016}, p. 70) states that “the material should be non-structured to avoid not only encouraging gender segregation but also posing a risk for children’s creativity”.

According to ^{Yonamine and Rossi (2021}), material and objects used in circus activities must be adapted to impaired children. The adaptation that included T was valid and sufficient (OBSERVATION 5) since he was able to experience stilt walking with the other children (OBSERVATIONS 5, 10 and 12). The adaptation consisted in fixing a “tin foot” to his left foot, which enabled him to walk but required no help of his left arm to hold the string. The other circus activities did not need to be adapted to the physically impaired student.

Source: S3

Figure 1 Adapted “tin feet” 

Both “tin feet” were made of two plastic bowls and strings fixed to two side holes. The material was fragile (OBSERVATIONS 3, 4 and 5); JL broke one of the bowls when he marched in the classroom (OBSERVATION 4). Children should not wear sandals when marching because of the risk of foot injuries. This precaution is enough in case the material breaks. Another material under investigation was the pool noodle which was used as the tightrope. Loss of balance occurs at this age, a fact that increases the risk of injuries (OBSERVATION 2). Therefore, the researcher decided not to use a pool noodle as the tightrope and chose a conventional rope which was considered a better way to start the tightrope activity (OBSERVATION 8). ^{Tengan and Bortoleto (2021}) used pool noodles as tightropes in preschool but did not report their evaluation of this material, mainly regarding safety. Historically, risk is an intrinsic element to circus arts and to any physical activity carried out in schools. However, risk must be controlled in schools to enable pedagogical success. ^{Cardani et al. (2017}) highlights the importance of hazard control in circus experiences conducted in schools. In this study, some aspects influenced participants’ safety and learning progress. Balance boards were found to move slowly on the lawn since the roller gets more resistance while, on concrete and parquet floors (hard and flat), they are faster, thus, difficulty in body control increases (OBSERVATION 15). However, this physical characteristic enabled better stilt walking than on the lawn (OBSERVATION 5). Analyses of types of floor helped the researcher’s didactic organization and enabled children to be safer (OBSERVATION 8).

In the literature, studies have shown the importance of organizing some help and precautionary measures in the use of balance boards (^{BORTOLETO, 2004}; ^{DUPRAT; ONTAÑÓN; BORTOLETO, 2017}). ^{Ontañón et al. (2019}, p. 7) stated: “we suggest that several pedagogical strategies should be used for ensuring practitioners’ safety and reinforcing the importance of the use of different forms of help”. At the beginning of the sessions, rollers with a small diameter, little wood slats to constrain the board and a horizontally-hung rope were used. These factors supported children’s balance, mainly their initial trust in circus experience (DIAGNOSIS, OBSERVATIONS 1 and 2). After some sessions, children showed progress in balance and required less help (OBSERVATIONS 5 and 6). It enabled didactic advance in difficulty posed by circus experiences.

Both the beginning and end rituals supported the researcher’s guidelines, demonstrations and provocations when teaching circus activities at relational psychomotricity sessions (OBSERVATIONS 2, 3 and 4). These moments were important to talk and listen to the children: “to listen, in this sense, means a subject’s permanent availability to be open to listen to others, to their gestures, to their differences” (^{FREIRE, 1996}, p. 119). Teaching, supported by the routine of relational psychomotricity, privileged children’s previous knowledge so that they became able to work on scientific concepts of the theme (OBSERVATIONS 5, 6, 7 and 8; ^{BRASIL, 2018}; ^{CORSI; DE MARCO; ONTAÑÓN, 2018}; VIGOSTSKI, 2001).

Talk between the children and the researcher enabled them to share experiences in the circus context: “some children went to the circus that was in town and started to socialize their experiences and what they had seen in the show” (OBSERVATION 5). BS said he had seen jugglers in the circus, as in the story that was told to them: “I saw one of them, they threw very far” (OBSERVATION 7). It is important evidence of the participation of the circus in the community and the region and points out that the approach to the theme agrees with guidelines issued by the National Common Curriculum Bases for the first and second grades in Elementary School (^{BRASIL, 2018}). The proposal of teaching processes based on the body culture of movement also aimed at this intertwinement and enabled children to understand the introduction of circus significations.

Comprehension of circus concepts was reinforced by children’s verbalization of what they would use in the session. They named circus objects, such as balance boards, stilts, “that one”, pointing to juggling objects (OBSERVATIONS 1 and 5). In the following sessions, verbalization became more descriptive and inclusive regarding both circus and non-circus activities (OBSERVATIONS 6, 8 and 9). There was progress in communication, except in the case of children who attended few sessions, such as A (43.75% of attendance). It showed that the more attendance to sessions, the more progress in learning in terms of communicative, procedural and conceptual aspects (OBSERVATIONS 8 and 11). It disagrees with the idea of consent and normalization of students’ little attendance in early years in Elementary School. Some parents and/or guardians have often said that there is no problem if their children miss some classes in early years in Elementary School but they do not evaluate the negative impact it causes on children’s learning.

The children were told about social rules at the beginning of the intervention. It was important to agree and comply with what had been established to show good references and stick to the agreement in the sessions, as recommended by Selau, ^{Furini and Pinheiro (2010}). The children followed the rules established by the researcher and created their own ones to be observed in the sessions (OBSERVATIONS 7, 9, 13 and 14). Children’s participation helped to make them take on responsibility and protagonism in activity organization, which was also reported by ^{Yonamine and Rossi (2021}), thus, improving coexistence among participants.

The beginning ritual provoked children to play circus by using symbolic speech (^{VIGOTSKI, 2008}): they could be “giants” when using “tin feet” (OBSERVATION 3). The space became a “circus stage” and encouraged to play circus (OBSERVATION 15). Images printed on paper and their respective names helped to illustrate the tightrope, balance boards and juggling objects (OBSERVATION 2). The pedagogical material was found to be valid to help conceptual aspects of the content and to encourage play. The children showed that they liked circus skills (FOCUS GROUPS 2, 5, 3, 6, 8 and 11). The fact that activities were attractive to the participants corroborates findings reported by ^{Ontañón, Bortoleto and Silva (2013}) and ^{Zanotto and Souza Júnior (2016}).

Even though it is hard to observe symbology - imagination and representation (DIAGNOSIS and OBSERVATION 1) -, there was increase in its occurrence throughout the sessions (OBSERVATIONS 6 and 16). Regarding clown skills, circus meanings were clear: “BR says that he is the customer-clown, puts several colorful hairbands on his head and his face” (OBSERVATION 4). D played with marabou necklaces and moved while he manipulated them and tried to sing (OBSERVATION 11). Play was diversified since it was not restricted to the circus theme: in the space of construction, C said that his object was a robot (OBSERVATION 3). E said that his object was a sword (OBSERVATION 5). Play triggers mechanisms that are important to enrich children’s psychomotor capacities because it puts them in the ZPD: “N climbed up a chair, manipulated his necklace and jumped, spun in circles and landed on the ground, as if he were dancing” (OBSERVATION 16). In play, children’s processes of superior thinking, new body movements and social interaction rich in learning experiences were observed (^{VIGOTSKI, 2008}). Children’s symbolism was also observed in some end rituals when they were asked to draw their favorite circus activity and talk about their drawings. JL said: “I made a monster stilt” (OBSERVATION 4). BR showed his drawing: “that’s me wearing a hairband” - the costume he had chosen for the session - and explained that the lights were part of his presentation. PO drew “Ben 10”. The researcher noticed that he had drawn a sad face and asked: “is he happy or sad?”. PO answered that he was sad because he could not remove his watch from his wrist. Drawings enabled children to exteriorize feelings, emotions, meanings and experiences, based on theoretical assumptions of the methodology. One of the aspects that determine the objectives of relational psychomotricity was reached: the fact that children should play by symbolizing; according to ^{Vigotski (2008}), when there are psychic movements of imaginary or representational situations in play.

Graphic elements used in rituals of relational psychomotricity also enable an interdisciplinary approach. ^{Ost, Vianna and Pereira (2020}, p. 3) showed possibilities of making Arts and PE work together in schools when circus activities are addressed: “the possibility of a smooth way to interdisciplinarity is clear since both intertwine naturally”. ^{Corsi, De Marco and Ontañón (2018}) also addressed interdisciplinary pedagogical work in preschool to avoid content fragmentation. Therefore, circus activities, by means of relational psychomotricity, have the potential to break disciplinarization in schools. Addressing this content may potentialize the organization of teaching and learning processes and enable them to be more flexible.

4 Final Remarks

This study showed the use of relational psychomotricity to introduce and develop circus activities in schools. The didactic structure of relational psychomotricity, based on its theoretical framework, provided conditions to make children learn body practices related to circus and others. Circus activities aligned with the objectives of relational psychomotricity while the latter contributed to teaching and learning processes of the former.

Pedagogical intentions were well developed with the use of relational psychomotricity in PE classes taught to first graders in Elementary School. The object of teaching was introduced when spaces and furniture were organized in the specific school context. Circus skills were developed safely by intertwining theory and practice in experiences which were rich in learning.

Knowledge was mediated by words throughout beginning and end rituals, mainly by acknowledging what children wanted to say. At the sessions, children were able to experience circus body practices by means of play, which led to progress in exteriorization, autonomy and protagonism. It should be highlighted that the methodological structure was flexible to enable the researcher to adjust it based on his reflections.

This study aimed at showing the possibility of addressing the content in a cognoscitive structure, as an axis, connected to different information which converges at a theme. The rituals of relational psychomotricity backed creative, democratic and contemporaneous teaching of PE, mainly when words were used as guiding signs throughout learning processes (^{ÁVILA; SELAU; RODRIGUES, 2022}). Sessions were spaces in which children played circus and progressed in procedural, attitudinal and conceptual aspects of the content.

This study highlights the possibility of applying relational psychomotricity as a methodological strategy to introduce and develop circus activities in schools. It is a viable alternative to pedagogically support this teaching object in PE classes in schools.