Physical Education Stimulating a Healthy Lifestyle and Critical Sports Consumption in Belgium

In this chapter, the authors describe the situation and challenges of Physical Education (PE) in Flanders and Wallonia in order to encourage young people to adopt a healthy lifestyle and to become critical sports consumers. In school-age children, about one out of six has problems with obesity/overweight. Compared with earlier measurements there is a trend of increasing sedentary time per day and not enough physical activity (PA) to reach international norms. Girls can be definitely considered as a public at risk regarding the physical activity component of their healthy lifestyle. In recent years, the emphasis has shifted from motor- and/or physical-testing towards the development of a positive attitude towards physical activity and being socially engaged. The main concern of the course-specific final attainment levels is teaching how to deal with the current movement culture of games, sports, fitness, and daily activity. In both regions, it is expected that children are taught to transfer movement and personally-related competencies learned in PE to other contexts. Initiatives to develop and enhance links between PE and other opportunities to be physically active in the wider community are receiving more attention during the last few years, but the situation is still far from ideal. Because of the complex role of promoting a healthy lifestyle during PE and in the whole school, there is a need to educate teachers during their teacher training and lifelong education on how to provide relevant choices, satisfying the need for autonomy.