Exploratory Study on the Education Integrating Culports Approach

Culports (culture+sports) education refers to experiential learning approaches that incorporate tangible and intangible cultural heritage, play, and sports into educational elements. The Culports education is being recognized as a new alternative approach to the models of teaching and learning as a public educational system is pushed out by increasing demand for private education and widening educational disparities between regions after COVID-19. In this aspect, if practitioners are able to integrate Culports-based educational approaches with school curricula, it is possible to expect mutual interaction that overcomes the shortcomings of traditional classroom teaching. A course of studies exploring the potential of Culports have shown that development of the integrated content based on Culports and its application to after-school programs at elementary and middle schools can enhance self-directed learning. The current study tried to establish a theoretical basis for integrating Culports with regular curricula by reviewing previous research and thus to explore its application to English education. The results showed that Culports-based English programs could promote self-directed learning in after-school programs in various ways. From the perspective of English education, this study suggests the way to develop Culports model of teaching and learning.