3. “Nothing short of major reconceptualisation of physical education is required - Larry Locke ”
4.
5. Physical educationalist persistently teach the same introductory units of work regardless of the age and past experiences of the students. - Daryl Siedentop
6. There is little vertical progression in the development of techniques [in physical education] - David Kirk
10. ‘rank’ defines the distribution of individuals in the educational order. Foucault, 1977
11. before Physical Education the term was ‘physical training’, which in turn was preceded by an activity known as ‘drill’. - Moving and Growing (1952)
34. It is impossible to see how there can be an adequate flow of subject-matter to set and control the problems investigators deal with, unless there is active participation on the part of those directly engaged in teaching. - John Dewey
57. “a creative and autonomous individual within a broader community of teacher-scholars working in the classroom as a living laboratory and striving for continuing development through thoughtful experimentation.” - Lawrence Stenhouse
59. ” In order to understand and improve practice it needs be understood within the context of daily work
60. We learn because we do and subsequently undergo the consequences of our doing. - Biesta (2007)
61. “The idea is that of an educational science in which every classroom is a laboratory, each teacher a member of the scientific community.” - Lawrence Stenhouse
62. “Research functions not as a distraction from practice but as a development of it.” - Donald Schon
67. Aims of Practitioner Research Teacher-as-researcher Practitioner Research in Physical Education Alternative futures
68. The aim is to do something and then test the outcomes
69. teachers set their own starting point and yet have no notion of their potential destination - Meyer, Hamilton, Kroeger, Stewart & Brydon-Miller (2004)
70. The ambiguity of the finishing point in practitioner research is a key facet of the approach.
85. Focused on pupil understanding of athletics, not simply their levels of performance.
86. How did I teach differently? Sought answers rather than giving them Enduring teams Lots of work before and after lessons Student-Learning Teams Mediated Responded to student needs targeted use of voice Increased teacher movement Facilitated not directed learning
88. Examples of Learning Cues Drive knee up Don’t look at the board on take off Throw hands back on landing 11 pace run up Jump up Weight forwards on landing Look Up Hang in the air Sprint through the board
93. Participant Learning Kevin said: Because I go to a different athletics club I use what we’ve learned in lessons in training so that I can build on what we did in school and put it into practice.
94. Participant Learning Remi believed that: We’ve been pushing each other to do better… we played an important part in each other’s learning.
95. Participant Learning I felt that: Students learnt how to get the most out of a cooperative learning pedagogy
97. Progression & Motivation Alan Said I was pretty surprised that we hadn’t done the same things again, normally it happens all the time but we didn’t do it, which kinda helped a bit because it feels like you’re being treated like a baby when you go over the same thing about 50 times.
99. Progression & Motivation Gary believed that: Instead of just thinking “oh I can’t be very good at that”, I don’t want to do that, I actually tried a bit and found I was good at certain things like distance.
100. Progression & Motivation I said Students felt better about themselves which had a positive effect on their involvement in the lessons.
102. STUDENT-CENTRED ‘Carlos’ wrote With this way of teaching, I think Ashley had built an appropriate learning environment and a positive climate for all kinds of students from low to higher abilities to explore.
103. STUDENT-CENTRED Chris said We worked in our own groups when there wasn’t a teacher there at some times, and that we sort of taught ourselves instead of them teaching us directly.
104. STUDENT-CENTRED I belived that the students had Transferred their learning skills, in terms of vocabulary and understanding of how to act and react in a student-centredpedagogy
106. UNFAMILIAR OBSTACLES My familiarity with CL Helped me to overcome my unfamiliarity with my changing role and become a positive, interdependent and social learner
107. UNFAMILIAR OBSTACLES I believed thatI put myself, and my pedagogy, in serious risk of failure.
111. CHANGING ROLES Stuart feltMr Casey just keeps a general eye on everything to make sure nobody’s messing about, or help everyone if they don’t know what they’re doing.
112. CHANGING ROLES David said (about me) He acted like a supervisor, like he went round all the groups if we were struggling, but he left us to do it on our own so if we got stuck we could ask for help.
113. CHANGING ROLES I firmly believed:The use of both action research and cooperative learning allowed me to mature beyond the basic process of ‘use’ and begin to establish my pedagogy as being motivational, progressional and student-centred.
116. “innocence in teaching meant that, as teachers, we believed that we knew what we are doing and how we were affecting our pupils” - Stephen Brookfield
117. “action research has begun to emerge as one strategy for improving teaching and learning in physical education” - David Kirk
118. “The difference between what teachers feel that they could achieve and what they actually ‘pull off’” - Hal Lawson
119. Aims of Practitioner Research Teacher-as-researcher Practitioner Research in Physical Education Alternative futures
120. it is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change. - Charles Darwin
123. “Where teachers are able to reflect, access new ideas, experiment and share experiences within school cultures and where leaders encourage appropriate levels of challenge and support, there is greater potential for school and classroom improvement - Muijs and Lindsay (2008) ”
128. Photograph Credits 1. Image from iStockphoto 2. “Fossil 2” by BTK on Stock.xchng 3. Image from iStockphoto 4. Image from iStockphoto 8. Image from iStockphoto 9. “Ladle in the pit” from losthalo'sFlickrphotostream 10. “Paper” fromiStockphoto 11. “Wellington Physical Training School Men doing stretches 1898” by National Library NZ on Flickr 12. “Physical education class at Nelson College for Girls” by National Library NZ on Flickr 13. “TV” by Lilie on Stock.xchng 13. “Gymnastics” from Flickr 14. Image from iStockphoto 15. “TV” by Lilie on Stock.xchng 15. “Old Libyan Sport” by azooo on Flickr 16. “Nike” by CaglarCity on Flickr 17. Image from iStockphoto 18. Image from iStockphoto
129. Photograph Credits 19. “Albert Einstein and Others” from Smithsonian Institution on Flickr 21. “Fossil 2” by BTK on Stock.xchng 22. “Medical doctor” by Kurhan on stock.xchng 23. “Obesity Illustration” by combined media flickr 24. Image from iStockphoto 25. Image from iStockphoto 27. Image from iStockphoto 27. “Keaton on the Wii Fit” from Bradjward'sFlickrphotostream 28. Image from iStockphoto 29. Grand National Assembly of Turkey image from Google Images 30. Image from iStockphoto 31. “pregnancy” by Memoossa on Stock.xchng 32. “Beneath You” by sveres on Stock.xchng 33. “Traffic Sign 39” by Sundstrom on Stock.xchng 34. Image from iStockphoto 35. Image from iStockphoto 36. “Vintage People on a cruise ship” by dyet on Stock.xchng
130. Photograph Credits 37. Image from iStockphoto 38. Image from iStockphoto 39. “Photo Frame 8” by ba1969 on Stock.xchng 40. Image from iStockphoto 41. Image from iStockphoto 42. Image from iStockphoto 43. “Studying for a test” by hvaldez1 on stockxchng 44. Image from iStockphoto 44. “Sexy Bow” by g-point on Stock.xchng 44. Image from iStockphoto 44. “Fossil 2” by BTK on Stock.xchng 46. “The Coach” from ellenmac11’s Flickrphotostream 49. “Flicking Pages” by tomdavies on Stock.xchng 50. Image from iStockphoto 51. “Thematic Journal” from NG71’s Flickrphotostream 57. Image from iStockphoto 58. “The teacher” by Prozac74 on Flickr
131. Photograph Credits 60. “Photo Frame 8” by ba1969 on Stock.xchng 60. “Running on empty” by 28Photos on Flickr 61. “Lab” by clix on stock.xchng 63. “Rodin's Thinking Man” by tegebug on Flickr 64. “Blue Ribbon” by ba1969 on flickr 65. Image from iStockphoto 66. “Excellent” by kikashi on flickr 67 . “Sexy Bow” by g-point on Stock.xchng 68. “Target” by 7rains on flickr 70. “Chequered Flag” by tharrin on flickr 71. “?!” by dhiegaum on Stock.xchng 72. Image from iStockphoto 81. Image from iStockphoto 82. Image from iStockphoto 84. Image from iStockphoto 89. Image from iStockphoto 90. Image from iStockphoto
132. Photograph Credits 116. Image from iStockphoto 117. Image from iStockphoto 118. Image from iStockphoto 119. “Fossil 2” by BTK on Stock.xchng 120. “Charles Darwin” by Colin Purrington’sFlickrphotostream 121. “Traffic Sign 39” by Sundstrom on Stock.xchng 122. Image from iStockphoto 125. Image from iStockphoto 126. Image from iStockphoto 127. Image from iStockphoto
Editor's Notes
.
There were five key learning outcomes.
This study was taught over a series of lessons that developed the concepts of the previous year and which focused on pupil understanding of athletics, not simply their levels of performance.
I created four parallel threads that explored sprinting, distance running, throwing, and jumping. These threads were experienced over two lessons with the first lesson focused on pupil-led discovery (for example in jumping pupils had to undertake a series of jumps in which they employed progressively greater speed and body movements and identified what enabled them to jump further). In the second lesson pupils then created their own learning cues and assessed each other against these criteria.
There were five key learning outcomes.
The learning that occurred in this unit was experienced by students and teacher alike. However, I will report on my learning later in the presentation.
Learning was academic (i.e. the students developed their knowledge and enhanced their skills of athletic performance) and social (i.e. students learnt to work together and put other peoples’ needs above their own).
Kevin reports a transfer of knowledge from his lessons to his extra-curricular involvement in athletics.
The pupils felt they played a big part in their own learning because although the task sheets were in place it was the learner not the teacher who had to read, understand and enact the activities and monitor the learning against the intended outcomes.
My observations towards the end of the unit highlight the change that occurred in the pupils as they started to look to each other for help rather before seeking ratification and help from me. Indeed I described them in my unit diary as being self/group sufficient inasmuch as they were “happy to use the worksheets and each others’ knowledge and interpretation of events to achieve their learning objectives”.
Progression and motivationwere very significant factors in the success of this unit.
a fact that highlights the habit teachers have to repeat and recap on previous learning experiences in what Siedentop (2002) described as teaching the same introductory unit again and again.
Explicit progression from year 1 to year 2 was a firm aim of this intervention. I aspired to develop their understanding of athletics rather than just their performances.
This sense of progression had an impact on the student’s motivation as Gary suggested.
Other students commented on how my changed approach to their learning had made them feel better about themselves which, in turn, had a positive effect on their involvement in the lessons.
In building on the positive social interaction reported by the pupils in year 1, I was focused on developing a student-centred approach to my teaching.
Carlos noted that assessment of students by students was included in each lesson:
The students observed the change in emphasis from teacher-led to student-centred learning.
The impact, as Gillies report, of the previous unit was significant enough to help the students understand how to be taught through a cooperative learning approach.
The successes I enjoyed in the year 1 project were significant enough to encourage me to undertake this sequential unit. However, there were consequences.
My experience and the students’ experience with cooperative learning helped me to overcome my unfamiliarity with this progressional unit of work.
It was not just frustration that I felt but nerves as I put myself, and my pedagogy, out on a limb.
Change did not occur easily. Improvement was slow and it could be argued that classes taught later in the week benefited from the learning that I enjoyed as each lesson passed.
Yet while change had proven to be worthwhile I described it as a “little hit and miss” (Unit Diary, 25th April 2006) in the initial stages on the intervention when my aspirations as a teacher didn’t quite match the reality I witnessed in my classrooms.
Some of this pedagogical discomfort occurred as a result of my changing practice.
I was no longer giving all the instructions and expecting the students to obey my commands.
This move from director to facilitator wasn’t new to the students (they had experienced it in the previous year)
Learning through innovative teaching which was occurring in a transforming classroom was managed through both my changing role as a teacher and the positive interdependence that I shared with my pupils.
What did the students and I learn from the experience?
my experiences with action research supported my use of cooperative learning. The cycles of planning, evaluating, gathering new insights, and re-planning inherent in the paradigm gave me a focus and real purpose for my changes. I was not make changes based solely on my craft-knowledge as an experienced physical education teacher but on the back of sustained and dynamic data gathering and analysis.