Physical Education and Young People with Learning Disabilities

Have you ever thought of how to teach physical education to students with learning disabilities?

Halyey Fitzgerald wrote a very interesting article, "Stories about Physical education from Young People with Learning Disabilities", which outlined 3 stories of students with learning disabilities (SWLD) in England which highlighted their negative experiences with physical education.

This article brings to our attention as teachers or undergraduate teachers sutdents with learning disabilities perspectives on physical education which highlights to us that maybe our teaching strategies need to change to accompany SWLD.

One student (Dave aged 13) "dreaded pe". This particular student attempted all possible measures to avoid attending school so that he did not have to participate in physical education. He wanted to avoid it because he had difficiculties conducting tasks and felt socially unaccpeted in the class. Another student Adam felt anxiety about revealing physical education reports to his Father as he felt he had to live up to the expectations of his brothers. Lastly Mary emphasises a dilemma in decision making and her concerns regarding the tensions that may emerge with her friends if she opts to do physical education.

How do we as teachers accomodate physical education lesson for students with learning diasbilities?
How do we change these negative thoughts about physical education to become positive ones?
Is it possible to incorporate sporting acitivies that SWLD can complete?

These are many questions that I believe can be answered and done.

We are taught how to plan and conduct lessons for physical education, however there is little or none to refer to help SWLD want to participate in physical education. There is many research including this article that outlines their behaviours and thoughts to particualr aspects, therefore we can consider these behaviours into our teaching lessons.

I believe every student should want to participate, should be sociall accepted and should feel no external pressures. Teachers who have SWLD in their class should change their teaching methods to accomodate for these students and to not ignore them. Networking may be a positive approach to take. Creating a connection between parents, teachers, students, peers, and teachers aide to develop a positive way to alter the negative emotions SWLD have for physical education. This can be done with regular meetings to discuss the positives and negatives of different teaching methods and to identify and progress and success through working as a team.

Reference: Hayley Fitzgerald and Annete Stride (2012): Stories about Physical Education from Young People with Disabilities, International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 59:3, 283-293.

The Expert Pedagogue

The Expert Pedagogue

 

Pedagogy is the interaction between how one learns, how one teaches, what is being taught and the context in which it is being taught.

 

Expert teachers:

·         Develop automaticity and routinisation for repetitive operations

·         Sensitive to task demands

·         More opportunistic and flexible in their teaching

·         Specific to a domain and to particular contexts

·         Patience

·         Daily advances

According to Professor John Loughran, expert teachers make a conscious effort to ensure that their teaching intentions are in accord with the learning expectations they have for their students. He also states that expert teachers are aware of what they are doing; they monitor and adjust their teaching behaviours to bring out the best in their situations.

 

The professor brings to our attention our complex the teaching industry actually is, because it revolves around decision making. Teachers are constantly making decisions about a range of ideas, events, student behaviour, homework and assessment.

 

Expert teaching involves accumulation of technical skills of how to conduct teaching and referring to Professor John Loughran, I can conclude by saying expert teaching is vital as a teacher.

 

Professor John Loughran. 2011. What makes a Teacher an Expert Teacher?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.monash.edu.au/news/show/what-makes-a-teacher-an-expert-teacher. [Accessed 07 April 13].

Mentoring #SpCP13

Mentoring

 

“Mentoring is transferring knowledge, understanding, wisdom, skills, insight, vision and expertise” – Fred Childs

 

Mentoring is when someone more experienced is willing to help someone less experienced.

I believe a teacher is a constant mentor to the students they teach. As teachers need to possess qualities such as respectful, committed, ethical, visionary, tolerant, a good listener, expert, consistent, available, a role model, clear, and patient. These qualities can also be seen as mentoring qualities.

 

Students who receive mentoring at school are subjected to many benefits:

·         Encouragement

·         Education

·         Supportiveness

·         Gained knowledge

 

The NSW Department of Education and Training states that, “student/mentor relationships are a powerful influence in a student’s life”.

Effective mentoring seeks to provide presence by establishing a trusting relationship between student and a mentor that:

·         Focuses on the need of the student

·         Models and fosters caring a supportive relationships to increase self-confidence and positive attitudes

·         Develops active community partnerships.

 

The NSW Department of Education and Training outlines the key elements of successful mentoring programs. These elements include; approval of principal, student agreement to be involved, informed consent of parents, realistic expectations of what the program can achieve, regular and formalised meetings with documentation of objectives and outcomes, record keeping, consistent monitoring, evaluation, and start with a small/manageable program.

 

Teachers as constant mentors in the school environment have several benefits for students and teachers.

 

“Mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires” – William Arthur Ward.

 

Sharing and Presenting Information

Sharing and Presenting Information

 

As teachers a prime role is presenting information to a PDHPE class. The Ausport Government outlines how teachers present relevant PDHPE information to the class.

Message – Did you get the message across, and achieve session outcomes?

Organisation – Planning; people, time and resources

Approach – Be positive, confident and in control

Review – Reflect on how the session went and review what to change for the next time

Question – Did you use questions?

 

Teachers can present information through:

·         Facilitated discussion

·         Practical

·         Role

·         Web based

·         Videos

·         Mentoring

·         Presentations

 

When presenting information in a classroom, teachers need to account for cultural and generational differences, and hearing/vision impairments.

 

However, how does a teacher ensure the right voice projection, connections, sharing, and demonstrations?

 

I believe no resource will accurately answer this question.  Yes they give guidance and their ideas based on their experiences. Teachers need to learn for themselves, “trial and error” from their own experiences to determine what works and doesn’t work in their classroom, as every student reacts differently to different approaches and therefore, PE teachers need to evaluate their own presenting of information and the techniques to do so

Observation and Augmented Information #SpCP13

Observation and Augmented Information

 

How does observation affect our teaching methods and abilities?

 

Observation is the ability to watch what happens in the classroom, which includes listening. It is believed observation is the most effective way to see what people do and to hear what they say. Teachers may gain more accurate information by watching students than by asking them (Robson, C 2002 Real World Research)

 

Robson (2002) outline two ways observation can be conducted in the classroom.

1.    Participant observation

2.    Structured observation

 

Classroom observations can provide an objective method for measuring progress towards these goals and provide a framework for giving constructive and focused feedback that helps teachers incorporate higher levels of desired behaviours into their interactions with students in the classroom.

 

After reading many sources, I can conclude that observations should focus on the nature and quality of teacher practices within three broad areas:

·         Social/emotional support

·         Management/organisation support

·         Instructional support

 

According to Scott Thompson (2013), the teacher being the observer will check the classroom temperature, lighting and other factors which are comfortable for students to learn without distractions. The observer needs to note whether positive interactions between the teacher and students occur more than negative interactions. Lastly the observe needs to check whether the teacher uses hand signals as communication.

 

With this information, I am able to answer the opening question. Through observations teachers are able to plan learning experiences, evaluate and improve. This means teachers can observe the classroom environment which includes; relationships, behaviours and learning experiences.

 

Scott Thompson. 2013. Teacher Observation & Classroom Management Skills. [ONLINE] Available at: http://work.chron.com/teacher-observation-classroom-management-skills-11345.html. [Accessed 07 April 13].

Personal Develpment Pathways #SpCP13

I believe personal development pathways need to be considered as a teacher teaching physical education. Teachers themselves need to recognise their own development pathways first before considering the students pathways.

 

Teachers need to consider their long and short term goals of teaching. Teachers always need to look for improvements to develop more efficient skills in their teaching programs. Teachers need to develop quality communication to interact with students, that its, the ability to present knowledge, ideas, and opinions effectively. I also believe teachers need to ensure they acquire and develop appropriate analysis skills to have the ability to gather information and situations in a creative way in a physical education class. Another personal development aspect teachers need to acquire is problem solving skills, as teachers need to learn the ability to identify and analyse problems and result with an appropriate solutions in the classroom. To acquire these important skills, I believe teachers need to prepare goals for development within themselves.

 

The National Coaching Foundation (2011) supports my belief, it provides a guide of Training Needs Analysis (TNA) and a Personal Development Plan (PDP) process, this provides many benefits for teachers such as:

·         Provides clarity of teachers goals

·         Helps to raise current and future development needs in order to support the desired goals (for example, formal training or informal development opportunities).

 

1^st Step – Goal Setting

Teachers need to set their personal long-term development goals through using the SMART checklist.

Specific – precise, what is it that you as a teacher want to achieve?

Measurable – can the teacher monitor progress?

Achievable – is it achievable within the time frame?

Realistic – is the goal challenging while still practical?

Time – make it time-framed

 

2^nd Step – TNA Process

·         Setting the framework for the TNA

·         Identify what knowledge, skills, and attributes are needed to achieve the personal long-term development goals

·         Self-reflect on current strengths and areas for development.

·         Rating of knowledge, skills, and attributes.

 

3^rd Step – Understanding PDP Process

·         Set or review long-term development goals

·         TNA based on current and future needs

·         Development plan – current teaching and future teaching needs

·         Ongoing teaching practice

·         Reviewing of development

·         Appraisal.

 

I believe this resource supports my belief of the necessary action to conduct development programs to ensure that the teaching is the most effective and improving at all stages.

 

“Know who you are, and be it. Know what you want, and go out and get it” – Caroll Bryant.

 

Sports Coach UK. 2013. A Guide to using Training Needs Analysis and Personal Development Plans. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.sportscoachuk.org/sites/default/files/TNA-PDP-Guide.pdf. [Accessed 07 April 13].