Am I a Change Agent ?

 

Welcome back! But first let me ask you something first. Would you rather sink or swim? Swim, am I right? Exactly!

So now you are probably wondering why I asked you that? David kirk (2012) suggests that there are three future for physical education. He suggests that we can have more of the same, drastic reform or complete extinction. I agree to a certain extent. I believe that there are only two outcomes for PE. If we stay the same and continue to do what we have done in the past, I feel this will lead to the extinction of PE. However, reform is already taking place with the new LCPE curriculum so why now swim with it. Why not change and adapt to the new curriculum and make PE better, more enjoyable and sustainable for our future generations.

So why change you might ask? Why not I say. As a country Ireland is extremely resistant to change and our education system seems to be even more reluctant to change. However, changing curriculum is only half the battle as we need teachers to change also, this is where me and you can make a difference. With childhood obesity at an all-time high, we as physical educators need to try and intervene and prevent these figures from rising. Clearly what we are doing now is not working as these figures continue to rise. There is an urgent need for change. ‘Overweight and obesity are major risk factors for a number of chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Overweight and obesity are now dramatically on the rise in low- and middle-income countries.’ (who 2018). If that doesn’t justify a need for change I don’t know what will.  Teachers who are established in the school are comfortable doing what they have always done, it is our job as newly qualified teachers to challenge these norms and persuade them to change.

What can we change? With this fantastic new LCPE curriculum at our fingertips we need to adapt and change our teaching style for it to work. Traditional throwing in the ball simply won’t work. If you haven’t yet read through the new LCPE curriculum, here is a link for you to have a read https://pdst.ie/sites/default/files/Final%20Spec%20for%20LCPE.pdf . I was lucky enough to team teach the new LCPE on my teaching practice on my school placement before Christmas. The new curriculum has potential for huge changes to the norm of physical education. With an emphasis on flexibility and choice it almost hands the development of the curriculum back to schools and the community. As outlined in the Fullan and Miles paper "all large-scale change is implemented locally" (Fullan&Miles, 1992). We must adapt and change our teaching strategies to suit our community. Its not going to be easy, but I invite you to take the challenge.

Often, people’s reason for not changing is our time constrains. They argue that we only see the class for an hour a week and that this will have little impact on their behaviours. I disagree with this. As part of my LSP placement, I am doing physical activity with patients in a psychiatric ward for an hour a week. I have done four weeks with these patients and I can already see a huge change in the patient’s attitude towards physical activity. So, I would argue that it is not the amount of time allocate it’s the quality of the lesson.

In the future as a newly qualified PE teacher I will always continue to promote change within PE to educate the students to the best of my ability and maximise participation in physical activity. I will continue to adapt to the changing society around me through regular reflection. That is all for now. 

Until next time! Goodbye and good luck for now!

References

·         Kirk, D., 2012. Defining physical education (Routledge revivals): The social construction of a school subject in post-war Britain. Routledge.

·         Fullan, M.G. and Miles, M.B., 1992. Getting reform right: What works and what doesn't. Phi delta kappan, 73(10), pp.745-752.

·         World Health Organization. (2018). Physical activity. [online] Available at: http://www.who.int/topics/physical_activity/en/ [Accessed 05 March. 2019].

What Kind of PE Teacher Am I Becoming

What kind of P.E teacher am I becoming.

Hello and welcome back to my blog! I have recently been out on school placement last semester, which I can confidently say I loved every minute of it. It wasn’t all plain sailing, it had its ups and downs and I learned a lot about myself, as a teacher. Now that I am back in college, I am posed with the question of ‘what kind of PE teacher am I becoming? Am I going to be the students like mister woodcock that only values the gifted and sporty students? Or am I going to be the teacher that encourages participation and enjoyment of physical activity regardless of ability and skill level?

When exploring what kind of PE teacher, I am becoming I had to step back and ask myself a few questions, as it was not something I had previously thought about.

The first question I asked myself is, what are my goals as a PE teacher? This is vitally important that we have set goals and know what we are striving for. When answering this I looked to what I valued most about PE. I think my core value is pleasure. When I was in school I played football at its highest level. My teacher showed interest in me and I was winning. I felt great. However, I had a serious injury which knocked me from competing at the highest level. I then began to struggle to get back to that level and soon began to interest in playing that sport at all as I felt inadequate. It was only by luck that my friends got me back being active and enjoying sports again. When I was not enjoying sport, I wasn’t taking part in physical activity. One of the aims of the JCPE (2003) is the ‘motivation of the student to choose a lifestyle that is active, healthy and meaningful’ and this is unattainable without finding an activity enjoyable for the student. Therefore, I value pleasure and enjoyment so highly. If you don’t enjoy doing something you will be reluctant to do it. Without pleasure and enjoyment students will not participate in PE. Whitehead (2013) states that ‘pupils needs, interests and motivation are seldom a concern’. Is this wrong? I personally would like to include students interests and needs when planning my lessons

Weiss (2000) further backs this up saying that by ‘providing enjoyable experiences is a potent strategy for increasing activity levels in youth, their attitude about the value of exercise, and ultimately long-term health outcomes’.

An interesting video I found online outlines the importance of students having and enjoyable experience in PE which leads to participation in physical activity in later life. Negative experiences in PE class will have the inverse effect. The video can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9BU-STDqLY and its well worth a watch.

Pleasure is the feeder for the rest of my values such as fitness, skill and knowledge. I am a firm believer of learning by doing. However, for the students to ‘do’ they must first enjoy. If students enjoy, they will become more engaged and active. When they are active they will be improving their skills and even basic FMS while also improving their fitness. Finally, they will be able to see the benefits of physical activity with correct prompts and support from their teacher. When I was on teaching practice the most rewarding thing for me wasn’t the sporty student being able to master all the skills and become an elite athlete it was the participation and enjoyment of the lesser sporty students in the class. Seeing a smile on their face and hearing them say that was fun I can’t wait for next week really made my job seem worthwhile. This doesn’t mean that I disregard knowledge and skills I just feel that for physical activity to take place you must spark interest (Perceived enjoyment) first and then work on knowledge and skills from there. What's your opinion on this guys?

Anyways that’s enough out of me and a just a small insight as to what kind of teacher I am becoming at this moment. This is liable to change as I progress through my career, but for now my core value of PE lies with pleasure and enjoyment of physical activity. Let me know what you guys think below. Stay tuned for my next blog where I will be discussing am I change agent?

That’s all for now. Goodbye and Goodluck.

References

·         JCPE Curriculum online. (2003). 1st ed. [eBook] Available at: https://www.curriculumonline.ie/getmedia/ca078585-b4e2-4146-9d22-9fada4bd2478/JCSEC21_Physical_Edcuation_syllabus.pdf [Accessed 13 Feb. 2019].

·         Weiss, M.R., 2000. Motivating kids in physical activity. President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Research Digest.

·         Whitehead, M., 2013. Definition of physical literacy and clarification of related issues. ICSSPE Bulletin, 65(1.2)

My Journey

My journey throughout PY4055.

I felt that the team work for the presentations worked well. However, I feel that we should have been given a scenario rather than making up our own hypothetical one as this left the project being unrealistic. I felt that the take home messages were a good way of summarising the lecture but that we were allowed too much time to discuss in class. There could have been more content in the lecture slides. I also felt that a lot of the content was not relatable to the Irish context as every video we were shown was American. I feel that the blogs were a bit much in the beginning as it was not clear in the beginning what was expected and many people lost marks early on. however the feedback on each blog was extremely helpful with an attached rubric of what you scored where.

the power of body image

Body Image or Body Perception

Hi guys! Have you ever wondered does your body image effect how your physical activity? Weather you realise we all have a body image of our selves. Body image refers to the thoughts, feelings, and perceptions you have about your body appearance and shape. (Appliedsportpsych.org. (2018) In today’s blog I will be discussing how body image can impact participation levels in physical education and how can create more positive body images.

My own personal experience of body image when teaching

When I was teaching on second year school placement I felt the students had a generally positive body image. However, I had one student in my first-year gymnastics class that was bigger than the other students. When I told the class, they were going to be doing gymnastics for the next 4 weeks he said that he would not be able to do gymnastics. This is clear evidence of how that students body image or body perception led him to believe that he would not be able to do an activity just because of the shape of his body. When we started our first class he was very unmotivated and it took a lot of encouragement to get him active. But, after a couple of weeks he really got into it. He was really enthusiastic and started to have more self-belief in himself. His body image became irrelevant to him in gymnastics class and he was almost surprised by what he could do. At the end of the gymnastics scheme he told me that he really enjoyed it and that he would never have tried this activity before. His body perception had always led him to believe that his body type was not the ideal body type for gymnastics. I feel like he now has a more positive perception of his body.

key messages from literature  

Now it’s time to see what the research and literature says about body image and how it effects participation in physical activity. In the coeducational setting girls have been reported to feel that their bodies are under scrutiny from boys, which leads to reported increases in body anxiety (Flintoff and Scraton, 2001). Girls tend to want to be thinner and are more likely than boys to judge themselves as overweight. For example, close to 70% of adolescent girls perceive that they are overweight (Lodewyk, K.R. and Sullivan, P. (2016)

A study from the Timisoara physical education journal found that “body image is one of the most valued aspects in today's capitalist society” (Pop, G.M. & Pop, H. 2017). This highlights just how much people value their body image. If this image is negative it is going to have a very negative effect on them.” Individuals who are self-conscious and anxious about their appearance tend to prefer to exercise alone and have lower levels of enjoyment. Physical activity involvement is improved when people experience social support and find enjoyment in the activity” (Appliedsportpsych.org. (2018). “Those who do physical activity a few times a week or daily have much better body image than those who exercise a few times a month or never.” (Pop, G.M. & Pop, H. 2017) This indicates to us as teachers that we need to get our students active to increase their perception of their body images”. Duncan et al. (2002a) have also suggested that development of a positive body image may lead to lifestyle changes including increased physical activity participation, exercise motivation and development of greater self-confidence in the physical domain. This may be particularly relevant to physical education as it may foster a sense of value for the body and could therefore help enhance body image.

What would I do going forward with regards to teaching practice

So, I guess you’re wondering what we as teachers can do to create more positive body images in our class. At the beginning of the semester you could give your students a survey to gain an insight of student’s body image or perceptions. An example would be https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/body_shaming.  You could educate your students on the different types of bodies and tell them that being thin and toned is not the only health body type. For example, shot put throwers are much bigger than 100 metre sprinters but this does not mean they are not healthy. Here is a useful site from the Irish nutrition and dietetic institute on tips for promoting healthy body imagery https://www.indi.ie/fact-sheets/fact-sheets-on-nutrition-for-babies-children/400-promoting-a-positive-body-image-to-children-a-practical-guide-for-parents.html. “It is crucial that children are encouraged to build this strong attachment to physical activity, as research suggests that children with body image concerns are those who tend to be most anxious and resistant to engaging in sport” (digital commons). I suppose the “key is encouraging children to find the activity that suits them. When they find this activity that lights a spark inside of them they will soon start to enjoy the many benefits that regular physical exercise must offer and they will also soon gain an appreciation of what their body can do, rather than what it looks like.” (physically active body images 2013).  You can also introduce less traditional activities. Dance is very popular now and you can use it to show that exercise can be fun by showing Strictly Come Dancing in lesson time. You could even ask local professional or semi-professional dancers to come in and give a talk. When students are enjoying activities, they get a more positive body image. Dance is also a great way of getting in touch with your body and creating positive body images (Hill, Sandford and Enright, 2015).

References

·         Lodewyk, K.R. and Sullivan, P. (2016) 'Associations between anxiety, self-efficacy, and outcomes by gender and body size dissatisfaction during fitness in high school physical education', Physical Education & Sport Pedagogy, 21(6), 603-615

·         Pop, G.M. and Pop, H. (2017) 'The relationship between the frequency of physical and sports activities and the body image', Timisoara Physical Education & Rehabilitation Journal, 10(19), 154-158.

·         Duncan, M.J., Al-Nakeeb, Y., Nevill, A. and Jones, M.V., 2004. Body image and physical activity in British secondary school children. European Physical Education Review, 10(3), pp.243-260.

·         Digitalcommons.wku.edu. (2018). [online] Available at: https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1172&context=ijes [Accessed 28 Mar. 2018].

·         Appliedsportpsych.org. (2018). Association for Applied Sport Psychology: Body Image and Physical Activity. [online] Available at: http://www.appliedsportpsych.org/resources/health-fitness-resources/body-image-and-physical-activity/ [Accessed 28 Mar. 2018].

·         Hill, J., Sandford, R. and Enright, E. (2015). ‘It has really amazed me what my body can now do’: boundary work and the construction of a body-positive dance community. Sport in Society, 19(5), pp.667-679.

kids and technology

Hi guys! Have you ever wondered how technology is affecting our students? did you ever wonder could technology be useful within the physical education setting? There is no denying that technology is more prevalent in today’s society and that every second person you see is looking at their phone. Well today I am going to talk about what my own experiences of technology and mobile phone addiction amongst my students and ways in which we can use technology in our classes. Just to note nomophobia is the addiction of mobile phones and I will make reference to this throughout this blog.

My own personal experience of mobile phone addiction when teaching

When I was teaching I noticed that every student had a smart phone in their pocket. According to the rules of the school they were only allowed use their phones at break and lunch time. However, I often found students using their phones during class. “Almost half the children in Irish secondary schools say they are addicted to smartphones with even greater numbers admitting to routinely and secretly checking devices in class”(Irish times 2018).There was no avoiding it, students were constantly on their phones. Teachers had the authority to confiscate phones if they were being used during school. In my second-year physical education class I had a student who just took part in physical education for the sake of taking part. He would never participate with enthusiasm or to the best of his ability. One day we were playing rounders on the pitch. He was lying down on the ground, scrolling through his phone. This was disrespectful to me and the class. I confiscated his phone that day. For the remainder of the class that students participated to the best of his ability in all activities. This raised the question to me. Was the student addicted to his phone so much that it hindered his participation in physical activity? Or was he motivated to take part in the class in hope of receiving his phone back for good behaviour. Either way this highlights the impact of mobile phone use has on students in today’s society. However technology was completely removed from all aspects of teaching physical education in this school.

key messages from literature  

Enough about what I think time to see what the research and literature says about technology in schools. “The challenge in physical education is to use such technology in meaningful ways that enhance students’ learning” (Harris, 2009) “The literature suggests that while some teachers are enthusiastic technology adopters, others are more resistant, perhaps feeling they lack organizational and administrative support or expertise to integrate it” (Fullan, 2013).  However, as teachers it is our job to keep up with the times and develop and adapt as teachers as society changes to a more technologically advanced society” Children are no longer heading outside after school to play hide and seek or tag, but rather are heading indoors to play video games or watch TV. “Playing digital games (video, computer and console games), or using computer may be other sedentary behaviors related to the development of overweight and obesity.”  Maybe, instead of eliminating technology, as it is an inevitable staple in our society, physical educators should embrace it and use it to encourage youth to be more active.” (Rebecca Harrison 2013) this suggests to us that removing technology is unrealistic so rather we should embrace it to promote physical activity.

What would I do going forward with regards to teaching practice

So, I guess you’re wondering what we as teachers can do to deal with the use of technology in our classes. Here is a fantastic link https://sparkpe.org/blog/using-technology-in-physical-education/ of ideas on how to integrate technology into the physical education class. “80 per cent of more than 2,600 children polled said they also used the devices for educational purposes.” (Irish times) This shows us that students are already using technology for learning on their own accord so it is to our benefit that we integrate technology into our classes. “Physical Education is a subject in which a great deal of visual learning takes place. The new technologies provide clear images of performances and specific techniques, as well as the opportunity to provide pupils with immediate visual feedback of their own movement through video replay.” (Anon 2018) Allowing students to record themselves or peers to provide feedback is a great way of helping students learn while using technology. Here is another excellent link of how we can use technology in physical education https://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi1pYChtt_ZAhWPasAKHeA2CEYQFghlMAQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fedt315.weebly.com%2Fuploads%2F4%2F5%2F3%2F2%2F4532212%2F100_ways_to_use_technology_in_pe.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2h7e0hF_qlOjai-s7tMZi3 . There are ample mounts of resources out there for teaching physical education with the use of technology it is our responsibility to use them. My key message is start small by allowing students to use maybe stopwatches on their phones and progress and integrate more technology gradually. “Technology will never replace great teachers, but technology in the hands of great teachers is transformational” (Couros, 2016).

References

The Irish Times. (2018). Secondary students admit to smartphone addiction. [online] Available at: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/secondary-students-admit-to-smartphone-addiction-1.3092489 [Accessed 9 Mar. 2018].  

Etec.ctlt.ubc.ca. (2018). Technology in the Physical Education Classroom - ETEC 510. [online] Available at: http://etec.ctlt.ubc.ca/510wiki/Technology_in_the_Physical_Education_Classroom [Accessed 9 Mar. 2018].

Fullan, M. and Langworthy, M., 2013. Towards a new end: New pedagogies for deep learning. Seattle, Washington: Collaborative Impact.

Anon, (2018). [ebook] Available at: http://education.exeter.ac.uk/research/pe_ict_event/downloads/steve_kibble/Using%20Video%20Cameras%20in%20Physical%20Education.pdf [Accessed 9 Mar. 2018].

Gros, B. and García-Peñalvo, F.J., 2016. Future trends in the design strategies and technological affordances of e-learning. Learning, Design, and Technology: An International Compendium of Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, pp.1-23.

social class within physical activity

How Social Class Effects Children’s Participation In Physical Activity

When I was teaching physical education during my second year school placement, all my classes had a variety of different social classes. Many of the students were from the middle class or lower class. Almost everyone in the school played football or some team based sport as the school was a very football orientated school. However, students from a lower socio-economic background often only participated in these team based sports in the school. I noticed that when I was doing invasion games with my students that they were all familiar with the games. In contrast, when I was doing dance there were only two students who had done dance before outside of school. These two students were from a very wealthy background. When doing dance all the students enjoyed dance. One student came up to me and said to me that he really enjoyed dance and that he would like to do more of it. I asked if he would join a dance club and he said that there were none close to him. His social economic had interfered with him taking part in dance outside of school.

The main findings around children’s social class and their participation in physical activity, indicate that students from a “higher socio-economic status take part in more physical activity.” (Wanless, 2004, p.99). This is to do with them having more opportunities to part take in physical activity. It also states that “people with a higher level of final education were less likely to drop out of sport, having been more likely to take it up in the first place” (Kay 2003, p.248). An interesting study that you can look at here   http://repository.edgehill.ac.uk/8962/1/Wheeler,%20Green%20and%20Thurston.docx shows clearly that the higher social class bracket you are in the more sports are available to you. The middle class in this study have more sports available to them. They are also introduced to a wide variety of sports by their parents who invest in their children’s physical activity opportunities. “This inevitably gives the sons (especially) and daughters of the middle-classes a head start in curricular and extra-curricular PE and further-reinforces the already greater social and cultural benefits of being middle-class” (Green, 2008, p.164) according to a study by Philip White (McMaster University) 

William McTeer (Wilfrid Laurier University) “As the child grows older, however, the presence of specialist teachers in middle and high schools and the availability of more and better sports opportunities and facilities may create more and less costly opportunities for involvement. This would suggest that SES effects on sport involvement would decline with age.” (White and McTeer, 2012) This tells us as physical educators that it is our job to close the social class gap and introduce all students to a wide variety of sports.

In the future, I would start teaching physical education through football as it is classless in regardless of social class. This would build relationships within my class and form a common ground amongst the students. then I would quickly move away from the traditional sports such as soccer, basketball and rugby. I would move more towards gymnastics, dance, volleyball, badminton and HRA to give the students a taste of the wide variety of sports there are out there. This might allow a student from a lower socio-economic background gain experience in a sport they might not have otherwise been exposed to. I would also include how to adapt games so the students could play them at home or with their friends if they didn’t have all the equipment needed. I think I will set up an after-school activity class for my students once a week and each week we will introduce the students to a new sport or activity.

References

White, P. and McTeer, W. (2012). Socioeconomic Status and Sport Participation at Different Developmental Stages during Childhood and Youth: Multivariate Analyses Using Canadian National Survey Data. Sociology of Sport Journal, 29(2), pp.186-209.

Wheeler, S., Green, K. and Thurston, M. (2017). Social class and the emergent organised sporting habits of primary-aged children. European Physical Education Review, pp.1356336X1770609.

Gender Blog

Gender issues within Physical Education

My experience of gender issues in Physical education on teaching practice.

I was on teaching practice in an all-boys school so gender issues amongst boys and girls was not an issue within the school. However, there was an issue related to the stereotypes of boys. Everyone in the school felt that they had to be good at football. Students felt left out if they were not good at or participated in football related activities. Boys who are not of the competitive, physically vigorous nature are being excluded from physical education and extra-curricular physical education (Wright, 1996).  When I was teaching gymnastics to my first years I noticed a higher participation of less able students. I had one student in particular come up to me and ask could we do gymnastics from now on as he didn’t want to go back to playing soccer every week. I noticed that everyone was starting from the same point so everyone participated to the best of their ability and did not feel lesser than anyone else in the class.

Key messages and learning from lectures and tutorial readings

I learned that Physical education “remains the most sex-differentiated and stereotyped subject on the school curriculum” (Green, 2008, p.137). I also learned that the gender gap between participation becomes even bigger when you move from physical education class to extracurricular physical activities. Even when physical education is presented as an exam subject the participation of boys is much greater than that of girls. According to a study conducted on GCSE physical education and the embodiment of gender, some of the major factors that contributed to girls not participating in physical education were that they felt uncomfortable preforming on front of boys. The study also showed that girls that did not choose physical education as a subject enjoyed keeping fit, but just not in a physical education setting as they seen it as being dominated by competitive team games. (Velija & Kumar, 2009) One theory that was posed to us in the lecture is that girls simply like sport less than boys (Roberts 1996).

What I would do going forward as a future educator

Going forward as a future educator I would allow my students to wear whatever they felt comfortable in to Physical education class, as reported by Williams and Bedward (2002) that many girls in their study were unhappy with their PE kit. I would also modify my games so that they include everyone and nobody gets left behind. For example, I would make a rule that maybe everyone must touch the ball before scoring of different points awarded to scoring for girls and boys like tag rugby. Going forward as a future physical education teacher I would move away from traditional games as by doing this everyone would be starting from the same skill level and this would remove the idea of boys dominating the games. Research by Flintoff and Scraton (2006) suggests that it is also appropriate to take action aimed at acknowledging and celebrating difference, promoting separate forms of physical education and sport for girls such as indigenous movement forms, aerobics and dance, where this is deemed to be appropriate to specific cultural and religious values I would also try incorporating many self-paced, non-competitive activities as then girls would not feel pressured by boys who were more able and everyone could progress at their own pace.

References

Velija, P. and Kumar, G. (2009). GCSE physical education and the embodiment of gender. Sport, Education and Society, 14(4), pp.383-399.

Scanlon, D. (2018). Gender week 3 lecture.

Empowering Girls and Women through Physical Education and Sport. (2018). [ebook] UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education Mom Luang Pin Malakul Centenary Building 920 Sukhumvit Road, Prakanong, Klongtoey Bangkok 10110, Thailand. Available at: https://www.un.org/sport/sites/www.un.org.sport/files/ckfiles/files/UNESCO_Advocacy_Brief_Empowering-Girls_2012_EN.pdf [Accessed 14 Feb. 2018].