9.                  Teaching physical education, building positive feelings, personal experience

Teaching Physical Education

Questions for reflection:


-        Think back to your experiences in physical education classes. Recall the things that your
teachers may have done that were probably unpleasant or even harmful to the poorly skilled or unfit
children in your classes. Why do you think the teachers weren’t sensitive to these children?


-        Reflect on your own teaching. Do you tend to favor any certain group of children – high-
or low-skilled? Attractive or unattractive children? Boys or girls? What do you do, as you teach,
to be sensitive to your tendency to favor a certain group?


-        As physical education teachers we tend to have many friends who are also highly skilled.
Think about your friends and acquaintances who have been turned off to physical activity. Do you
know why this is so? Why do they find it so hard to exercise regularly? Can any of these feelings
be traced back to their experiences in physical education classes?


-        When testing in physical education, it is difficult to make the testing a very private
affair. Describe some of the ways that teachers might test in physical education to help ensure the
relative privacy of the test. Do you think children can test one another? Why or why not?


-        Children and adults do not have the same feelings or ability to understand. Recall several
examples of these differences and explain the implications for teaching physical education.


-        What would you say is the main goal of physical educators?


BUILDING POSITIVE FEELINGS


   feelings about one’s self

   feelings about others

   feelings of joy

   feelings of satisfaction

   feelings of pleasure

   feelings of self-accomplishment




TEACHER ACTION

Teachers have developed a number of ways to help every child, not just the highly skilled, to enjoy
physical activity.


 1. Mistakes-OK-Here Zone

One of the ways to help children feel good about themselves is to assist them to realize that
learning inevitably involves mistakes. Teachers can do this by declaring the playground or gym a
“mistakes-OK-here zone“. It is expected that everyone, including the teacher, will make mistakes
from time to time.


 2. Provide alternatives

When children are asked to play in a game that singles them out, any feelings of inadequacy and
incompetence are reinforced. Caring teachers create environments in which children are not
embarrassed in front of the class.


 3. Audiotaping

Another technique that a teacher can use is to audiotape a class. When you listen to the tape after
the lesson, try to hear what you communicate to the children. For example:

   Do you sound supportive? Encouraging? Understanding?

   Do you sound too demanding or critical?

   Do you communicate a tone of warmth and caring to the children?



TASK

Describe your personal experience from when you were a student and compare your impressions with a
recent practical training at university (primary or secondary schools) that you had undergone.


(Adapted from: Graham G.  Teaching Children Physical Education. Human Kinetics.)