PEPRN Podcast: Recent Episodes
Ashley Casey
Episode 2 in this the fifth series of my "Major Themes in Physical Education Research". It explores Ingrid Bahr And Jonas Wibowo's chapter in Ben Dyson and my book "Cooperative Learning in Physical Education".
Episode 2 in this the fifth series of my "Major Themes in Physical Education Research". It explores Alan Ovens and colleagues chapter in Ben Dyson and my book "Cooperative Learning in Physical Education". This week I’m delighted to welcome Jo Bailey as the practitioner responder this week and thank her for taking the time to respond and for her considered words.
Episode 1 in this the fifth series of my "Major Themes in Physical Education Research". It explores Ben Dyson and my book "Cooperative Learning in Physical Education". This week I’m delighted to welcome Imsporticus as the practitioner responder this week and thank him for taking the time to respond and for his considered words.
Episode 8 of 8 in this the fourth series of my "Major Themes in Physical Education Research". It explores Daniel Memmert's book "Teaching Tactical Creativity in Sport: Research and Practice". This week I’m delighted to welcome Håkan Larsson as the practitioner responder this week and thank him for taking the time to respond and for his considered words.
Episode 7 of 8 in this the fourth series of my "Major Themes in Physical Education Research". It explores Daniel Memmert's book "Teaching Tactical Creativity in Sport: Research and Practice". This week I’m delighted to welcome Sue Whitman as the practitioner responder this week and thank her for taking the time to respond and for her considered words.
Episode 6 of 8 in this the fourth series of my "Major Themes in Physical Education Research". It explores Daniel Memmert's book "Teaching Tactical Creativity in Sport: Research and Practice". This week I’m delighted to be the practitioner responder this week and thank her everyone who has gone before me for taking the time to be involved and respond.
Episode 5 of 8 in this the fourth series of my "Major Themes in Physical Education Research". It explores Daniel Memmert's book "Teaching Tactical Creativity in Sport: Research and Practice". This week I’m delighted to welcome Vicky Goodyear (@VGoodyear) as the practitioner responder and I thank her for her insights and for taking the time to respond.
Episode 4 of 8 in this the fourth series of my "Major Themes in Physical Education Research". It explores Daniel Memmert's book "Teaching Tactical Creativity in Sport: Research and Practice". This week I’m delighted to welcome Natasha Low (@NatashaLowNZ) as the practitioner responder and I thank her for her insights and for taking the time to respond.
Episode 3 of 8 in this the fourth series of my "Major Themes in Physical Education Research". It explores Daniel Memmert's book "Teaching Tactical Creativity in Sport: Research and Practice". This week I’m delighted to welcome back Andy Vasily (@andyvasily) as the practitioner responder and I thank him for his insights and for taking the time to respond.
Episode 2 of 8 in this the fourth series of my "Major Themes in Physical Education Research". It explores Daniel Memmert's book "Teaching Tactical Creativity in Sport: Research and Practice". This week I’m delighted to welcome Mel Hamada (@mjhamada) as the practitioner responder and I thank her for her insights and for taking the time to respond.
Episode 1 of 8 in this the fourth series of my "Major Themes in Physical Education Research". It explores Daniel Memmert's book "Teaching Tactical Creativity in Sport: Research and Practice". This week I’m delighted to welcome Nathan Horne (@PENathan) as the practitioner responder and I thank him for his insights and for taking the time to respond.
Episode 11 of 11 in this the third series of my "Major Themes in Physical Education Research". It explores Tony Rossi and Colleagues book "Workplace learning in Physical Education: Emerging teachers’ stories from the staffroom and beyond". This week I’m delighted to welcome Jonathan Jones (@J_JonesPE) as the practitioner responder and I thank him for his insights and for taking the time to respond.
Episode 10 of 11 in this the third series of my "Major Themes in Physical Education Research". It explores Tony Rossi and Colleagues book "Workplace learning in Physical Education: Emerging teachers’ stories from the staffroom and beyond". This week I’m delighted to welcome Patty Kestrel (@pk_lv2teachpe ) as the practitioner responder and I thank her for her insights and for taking the time to respond. The words you hear in the response are Patty's but the voice is mine. I just hope I do justice to her sentiment.
Episode 9 of 11 in this the third series of my "Major Themes in Physical Education Research". It explores Tony Rossi and Colleagues book "Workplace learning in Physical Education: Emerging teachers’ stories from the staffroom and beyond". This week I’m delighted to welcome Brendan Jones (@jonesytheteachr) as the practitioner responder and I thank him for his insights and for taking the time to respond. The words you hear in the response are Brendan's but the voice is mine. I just hope I do justice to his sentiment.
Episode 8 of 11 in this the third series of my "Major Themes in Physical Education Research". It explores Tony Rossi and Colleagues book "Workplace learning in Physical Education: Emerging teachers’ stories from the staffroom and beyond". This week I’m delighted to welcome Sarah Gietschier-Hartman (@GHSaysRockChalk) as the practitioner responder and I thank her for her insights and for taking the time to respond. The words you hear in the response are Sarah's but the voice is mine. I just hope I do justice to her sentiment.
Episode 7 of 11 in this third series of my "Major Themes in Physical Education Research". It explores Tony Rossi and Colleagues book "Workplace learning in Physical Education: Emerging teachers’ stories from the staffroom and beyond". This week I’m delighted to welcome Blue Jay Bridge (@MrBridge204) as the practitioner responder and I thank him for his insights and for taking the time to respond. The words you hear in the response are Blue's but the voice is mine. I just hope I do justice to his sentiment.
Episode 6 of 11 in this third series. It that explores Tony Rossi and Colleagues book "Workplace learning in Physical Education: Emerging teachers’ stories from the staffroom and beyond". This week I’m delighted to welcome Naomi Hartl (@MissHartl) as the practitioner responder and I thank her for her insights and for taking the time to respond. The words you hear in the response are Naomi's but the voice is mine. I just hope I do justice to her sentiment.
Episode 5 of 11 in this third series. It that explores Tony Rossi and Colleagues book "Workplace learning in Physical Education: Emerging teachers’ stories from the staffroom and beyond". This week I’m delighted to welcome Ross Halliday (@FizzicalEd) as the practitioner responder and I thank him for his insights and for taking the time to respond. The words you hear in the response are Ross's but the voice is mine. I just hope I do justice to his sentiment.
Episode 4 of 11 that explores Tony Rossi and Colleagues book "Workplace learning in Physical Education: Emerging teachers’ stories from the staffroom and beyond". This week I’m delighted to welcome Jo Bailey (@LovePhyEd) as the practitioner responder and I thank her for her insights and for taking the time to respond. The words you hear in the response are Jo's but the voice is mine. I just hope I do justice to her sentiment.
Episode 3 of 11 that explores Tony Rossi and Colleagues book "Workplace learning in Physical Education: Emerging teachers’ stories from the staffroom and beyond". This week I’m delighted to welcome Joey Feith as the practitioner responder and I thank him for his insights and for taking the time to respond. The words you hear in the response are Joey's but the voice is mine. I just hope I do justice to his sentiment.
Episode 2 of 11 that explores Tony Rossi and Colleagues book "Workplace learning in Physical Education: Emerging teachers’ stories from the staffroom and beyond". This week I’m delighted to welcome Amanda Stanec as the practitioner responder and I thank her for her considered words and for taking the time to respond. The words you hear in the response are Amanda's but the voice is mine. I just hope I do justice to her sentiment.
Episode 1 of 11 that explores Tony Rossi and Colleagues book "Workplace learning in Physical Education: Emerging teachers’ stories from the staffroom and beyond". This week ’m delighted to welcome Andy Vasily as the first practitioner responder and I thank him for his considered words and for taking the time to respond. The words you hear in the response are his but the voice is mine. I just hope I do justice to his sentiment.
Hopes and Olympic dreams
I'm sure at one point in many of our lives we have all dreamed of playing at the elite level. Whether that is in sport or as a professional singer or songwriter. However, truth be told most of us won't play for a ‘Man United’ or have songs in the top 10. Yet for those that do, as this blog shows, the elite don't do it on their own. To become elite and meet the dreams and aspirations of playing at the top level, performers need support from their family, coaches, teachers and schools. They need to be pushed and challenged because without a cohesive and coherent approach from all those involved in the performer's life, the performer may never reach their true potential.
When Forrest Gump ran for the first time there was a perception that he couldn’t but he would be the exception and not the rule. Because running is something that a child learns to do at such an early age there is an assumption that they don’t need to be taught. If that was the case in all areas of life why would we teach children to read and write when they can already converse. Or why do we correct their language when they make a mistake? Why? Because there is a difference between doing something and doing it well. Don’t we need to start applying the same understanding to those young people we would like to be physically active but who lack the ‘vocabulary’ to be so?
The boy who ‘used to’
Sometimes we make our own decisions and leave pursuits of our past in the past, for example when end our competitive playing days or sell a bike. At other times these decisions are made for us by significant others, for example the child that leaves his or her school work undone and plays outside is frowned upon and told to take greater responsibility for his or her life. We discourage play and yet we also understand the importance of physical activity. The danger, as this week’s pedagogical case shows, is that desire to play and be active becomes something that we used to do.
Fitting in when you don’t know the ‘rules’
We’ve all watched documentaries (I would have thought) that see explorers journeying deep into the jungle to meet an isolated tribe and, like me, have wondered at their strange ways and new language. Yet in many ways we assume that it takes a journey such as that to find something so fundamentally different from what we already know and understand. Increasingly, it seems, children and young people are migrating with their families (or in some case without them) to find a new life. In moving out of their established ways of living they are forced to find ways of settling and fitting in. However, they are required to do that by trial and error because it seems people seldom teach them or seek to understand.
Finding value in running…again
We often focus on what we can’t do and where the risks are and forget that greater competence, confidence and support help us to achieve. Therefore, when a child (like Joshua) suffers a life-changing accident we focus on what he can no longer do and forget to focus on what he can still do. If we focused on the strengths of our students and found ways to motivate them to be physical active – in what ever form that takes – then perhaps we could prevent the numerous crises of health and participation that are reported daily in the news.
Running before she can walk…
Why do we have running or sustained running lessons in schools? To improve students’ fitness? Their endurance? To give them the knowledge of how to lead a physically active life? Yet, when it’s the time of year for the running unit, how many students bring a note? How many disengage? And how many are unable to complete the course? This blog asks us to consider the individual needs of students and explore how we might focus on the content of endurance units in different ways.
Balancing the drive to well with ‘down time’
Even model students need our help. It is easy to get caught up with those who struggle and it is equally easy to assume that those who are thriving don’t need as much help. In physical education and sport we often focus on the model students or the elite but, as William’s pedagogical case shows, there is a need to achieve balance. After all, “all work and no play” makes William want to quit.
Girls are girly and they don’t play aggressive and explosive sports like football. They might throw like a girl or hit like a girl. They might be a big girl’s blouse and they might cry but they don’t gain kudos from being sporty. These commonly held beliefs are increasingly being challenged and yet many of our common sense views, when challenged, are nonsensical. They need to be rewritten and yet they go unchallenged and remain to provide unnecessary obstacles to participation.
“I learn about things I can’t use in my life”
How many kids walk out of their lessons and leave experiences and say “but…”? We need to help young people understand the ‘why’s’ but often we don’t and expect it to happen. This week’s blog is about worth and relevance and highlights the important of explaining and developing an understanding of ‘why’ we do this and ‘why’ we don’t do that.
Our focus on “our sports” (as teachers and families) and on traditional sports acts as a very real barrier to participation for some while widening it for others. Choosing one sport over another sport is an active decision and it limits the ways in which children access different activities. Likewise, choosing not to ‘do’ or value a sport – either in the family or the school or community – is also a decision. While it is impossible to do everything we need to be aware that we are making decisions for the right reasons, which aren’t always the same as our reasons.
Sometimes we don’t often get the time to speak to the parents of the students we teach. The role of specialists, such as physiotherapists, in physical education might also seem abstract. This blog highlights the importance of three way communication pathways between parents, teachers, and specialists. It shows that by working together we all play role in supporting young people’s development.
A student misses two coaching sessions in a season, would you question their commitment to the team? If these sessions were two important cup matches, would you be frustrated? Often, and whether right or wrong, a natural reaction is to be disappointed. But, how we present this disappointment to the student needs to be managed. Some coaches don’t, and punish students by asking them to run laps or tidy the equipment store. Others, talk to the student and work together to support their engagement and development. So, what type of coach are you? Or, how would you help another coach to work with his/her players to support their engagement with the team? This blog helps us to understand how we might help the coach who punishes, and the player who misses two games.
Many of the activities that occur in school and sports clubs are public but increasingly they are also occurring in the semi-private spaces of social networking sites (SNSs). Celebrating the successes of young people is great but increasingly (at least in the fact that we are hearing more about it) there is a dark and sinister side to sport and SNSs. Ignorance is bliss but we can’t simply turn a blind eye to events. No child should ever feel that inappropriate actions are every permissible or appropriate – be that the instigators or the victims of such actions. Therefore, as adults, we are charged with a duty of care for all young people and, as such, “they’re just being kids” is never a suitable excuse for harassment or bullying. We should never condone the behaviour of others through our inaction or ignorance and instead must ensure that the young people we nurture and support can nurture and support those around them too.
As parents, coaches, and teachers we’re often faced with a dilemma as to how much we encourage young people to follow certain pathways. This is particularly prevalent when young people show a high level of competence in a specific sport. How much should we encourage them to specialise? Could they become a professional? Should we send them for extra training? Should they miss school and fixtures to compete for county or even professional teams? By training will they miss out on social development with their friends? This blog might assist with some of the decision-making. It suggests that, until the age of 16, specialised training and structured training are not as advantageous as we might have been led to believe.
This week’s podcast explores the pedagogical case of Teresa. She is an eleven-year old daughter of legal Mexican immigrants. She is responsible for caring for her younger siblings while also being challenged by learning English as her new language. She knows that some of her teachers see her (and her friends) as a burden and a drain on the education system and feels that her needs are not being meet. In fact she knows that she is not valued and this is impacting on her approach to school.
This week’s podcast explores Deshane’s life and the conflicting things he witnesses on a daily basis. Loved and supported by his family and church he is also beset with crime and violence on a daily basis. We learn that his position as a black male has implication on what he can and can’t do, as does his impoverished upbringing. Finally we learn that trust, achievable goals and role models are three potential ways of making things better until such time as we achieve social justice.
This week’s podcast explores the case of Patrick, a seven year-old boy with autism. He is isolated from his peers and is caught up in the same movement patterns and habits. Exploring his autism through bio-psychomotor and adaptive physical education perspectives the podcast suggests a number of ways of helping Patrick to develop. It suggests that understanding and consistency can lead to significant improvements in both his approach to and engagement in physical activity.
This week’s podcast explores the pedagogical case of Kate, a six year old who is doing well in most areas of school except when it comes to fine and gross motor skills. Looking through the lenses of motor development, and biomechanics we learn that Kate struggles in comparison to typically developing children. By focusing on her self-esteem, avoiding competitive situations, giving her more visual cues and by practicing whole body movements the podcast suggests that she can develop her motor skills.
This week’s podcast explores the case of Sophie and, through the lenses of physical activity, motor development, exercise physiology, and pedagogy, we learn how her daily life may or may not impact on her future. We will look at different research traditions and try to draw a single message from what we find in an effort to support students like Sophie to develop safely at home, school and in the community.
This week’s podcast marks a change of direction (and a change of book) for the blog. Drawing on the twenty chapters (and nineteen cases studies) located in Kathy Armour’s edited “Pedagogical Cases” book the podcast explores the cases studies nineteen individual (and fictitious) students aged between 5 and 16. These young people, presented as “complex and dynamic young learners who deserve to be taught and coached by practitioners who draw on a wide range of multidisciplinary knowledge to devise appropriate) interdisciplinary learning encounters.” Over the subsequent nineteen weeks I will explore each of these cases again from a pedagogical perspective but this week I start with Kathy’s introduction to the idea of a pedagogical case.’
This week’s podcast looks at change not as a whim but as a journey. It argues that we (as human beings) give up on new ideas too quickly; perhaps because we head towards change without realising the effort it will take to begin it let alone to sustain it. The podcast, the last using papers from this four-volume book, argues that change is difficult and without recognition of this it’s unsurprising that we often fail to move forwards and instead stay just where we have always been.
This week’s podcast highlights how we make inferences about particular situations. Indeed, it suggests, and in specific reference to gender, culture and race, that we make assumptions about girls in PE that may not be relevant to all girls. The podcast suggests that we take a ‘one-size’ fits all approach and allow our practices to reflect the dominant and overarching assumptions that exist about girls in PE.
This week’s podcast considers the dominance of sport in the PE curriculum. It questions how this ‘one way’ of teaching and learning can promote health and physical activity. Indeed the podcast asks us to consider that if sport is the dominant approach, do students learn more about health outside of the PE classroom?
This week’s podcast builds on previous work and presents the findings from a review of research on sport education to argue that we have the evidence to support our desire to change. It argues that, ten years ago (nearly), we had enough evidence to show that this approach works. The question is: “is this enough evidence to encourage you to change?”
This week’s podcast explores how what we do and what physical activities we participate in are shaped by the culture in which we exist. While there are varying forms of activities, what is participated in is shaped by the dominant culture. In many cases, Britishness.
This week’s podcast explores the fundamental elements of the Sport Education model and talks about the key aspects of sport that helps people come back again and again. It isn’t just winning or scoring the winning goal or making the winning pass. Instead it is about affiliation and rivalry (would Bjorn Borg have been such a great player without the rivalry of John McEnroe?), about festivity and formal competition, and about fair play.
This week’s podcast explores the idea why #physed and asks us to consider why we are ‘sporty’ and ‘active’ and why we want others to be. It asks us to consider the gap in expectation between physical education and sport and the gulf in popularity. It asks us to consider what #physed is and imagine what it might be.
This week’s podcast considers assessment of game performance. Building on the theme of Teaching Games for Understanding it encourages us to be critical about assessment tools and reflect on, if and how the assessment tools we use are really assessing game performance. Moreover, it asks us to consider whether our assessments are a true reflection of the learning that we are developing and promoting in lessons, and if so, do we need to change what and how we assess.
This week’s podcast explores the idea of “if-then-do” knowledge and how it is developed in games. The ‘if’ is positioned to suggest that something has happened, the ‘then’ represents the decision-making process based on the event, and the ‘do’ is the action or executed skill. The podcast suggests that in thinking of the physical and cognitive relationship between events and actions we are able to see the social relationship inherent in games.
This week’s podcast looks at the ways that we might start to notice and then challenge the ‘things’ that hide in plain sight under our noses. These things’ appear elusive and often go unseen and unchallenged and yet they are aspects of our lives and our practices that we might, perhaps, feel we should challenge and change if only we recognised that (a) they were there and (b) we should do something about them. The podcast concludes with a challenge - “ can you turn the camera on yourself and try get a sight of these ‘things’ and if you do what might you do with what you see?”
This week’s podcast revisits a paper from the mid 1980s – one which owes in origins to work done in the late 60s and early 70s – and argues that we need to think about the purpose and process of movement. The simple idea of thinking “why are we moving?” (i.e. to what purpose?) then allows us to think about “how we are moving” (i.e. the process). In this way we don’t move in the same way for every activity but think of how to best achieve our aims. The podcast concludes by suggesting that, currently and historically, the process often comes before the purpose but by flipping the equation we might just end up with different results.
This week’s Podcast looks at the idea that we need to stop once in a while least life pass us by. Drawing on work in outdoor education it argues that spiritual wellness is not just the responsibility of faith-type organisation but also of schools. It argues that this is a basic human need and yet it is not something that just happens and it needs to be planned for. Yet this is not a simple matter and through the use and development of a number of interrelated strategies it is possible to start thinking of spiritual wellness as being part of the curriculum.
This week’s podcast looks at an expanded notion of the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) model and argues that we need to think differently about teaching. We need to move away from practices that see us focusing on the cognitive and psychomotor – the thinking and doing aspects of learning so to speak – and focus instead on the whole child. It suggest that we can do that, in games teaching, by allowing children to try different sports, by showing them representations of the game, by exaggerating different aspects of the game and by adjusting the tactical complexity of the game. In this way children get the enjoyment and understanding that they need to, hopefully, engage in and enjoy the games they play at school
This week’s podcast looks at the development of a hybrid Sport Education and Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility model – Empowering Sport - and argues that we need to find new ways of addressing persistent problems. The podcast doesn’t argue that we need change for change’s sake but instead suggests that we need to be more open to the possibility of change. When something repeatedly fails to achieve the results we hoped it is time to find new and better ways of achieving our aims. To me this means adopting pedagogical approaches that have a history of success rather than simply just a history.
This week’s podcast explores the notion of health-related exercise (HRE) in education and argues that we have taken a sport-based and not a health-based approach to HRE, to date, in schools. In this way we have positioned performance above participation and prioritised ‘the moment’ of activity over the potential of lifetime engagement. Until we move from the ‘here and now’ of sports and start to build for the future then HRE will continue to be seen as a supplement rather than the mainstay of school physical education.
This week’s podcast looks beyond the apparent importance of techniques in physical education and club sports and argues that, as practitioners, we need a fuller understanding of what makes up a game. We need to understand the interplay of competition and cooperation and the interactions that occur between teams, groups of players, and individual players (often simultaneously) and how these, and not just skills, influence how students learn about games and gameplay.
This week’s podcast argues that dance is a way of moving that has been looked at through a limited viewfinder. It has been pigeon-holed as ‘being’ for a certain type of person. The podcast argues that dance projects a ‘way of being’ on the dancer. If you dance, therefore, you must be a certain type of person. It argues that this ‘way of being’ comes both from the dancer himself (in the case of this paper) and the audience. In other words, the very act of being a dancer positions you (in the eyes of many including the reluctant male dancer) as being effeminate and almost certainly homosexual. In concludes by suggesting that we need to overcome our own sense of ‘who we are’ and imagine ways for all of us to “move in other ways” – ways that don’t predict who we are.
This week’s podcast argues that, despite our best intentions, a multi-sport curriculum is not capable of achieving the aims and aspirations we have for physical education. Likening the multi-sport approach to a chocolate teapot it shows that despite our best intentions and significant efforts the approach cannot stand up against the heat of competition and the weight of expectations – it simply isn’t built the right way. In concluding the podcast shows how models like Sport for Peace are better vehicles for learning in and through physical education.
This week’s podcast looks at three pedagogical models (Sport Education, Teaching Games for Understanding and Cooperative Learning). The podcast suggests that while we are often comfortable with our daily practices we need to do more, try new approaches and explore new possibilities if we are going to help students have an authentic experience of physical education. Pedagogical models are positioned as being a ‘wave to the future’ and one way of providing meaningful, relevant and authentic experiences for young people.
This week’s podcast explores the idea of trusting our students to facilitate, support and thrive in a learner-centred classroom. Drawing on an early paper on Cooperative Learning this week’s offering shows how it takes time to change classroom structures and yet also highlights that such changes are invariable ‘worth it’. It concludes by asking how, as a community, can we make such transitions easier and how can they be made to better serve the needs of learners.
This week’s blog looks at another pedagogical model, TPSR (Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility), and the impact that it had on the involvement and self-direction (among other things) of six delinquency-prone youth. The blog argues that while transferring positive change from one situation to another proved difficult, change in perspective toward these young people and a change in pedagogy had some fairly positive effects. It concludes by suggesting that change takes time and, like Rome, doesn’t suddenly appear in a day.
In this week’s podcast I explore what I consider to be one of the seminal papers written about games teaching. It explores the TGfU (Teaching Games for Understanding) model and shows how Bunker and Thorpe deliberately placed game appreciation and tactical awareness above skill execution and performance (in terms of importance) when it came to teaching children about games. It concludes by asking how often we expect children to fit the games we ask them to play rather than fitting the games to the children we teach. Not many times I would guess.
This week’s podcast explores the recent UK OfSTED (Office for Standards in Education) publication and its feelings on extra-curricular sport in school. It is important to note that I had, as always, intended to comment on Brown and Johnson’s paper but now find it a great foil to the ‘findings’ that were reported today. The blog argues that we need to compare apples with apples in research and acknowledge the work done by others that has allowed us to get to where we are. In other words we should acknowledge that we are Nanos gigantum humeris insidentes or, in English, dwarfs standing on the shoulders of Giants”.
This week’s podcast asks if we are caught, like a rabbit, in the headlights of indecision. In other words, do we already know that we should change in our extra-curricular provision to serve the needs of all pupils but feel the pull towards the aspects of physical education that attracted us to the subject in the first place? The blog concludes by asking us to at least begin to question the full value of an interscholastic programme that favours the few over the many.
This week’s podcast explores research that originated in the US and France around teaching the content of physical education. It argues that there are so many ‘things’ involved in teaching and learning that many of the skills (for want of a better word) of the teacher remain implicit. It is only when we make these skills explicit that we begin to better understand what it takes to be a good teacher.
This week’s podcast looks at the idea that teaching (and by this I don’t mean learning) is dependant on the cooperation engendered between the teacher and the student(s) and the manner in which they (the students) engage in deviant or non-deviant behaviour. It argues that (in terms of student compliance) the manner and rigor with which the teacher holds students’ accountable is directly related to students apparent engagement. However, it also warns that non-deviant behaviour does not equate to engagement in the task and could simply be a way of ‘hiding out’ from the teacher and the task.
In this week’s podcast we consider the lens through which we view ‘good practice’ and subsequently the ways we construct a good or a bad teacher. Drawing on the idea that mastering the techniques of teaching allows the teacher to firstly survive and then thrive in the classroom the blog goes on to argue that this only true if we maintain the status quo in our subject. It concludes by asking what would happen if we changed the measures of good teaching and looked at the social interactions of students rather than their ability to reproduce skills?
This week’s podcast argues that student teachers are almost forced into a culture of compliance and replication that stagnates practice. The blog asks how we are expecting to make change and develop teaching if we don’t problematize taken-for-granted truths about teaching and learning.
This week’s podcast explores the idea that we have “disavowed our tradition which focuses on and values the physical as experience” and suggests that, in doing this, we have focused on ology’s and not actions. It argues that we need to either put the physical back into university physical education or reconsider what we teach in schools. Maybe, given our degrees, we would be better off teaching our grade 2 and 3 students biomechanics rather than basketball – after all that is where our expertise really lies. Finally it argues that we are more similar than we know and, as such, as teachers, are eminently replaceable.
This week’s podcast explores the idea of bio-pedagogy and argues that we should stop being idiotés and instead be contributing citizens. By engaging in bio-pedagogy (a form of autobiographical inquiry that looks at the links between personhood and pedagogy) the blog argues that we need to think less about doing things as we are expected to do them and more about what, ethically, we think the aims of education should be and then advocate for it.
This week’s podcast explores the theoretical shift that occurred between the first and second drafts of Mosston’s seminal book Teaching Physical Education. It argues that in moving away from a hierarchy of teaching styles against which teachers might measure themselves, the spectrum of teaching styles made a 180-degree turn. It moved away from an ideology that hoped to make every child independent in the decision-making process to one that prescribed certain outcomes to different styles of teaching. It moved from a place that positioned teachers as lifelong learning to one that positioned them as end-users of approaches to teaching that almost guaranteed the outcomes that they sought.
This week’s podcast question the ‘truth’ behind the ideas we hold so dear. Like those who believed the world was flat, or those who believed that to spare the rod was to spoil the child, or that a child should be seen and not heard, teachers believe in key ideas even though once good, many have turned out to be bad. The blog concludes by suggesting that this doggedness may be a root cause of the inflexibility of our subject and our profession to change. After all, what I do is fine…the problem lies elsewhere.
This week’s podcast asks if the things we say we believe in when it comes to education actually feature in our lessons. It argues that saying something, i.e. I believe in democracy, is not the same as doing something, i.e. having a democratic classroom, and it is not until actions match words that we can truly be said to “do as I do.” It concludes by suggesting that the matter is in our hands but that it requires an understanding of each child’s individual needs to achieve our true beliefs.
This week’s blog explores aesthetics and embodied learning and blows the lid off the can that suggest that aesthetics is only about dance. It asks what would happen if we thought more about the feeling of movement and less about the technical accuracy of a movement and concludes by suggesting that this might be a great way of considering learning in physical education and physical activity.
This week’s podcast looks at skill acquisition and skill analysis as two sides of the same coin that need to be developed. Skill acquisition is vital in the development of self-confidence and engagement in physical activity. However, without the input of those with the ability to analyse and feedback on skills it is much harder for individuals to develop. Therefore, we must aspire as educators to position ourselves in such a way that we can help all our students to develop.
This episode explores the notion of socialisation and asks how much of what occurred to an individual, both before and during a career as a teacher, impacts on the decisions that they make and the practices they hold dear. Drawing on a seminal paper in this field the blog asks us to consider the multiple forms of socialisation that shape and meld the teachers that we eventually become. Furthermore it asks us to be more aware of the different (and ongoing) ways that people learn to be teachers.
This episode looks at the idea of 'good pedagogy' and acknowledges that complacency and an indomitable attitude towards pedagogy (i.e. my way IS best) is not a move towards progression and development. Instead we need to see alternatives and continue to evolve and develop the way in which we help students learn.
This podcast asks if, in aspiring for pedagogical change, we need to be more aware of what we can (and should change) and what is too firmly imbedded in the practices of the department, school, or subject area to tackle at present. That is not to say that change shouldn't happen (in my opinion it must) but that we should remember that Rome wasn't built in a day.
This podcast explores a paper from nearly 40 years ago and asks if things have really changed at all. Taking some of the messages from the heart of the paper the podcast considers what the role of the PE teacher is (a) to educate or (b) to install discipline and win inter school fixtures and district trophies and competitions? Where the world has changed noticeably the podcast asks if the PE teacher had or if he or she still cuts a familiar figure in our schools.
This podcast asks if we (as a collection of physical educators) have a pack mentality when it comes to the practices of our subject. It asks if the perceptions of the many is stronger than the ideologies of the few and this is why change has been so hard to come by. It asks you to consider how the combined might of other influences the global notion of PE and leaves it unchallenged and unchanged.
Podcast 16 explores the idea that students learn to play the game of being a student. By employing studentship tactics they learn how to best navigate both the courses they take and their teachers themselves. It suggests that as a consequence they learn what they think we think is important rather than what might best serve them in the future.
This episode looks at the different ways that we can see lessons and learning. Is asks if we are too ready to accept that, in teaching, we get what we plan for and that students learn exactly what we want them to learn.
This week's blog asks what we believe about PE and how resistant those beliefs have been to change. It suggests that once we get an idea in our heads it is hard to shift and this is just the case with pre-service teachers. They come into teacher education with firm beliefs about what they think a god teacher is and what good teaching is and these beliefs are hard to shift. The podcast asks how we might better position ourselves to help pre-service teachers see that there are alternatives.
This week's podcast mentions gender - lots of times - and starts to lift the lid on this as a taboo subject. It asks if we are overly compliant with the messages of society around gender and asks if we should challenged misguided norms a lot more....starting with ourselves and our own lack of knowledge.
Welcome to the 12th Peprn Podcast. This podcast voices the 51st PEPRN 'major themes in PE' blog and asks if by having a predominately games focused curriculum and short teacher education programmes (in the UK at least) if we are only preparing our future PE teachers to teach games. If things in PE are going to continue to improve then do we need to rethink our curricula? The blog can be found at www.peprn.com and I would love to hear your thoughts on this, or any of the podcasts or blogs.
Welcome to the 11th Pod cast. This podcast voices the 50th PEPRN 'major themes in PE' blog and asks if we recruit our own students to the profession because they show the 'right stuff' and in many ways 'remind us of us'. If things in PE are going to continue to improve then do we need to rethink our recruitment policy? The blog can be found at www.peprn.com and I would love to hear your thoughts.
This episode explores teacher professional development (PD) and argues, for all teachers but especially for primary school teachers, that what currently stands as PD isn't very effective. It advocates for change and suggests that CPD needs to occur in schools with expert guidance and involve teachers in the twin roles of learner and teacher.
This week's podcast explores the work of Jan Wright and asks what messages are hidden in our interactions with children - particularly with boys and with girls. Wright argues that we treat the two genders differently and in doing so we contribute to gendered expectations around ability and attitude in and towards physical activity and physical education.
This week's podcast asks how much students learn from one another and suggests that Peer assisted learning - particularly Cooperative Learning - is a capable of enhancing what occurs in our lessons. However it also warns that kids need to learn to learn in a new way but often at the same time that you are learning to teach in a new way.
This week's podcast explores the idea of self-determination theory and asks autonomy supportive teaching would be a step closer to providing meaningful learning experiences for ALL our students.
This week's podcast asks if we need to give greater consideration to the type of learners we have in our classrooms and not just adopt a one size fits all approach.
This week's podcast asks if we are going to continue to talk about change on PE rather than actually action it. Drawing on a paper written more than two decades ago it highlights that message that were news then are still being mentioned today. Using the example of Rip Van Winkle the podcast asks if, like Rip, a teacher from the 1990s fell asleep and woke today would he or she find things in PE any different?
This week's podcast asks if, as teachers, we are able to put our knowledge and beliefs about what PE is and does into our programmes or if tradition gets in the way. Through the exploration of students' perception of PE the podcast suggests that the message that children get out of PE aren't, perhaps, the ones we want them to get.
This week we explore the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs in mainstream PE. The blog suggests that pupils are often integrated in to existing programmes rather than having the same opportunities to be involved as their peers.
This week's episode explores the idea that movements in games should not be taught in isolation because they are, in fact, social processes that are dependant on the movements and actions of others.
The first podcast explores paper 40 of the 'Major Themes in PE' blog found at www.perpn.com