effective_teaching_strategies

Effective Teaching and Classroom Management in Physical Education

Teaching strategies for standards-based instruction

Effective

• Psychomotor skills
• Ability to use skills under variable conditions
• Ability to combine skills with locomotor movement
• Ability to combine skills with non-locomotor movement
• Skill to make a play on an object with a less-than-ideal setup
• Ability to select the most appropriate skill for a situation
• Tactics for winning points or defending a goal
• Knowledge of rules

Many abilities are required to participate in meaningful activities.

complexity of games & physical activities

Desired level of competence at the conclusion of the unit

Skill of learner

Age of learner

Several Factors Influence What to Include in Instructional Units

If possible, select units that students do not already know or participate in.

It takes time for students to develop competence in a sport or activity.

Teachers don’t have time to teach every sport and activity.

Should teach a variety of units to meet the needs and preferences of all students.

Length of the Unit

Research indicates:

They should have sufficient skills to enjoy participating in it.

After a unit, students should have enough competence to play a game or do an activity.

If teachers want to teach more units, select units with less difficult skills.

Complex activities with difficult skills take longer to teach.

Length of the Unit

Research indicates:

Teach more challenging activities to older students.

• This maximizes learning and the impact of physical education.

Keep activities simple for younger students.

Slower movements are easier to learn.

Younger students may need modified equipment or are better suited for activities requiring less strength.

It takes time to learn skills.

• Strength is a factor in developing movement competence.

The Age of the Learner Affects What is Taught

For students with prior experience in a sport, build on this knowledge.

• Greater initial skill means you can teach more skill and expect higher levels of competence from students when the unit ends.

If students lack general motor competence, they cannot build on these skills for more complex skills that relate to them.

Begin instruction at the level students need for success.

Teach fewer units to less skilled students to provide them with opportunities for success.

The Skill Level of the Learner Affects What Is Taught

Programs that focus only on keeping students active are inappropriate because they are not educational.

Standard 1 states that students should be competent movers.

The goal of physical education is to provide the movement experiences needed to enjoy playing a game or doing an activity in a recreational setting.

Physical education is not meant to prepare students for varsity sport.

Desired Level of Competence

• Identify any affective-domain dispositions appropriate for the unit.
• Develop the order of instruction for what you intend to teach.

Identifying what to teach:

• When planning a unit of instruction, begin by identifying content knowledge needed for successful participation.
• Analyze how skills are used in the game.
• Identify cognitive learning needed.

The goal of physical education should be to create competent movers who are confident in their ability to participate in a variety of meaningful activities as adults.

Desired Level of Competence

Application tasks

Refinement tasks

Extension tasks

Informing tasks

Types of Tasks Used to Teach Lesson Content

When introducing a task, limit the number of critical elements needed for initial skill performance.

• Where they will practice
• Number of students with whom to practice
• Rotation of students when practicing

They include the organization of what students will do when they start the learning sequence.

They are used to start a lesson or skill sequence

Informing Tasks

Include:

Sometimes it is necessary to decrease task difficulty when learners struggle.

Extension tasks increase task variability and eventually approach the skill needed for game play or a performance.

When teachers introduce a skill, they typically present it without task variability.

Change task difficulty.

• Can make it harder or easier.

Extension Tasks

Tasks that increase difficulty too much frustrate students, causing them to give up and stop participating.

• If the task is too difficult, add an intermediate step that is easier.

Tasks that do too little to increase difficulty are time-inefficient and can lead to student boredom.

Tasks in the progression must increase in difficulty so that students eventually learn the skill and can use it in context.

When developing a teaching progression, the goal is to increase difficulty such that with practice, students are successful.

Extension Tasks

• If teachers allow students to modify a task, students learn that they don’t need to follow teacher directions.

Teachers should modify task difficulty, not the students.

• More competent movers can select the more difficult task.
• All students are successful and challenged.

When teachers give students choices, they allow modifications.

• Teachers are unable to develop appropriate task progressions for future lessons.

Learning progressions fall apart, and students fail to learn the designated skills.

Task Modification

Change the number of people involved

Modify rules

Change the intent of practice

Combination of skill

Change the size of the playing or performing area or field

Modify equipment

Include:

Ways to Modify Task Difficulty

Include:

Break a skill into its parts

Change practice conditions

Ways to Modify Task Difficulty

Increased numbers of critical elements add complexity to skill performance.

Critical elements are the important qualities of correct form for a skill.

Form breaks prevent students from getting beyond basic levels of play.

When Learning Skills, Students Need to Develop Correct Form

COGNITIVE STAGE

When giving feedback to beginners, focus on only those critical elements provided.

• This is called congruent feedback.

When teachers introduce a skill, they must limit the number of critical elements they provide to students.

The cognitive stage is the beginning stage of skill acquisition, when learners must think about each critical element they perform.

Stages of Learning (Fitts and Posner)

Refinement tasks are interspersed with extension tasks.

• Teachers can provide them as needed to improve the quality of the skill performance.
• Sometimes teachers do not include them on the progression because it is difficult to anticipate when they will be presented.

Depending on task difficulty, multiple refinement tasks are given.

ASSOCIATIVE STAGE

Teachers add more critical elements using refinement tasks.

At this stage, students can do the task without thinking about each discrete step.

Stages of Learning

• Students have good form and can use it in a variety of situations.

AUTONOMOUS STAGE

Students don’t need to focus on the production of a skill but how it is used in an applied setting.

At this stage the skill is automatic.

Stages of Learning

• They are easier for students to remember.

Cues are shortened versions of critical elements.

• Teachers can clarify the meaning for the respective sport or activity.

Certain terms like ready position apply to multiple sports but mean slightly different things.

When presenting tasks, start by explaining what the feet are doing and work your way up the body.

• Example: Trunk rotation is needed to increase force on a smash.

Cues can change as skills become more difficult.

Cues

The task is for students to use the skill(s) in meaningful games or activities.

The task must also include a challenge such as doing the skill in a certain amount of time, for a certain distance, etc.

The focus is on using the skill rather than performing it with the correct form.

• Doing dances to music
• Playing a game
• Skill assessments: Shooting 10 baskets in a row

Examples:

Application Tasks

10

Ask questions

Plan task progressions

Pinpoint

Check for understanding

What is the nature of the activity? How are students expected to use the skills and knowldge learned?

Give verbal directions

What is the nature of the activity? How are students expected to use the skills and knowldge learned?

Keep them simple

Monitor student practice and learning

Effective demonstrations

Avoid distractions when presenting skills or teaching

Gain the attention of the learner

What is the nature of the activity? How are students expected to use the skills and knowldge learned?

Give feedback

What is the nature of the activity? How are students expected to use the skills and knowldge learned?

Guidelines for Delivering Content

• Was the skill performed correctly?
• Knowledge-of-performance feedback is augmented or extrinsic feedback.

Feedback is a teacher interaction that follows student performance, which helps the learner decide what to do differently on the next practice trial.

Knowledge of performance: Provides information about the quality of the performance.

Knowledge of results: Provides information about the outcome of performance.

• Did the ball land in bounds?

Giving Feedback

Includes:

The goal is to have three positive feedback statements to every negative or corrective statement.

05

Positive

Shows how performance differed from a previous performance

04

Differential

More effective than delayed feedback

03

Immediate

More often is better when first learning a skill

02

Frequent

Gives specific information about the behavior

01

Precise

Five Characteristics of Effective Instructional Feedback

Specific

Includes information such as a critical element if it is feedback about a skill

General

A general comment about a skill or behavior. Tends to be less effective.

Behavior-related feedback

Given in response to a student's behavior (e.g., whether they are following rules and directions).

Skill feedback

Given in response to a student doing a skill or psychomotor task.

Types of Feedback

Position yourself away from noise.

Face the sun so that students are able to see what you are doing instead of squinting.

Talk with your back to the wall so that students focus on you and what you are saying.

Wait for quiet before talking.

When giving tasks, if students will work with a group or partner, have them organize those individuals before explaining the task.

Helpful Hints:

Gaining the Attention of Students

They help ELL students understand directions.

Sometimes safety concerns mean you shouldn’t demonstrate.

Videos are useful for some demonstrations.

If a teacher can’t do a skill well enough to demonstrate, ask a student to help.

Teachers can demonstrate or invite students to demonstrate.

Demonstrations give students a visual picture of what you want them to do.

Demonstrating Skills

If you demonstrate incorrect form (on purpose), follow it with a demonstration of correct performance so that the last thing students see before practice is the skill being performed correctly.

When possible, demonstrate in context or with a group of students.

Teachers can demonstrate a skill slowly to emphasize key points or critical elements, even when they are not fully competent and able to use the skill in game play or in a performance.

Demonstrating Skills

• Rolling the lines rotates students so all will eventually be in the front row.
• Demonstrate a skill from various views (e.g., side, front, rear) so they know what it looks like from all angles.

• Shadow drills done without a ball or object are useful for the initial stages of skill acquisition because they don’t need to worry about making contact with an object.

Make sure all students can see a demonstration.

After watching a demonstration, have students practice while repeating the cues of performance.

Demonstrating Skills

Scan the room to ensure you are not focusing on a small group of students.

When circulating to give feedback or help students, keep your back to the wall so that you can see all students.

• Errors are more apparent when you see the performance that looks different from the others.

It’s easiest to teach when all students are facing the same direction.

• See the entire class.

Monitor Student Learning

You can see that students are able to do the skill and determine whether they are ready for a new task.

STEP 4

Students can follow your actions while you are watching.

STEP 3

You “mirror” the activity of students.

STEP 2

Perform the skill with the opposition hand from students.

STEP 1

Mirroring

Mirroring is monitoring students while you are facing them.

• Be excited about what you are teaching.
• Avoid monotone talking.

Speak so students can hear.

Speak with enthusiasm.

• When introducing the skill, the explanation might be longer.
• Use visuals (posters, demonstrations) to shorten talk time.

When explaining things, try to keep it under two minutes of talking at one time.

Less talk means that students have more time to practice.

Keep talking briefly!

Verbal Directions

Checking for understanding means asking specific questions about what students will do and the order in which they will do it.

• Performance
• Conditions or situation
• Criteria
• Students know when they are successful and have a goal to meet.

Use explicit task statements when telling students what you want them to do.

Checking for understanding

If tasks are somewhat related, less teacher talk is needed to explain the next task.

Task progressions

Progressions should consist of a series of related tasks that gradually increase in difficulty.

Pinpointing

When teachers stop the class and point out students who are doing the task well.

Pinpointing and Other Hints

Ward and his colleagues identified four domains for content knowledge.

Domain 4

Knowledge of instructional tasks or pedagogical content knowledge

04

Knowledge about student errors

03

Domain 3

Knowledge of techniques and tactics

02

Domain 2

Knowledge about rules, safety, and etiquette

01

Domain 1

content knowledge mapping (ward)

Frequency is more important than the level of thought required to respond (according to Bloom’s taxonomy) because questions keep students engaged.

• Academic questions
• Relate to the content of the lesson
• Procedural questions
• Ask students about management and organizational issues
• Unrelated questions
• Have nothing to do with the class and basically waste class time

Questions have different purposes in a lesson.

Asking Questions

• Allows all students a chance to figure out how they would answer.
• This is referred to as questioning wait time.

Pause.

Ask the question.

Guide the responder: If after wait time the student provides no or an incorrect answer, ask additional questions that guide the student to the correct response.

Identify the person to answer the question.

Good Questioning Technique

• Do not respond to or acknowledge students who call out answers.

• There are exceptions to this.

Do not allow students to call out an answer without your permission.

Choral response: When the teacher wants all students to respond as a group.

Avoid asking multiple questions: Two questions asked with no opportunity to respond to the previous question.

Popcorn: Used when brainstorming ideas to solve a problem and answer a question with no one correct answer.

Good Questioning Technique

Space

• Spread students out when possible.
• When outdoors, mark off your playing area.

equipment

If all students have equipment you maximize OTR.

time

• Make every second count!
• Take attendance efficiently, give efficient demonstrations, and don’t make students wait for a turn.

Resources Must be Managed During Instruction

• Use refinement or extension tasks.

Teachers should redirect students with new tasks to maximize response rates.

• They get tired.
• Competent students get bored and start doing something else.
• Low-skilled students figure out they are not successful and give up.

When given a new task, students usually have the highest response rates during the first two minutes.

Pacing

• The basketball layup starts with the shot; the dribble is taught last.

Backward chaining

Whole-task learning

• Start at the end of a complex skill and finish at the beginning.

• Basketball layup starts with the dribble; the shot is taught last.

The entire skill or task is presented at once.

Forward chaining

Start at the beginning of a complex skill and add parts until the whole sequence is learned.

Part-whole learning

Parts of the task are taught and then the parts are put together so the entire task is performed as an entity.

Use Motor Learning Concepts When Planning Tasks

Includes:

Use class closure to preview the next lesson.

Finish classes on a high note.

Use a variety of assessments to enhance learning.

Assessment is part of the instructional process, not an add-on.

• End with a task that students can successfully do.
• If possible, end with something fun and enjoyable that relates to the lesson.

Assessment

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