Self Study Tasks

Through this task I am to move through my teaching and discuss:

What is discussed to be a good teacher through the content of this course?

Does my practice demonstrate a good teacher?

For my self study task I am to analyze aspects and snippets of lesson plans, and feedback from my associate teacher during my 4 week practicum at Papakura High School. To that end, I will discuss my own teaching practice throughout my practicum, making suggestions around what good teaching is in addition to the implementation of pedagogical tools supplemented by the content of Edprofst.

I experimented with a range of different teaching styles and learning activities to encourage learning within the classroom. The use of these teaching styles demonstrates examples of ‘good teaching’.With this being said, I also lacked in many facets of my own teaching areas, illustrating that there is still much growth to be had in my journey as a practicing teacher. In this self-study, I will discuss and analyze my lesson plans and feedback that suggest good teaching and the potential alignment of my teaching.

1 PED 4th lesson feedback:

As an introduction, I will discuss the verbal feedback that Sheena; my practicum observer gave to me after the observation of my lesson. The type of teaching style I implemented in my lesson with my 1 PED and how I came to the conclusion of selecting a different approach to inform my lesson.

First and foremost, in relation to good teaching, Sheena provided feedback on the teaching style that I had incorporated into my lessonvidalyze through their own interaction; eventually becoming more comfortable and competent with the program. This is a direct contrast to the robotic instruction given in the previous lesson. The last lesson insisted that the students to remain quiet and listen carefully to every instruction, where the students are compared to the analogy of a sponge, and as a result limited the parameter of knowledge (Mosston and Ashworth, 2008)..In particular I used self-directed tasks in my observed lesson.I structured this specifically for my 1 PED class as I have learnt over the past few lessons that they work well with this. Sheena said that I demonstrated a clear use of self-directed learning. The task, in particular, enabled the students to partake in divergent discovery, learning through exploration rather than retaining and recalling information. This can be attributed to Mosston’s styles of teaching, this particular style is situated away from reproduction styles and is headed more so toward the production side of the teaching style spectrum. Where the students are encouraged to discover and learn about the

I identified that the vidalyze task that I had set for the students would work more effectively when compared to a command style type of teaching.As mentioned above, In the previous lesson, students partook in a reproduction style typed lesson. They were required to listen to the teacher who would explain each instruction on how to navigate through vidalyze neglecting the element of the student engaging with the programme. This, therefore, required the students to rely on their ability to recall instructions for the next lesson to continue with the program. After analyses and discussions with the students and my associate teacher, we identified that though they were keen to use vidalyze not many of the students had retained the information from the previous lesson. As a result, they, therefore, had a low understanding on how actually to operate the Vidalyze website. By making a shift in structure the students were able to discover more about the website through their own experimentation, a style that more of students within the class would resonate. Furthermore, I found that with this style of learning the class as a whole would learn and value the website more.

In this lesson, I implemented characteristics of cooperative learning, where the lesson was structured in a way that was not only based competitively but cooperatively as well. In relation to the content of EDPROFST; good teachers are able to incorporate cooperative learning into their lessons as a way to get students to learn and feed off of other group members. This is understood as a shift of roles from the teacher who transitions from being the sole commander of all information to facilitating students learning through learning activities and other avenues (Class notes, lecture 12, 2017). To that end, participants were required to work as a group for a common goal (winning). Though I did not highlight this as the main focus I did allude to this because the class enjoys competition, which evidently, helped to drive their learning. Though competition is important, I placed emphasis on working as a group and therefore is seen as the main focus, this aligns with a teaching philosophy that values cooperation over the competition (Class notes, Lecture 12, 2017).

The task I ran with the students in this lesson was ‘Pictionary’. This was subject specific to bones, muscles, joints and movements, the culmination of all the learning we had uncovered over the past few weeks. To give the class an opportunity to refresh their memories I allowed for a simple brainstorming task between each of the groups.This meant that all group members were able to contribute and write down everything that they could remember about anatomy to help inform the upcoming task.

I believe that the way I had I conducted myself in conjunction with the task selection and structuring of the lesson demonstrated many elements of good teaching. I was able to Identify what the students enjoy, being competition and I was able to adhere and act in accordance with the feedback that I had elicited from the students in the previous lessons; not enjoying frequent use of Chromebooks, or computerized learning having a high demand and preference for interactive tasks.

Pictionary, with the combination of being fair and utilizing teamwork which had been discussed at the beginning of the lesson - reinforced positive interdependence with the students, as each of the members within the group had to make contribution, whether it be guessing of the words or drawing of the words. Each group member at some point was in a spotlight where they needed to help the group to succeed, this is an example of positive interdependence (Class Notes, Lecture 12).An example of this through means of feedback was noted by my associate teacher below:

Feedback:

“Donavyn kept coming up for her group, you let her know that you wanted to
see another person from her group. That shows me you are becoming more aware of the bigger picture in the room. Keep working on this!”.
“Some groups, in particular, were very keen to complete the task!!!!! This definitely had majority of the class engaged, well done. You listen well to what the kids tell you (either through telling or actions) about how they best want to learn. No matter what you do or how long you teach for, never ever lose this!!!!””

Lesson 8 1 PED

Another example of good teaching was in lesson 8 with 1 PED. Good teachers are sensitive benchball movements. At this time one of the participants was hit with the dodgeball and had accepted that he was ‘out’ from the game, onward he started to walk towards the bench for a chance of redemption. The thrower on the opposite team had realized this, rather than remaining quiet and letting his opponent accept the ‘out’ he felt the need apply fair play, telling his opponent that he was in fact still safe due to where the ball had hit his body. This situation demonstrated clear aspects of fair play emerged from the learning activity.of the learning environment around them. They are able to turn situations within the lesson into valuable learning points to be emphasized for the students. In my example, I hadn’t planned to highlight fair play as this wasn’t the focal point of the lesson. What I did do was observe how the game went and identified positive actions which had emerged from the learning activity. Students were participating in the learning activity analyses of

I capitalized on this situation and acknowledged this as a teaching moment to be highlighted in the next classroom discussion. According to Mosston, he believes that this is one of the educative possibilities in physical education, fair play under ethical (Mosston and Ashworth, 2008). Good teachers are able to capitalize on potential learning outcomes within a lesson (Class notes, 2017). The example mentioned above was, in fact, an unpredictable event, and was not detailed in my lesson plan. My ability to scope out what happened during the lesson and turn it into a learning experience demonstrates attributes of good teaching.

Acknowledged their self-management and direction when it came to fair play (someone thought they were out but the other team told them that they weren’t and to stay in). Well done, always acknowledge the positives and, where you can, ignore the not-so-desirable behaviors.

In relation to my four-week practicum, there have been many examples of good teaching moments. With that being said this experience also highlighted many weaknesses and room for improvement, especially in regards to the efficiency of my teaching at the early stages of lessons. One of the most prevalent and frequent feedbacks I received was self-management and class management particularly at the beginning of the lesson. Albeit, I worked on this incrementally after each lesson this still could do with more improvement and practice. This links well with one of the lessons with Alan Oven which emphasized the significance of time management within a lesson and how the structure can often determine the learning outcome and time spent on a particular task. Less focused needs to be placed on the routine and talking and more on engagement with the task. Typically we only have 1 hour with our students and in some cases, we have 45 minutes which doesn’t exclude getting changed in and out gear. This becomes an issue for the teacher as they need to formulate strategies around structuring the lesson efficiently to make use of every minute of the lesson. This made me reflect on my own teaching and my efficiency that had been commented on during my practicum. What can I do to improve my own management and classroom management with the students? As highlighted in Alan’s lesson, using reciprocal style and manipulating the lesson structure is a potential way to improve learning outcomes. The reciprocal style allows for quick feedback in conjunction with learning off of each other, not demanding of the teacher to constantly sit down and give feedback to everyone which could take up a lot of time. I believe that in my future lessons I need to incorporate similar strategies to help tackle my own weaknesses in my teaching.

A frequent theme that I would always include into my teaching was the extension of knowledge outside of the lesson. This theme and acknowledgment helped the students draw connections between the content and how it was applicable outside of the classroom. I feel that good teachers are able to reinforce this in each lesson, demonstrating that learning isn’t only associated with schools but it is extended further beyond into our lives. I would frequently ask questions in class such as, why is this important? Where can we use this in everyday life? Where have we seen this in our daily lives? And applying it to real life situations. Here are some examples in my lesson plans/teaching.

This is an important key concept to and should be referring to frequently within teaching lessons so that students become more aware of why they are learning content and that it’s not just about doing summative assessments. Further, learning can be transferable outside of the gym or classroom. This reinforces goal five of the TPSR model where students are to shift their learning outside of the gym (Hellison, 2011). This draws on what it is to be a good teacher, moving beyond the confined knowledge and broadening it into life context.

In short, a good teacher is able to identify what teaching style works with the classroom. Because each teaching style is equal and isn’t better than the other (Mosston and Ashworth, 2008). The teacher then has to decide which teaching style is most effective for the class, I demonstrated this by using a more self-directed style after identifying that a command style didn’t work as effectively.

A good teacher is able to recognize that not all students learn the same and different learning activities need to be incorporated through means of inclusion style, variated levels of learning also known as a challenge by choice (Mosston and Ashworth, 2008).
A good teacher is able to value co-operation over competition
Sets clear expectations and goal setting
Learning intentions are made clear
Clear instructions to improve time management of the lesson.
Good teachers are always able to link in what they have learned in their previous into the following lessons. This was clearly demonstrated throughout each of my lesson plans. At the beginning of each lesson, I would discuss with the class about what we had learned in the previous lesson. This was typically connected with the lesson and how that previous knowledge would have an impact on the lesson.
Effective teachers are able to capitalize on teachable moments within the lesson, demanding a learning sensitive teacher.
The skill of provoking learning moments within a lesson and setting tasks that help to direct the students towards this; how did you feel during the task? What does this mean to you?
An effective teacher always refers to how the learning can be directed outside of the classroom or gym space.

References.

Hellison, D. (2011). Teaching personal and social responsibility through physical activity (1st ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Mosston, M. & Ashworth, S. (2008). Teaching Physical Education, First Online Version, (Sixth Edition). Retrieved January 2, 2008 from The Spectrum of Teaching Styles:

Class notes, 2017. EDPROFST Lecture 12

Feedback from From Nikki Samu.