I have encountered many different learning experiences whilst being involved in sport and physical education. Watkins and Mortimore (1999), sighted in Jones, Armour & Potrac (2004), states that learning can not take place without teaching, so my learning experiences must have been affected, if not moulded by the teacher of that activity. My first example of this is aerobics lessons in secondary school. The teacher used a command style of teaching in conjunction with the mirror analogy, which Kirk stated as a traditional concept of learning, where learners can be taught through copying the actions of a teacher or coach.
The command style is a ‘teacher centred approach in which teachers direct student learning’, Kirk et al (2004). Armour states that ‘verbal and visual feedback from teacher to learner play a prominent role’, and that ‘learning outcomes focus on information, techniques and control’. This style of teaching was good for aerobics as it allowed a large group of learners to do relatively simple exercises at a fast pace. Therefore it can be said that the number of individuals and the type of task affected the teaching style and hence, my learning experience.
My learning experiences have also been affected by the environment in which a task has taken place. Environment is seen in pedagogical terms by Ian McGeechan as a concept in which ‘players can grow’, and Bob Dwyer says that ‘it’s about developing a sense of confidence in players’, sighted in Jones, Armour & Potrac (2004). Again during secondary school, whilst being taught to throw the javelin, I had sessions in the sports hall and on the field. In the sports hall, space was limited, so the javelin hit the wall before the ground, so feedback was limited. Karaskova (2002) states that feedback is essential to learning, so I couldn’t have been learning fully without this feedback.
This lack of feedback made me feel uneasy as the teacher could not tell me if my throws were correct or not. In the field both the teacher and I could see the end results of my throws, so feedback was more readily given, so my enjoyment and understanding of the task was increased, thus improving my learning experience. It can be said that the environment in which a task is taking place can affect learning experience, in terms of physical surrounding and state of mind.
I also feel I have had good learning experiences whilst training with the school rugby team. Although my initial learning was due to peers, once more experienced, the coach taught us mainly in the form of modified games. This is an example of the use of a teaching model called ‘teaching games for understanding’, which has the main goal of facilitating development of competent games players, the two main areas being tactical awareness and skill execution, Griffin, Mitchell & Oslin (1997).
A modified game is one where one or all of the following are changed & challenges and problems are meant to be solved; rules, playing area, equipment and number of players, Spackman (1983) sighted in Griffin, Mitchell & Oslin (1997). The coach used the modified game to increase tactical awareness in both attack and defence and also to increase the quality of rucking and mauling. The coach set drills and discussed good and bad points of every run through. This is a guided discovery style of teaching which Kirk et al (2004) stated is a ‘style of teaching in which the teacher guides rather than directs the learner through a series of tasks’, and it greatly increased my understanding of rugby as the skills and tactics were easily transferable to the full game.
Critical Analysis of Personal Learning in Sport/Physical Education 2 I have had learning experiences in many different sports including athletics, skiing, basketball and diving. However I am going to focus mainly on my experiences in basketball because this is the one in which I have had the most varied experience in and the one in which I feel most confident.
I first learned basketball purely by peer teaching where there wasn’t a teacher involved. I learned it from older schoolmates by just watching. First I was told and shown how to dribble the ball. Then as I grew older and more experienced than some of my younger peers, the role reversed and I could sometimes be the coach and show them how to do some basic techniques. Peer teaching is a good experience for the learner because the pressure is not as great as learning during an organised lesson. However, the quality of teaching and the correctness of technique might not be as satisfactory when being taught in this way. I do not remember if I was taught using the peer teaching method during a lesson on school. I assume that the school I went to, in Hong Kong, still used the traditional framework of teaching.
Metzler (2000) describes the differences between teacher mediated and peer mediated teaching ratio as that of pupil to teacher is lower in peer-teaching and engaged time is much higher, thus pupils are more encouraged when they are learning from other pupils. However, he also states that the peer training requirement is high and that quality control is much needed. When I continued my education in the UK, I started to receive proper coaching sessions which were teacher mediated and the coach used a direct, command style of teaching. He also used a style which incorporated aspects the teaching games for understanding model. Kirk (2004) states that this model ‘considers various aspects of game performance in terms of what an individual must learn in order to be viewed as a competent player’.
My coach broke down the game into different aspects and we practiced by doing drills which he set up. In order to motivate players, negative reinforcement was used, such as punishments like press-ups for a loosing team in a mini game. These mini games were an example of the cooperative learning model, where large groups are split up into equally talented groups in which everybody’s performance counts. This model is closely related to the teaching personal and social responsibility in terms of teamwork and group ethics and morality.
To conclude the analysis of my personal experiences in terms of sport and physical education, I think it is obvious that I have had two different teaching styles, one a commanding, directing approach whilst I was in Hong Kong, and the other, whilst in England, a self-discovery type approach. Obviously, there were exceptions to this, but during my time in Hong Kong, I was taught using the empty bucket analogy, where a pupil is ‘filled up with knowledge’, as an empty bucket is. During schooling in England more modern methods were used which affected my learning experience, I feel, in a positive way.