Part 2: Bringing your body to HPE

Part 2: Bringing your body to HPE

(Image retrieved from http://learningfundamentals.com.au/resources/)

 I see this image as representing what HPE means to me in a holistic way. Being healthy is more than an absence of illness and the ability to perform tasks without fatigue or just eating the foods that we are told are right for us. It is holistic and incorporates the physical, mental, spiritual, cultural and social dimensions of the person. Or as the AESBP say "another perspective is that the health of an individual cannot be thought of in isolation from the world around the person. And equally so, the world is influenced by the health of the individual." (asebp, N.D). It is encompassing of all the things that we see as necessary and evil in health and exercise. This works on health in both the physical and emotional. It see diet and exercise sitting alongside the medical ailments that may come into our lives and the things that can push us over the emotional edge or comfort us emotionally. this shows that with the good there is temptation or bad and that there is always help on hand if we really need it and feel that we should ask. Family and friends are crucial elements in our own personal health and wellbeing and play a great role in centering us.

Age and family are another factor I see as important to HPE. We do not stop being active important people when we get older, leave school or move on to higher education and these needs to be acknowledged. People outside the school system are important in the physical, mental, spiritual, cultural and social dimensions of the person. These are the people that the children see as often in health and physical environments, with the family and friends and sporting role models. These are important people in the life of a child and ones that the children emulate and also people that should be encouraged to be good role models for the children or all of us.  We need to be good role models to other people as others have been role models to us, I am grateful to say noneof my parents smoked and I was shown that this was normal and these role models influenced me in this decision and many others.

Part of my physical biography is the activities I am and have been involved in, this is a view of the reservoir in Jincheon, Chungbuk, Korea. Individual sports like cycling have been a part of my life for about 35 years and still are, but to a lesser degree over this past year. Activities one can do alone or together but not as a part of a team, are ways we learn to depend on ourselves and find parts of the world and our environment that are special, this is not just a physical endeavour but one that works in our mental, spiritual and social aspects by combining them and making returns to us with feelings of well being that encompass all these aspects of our lives.

References:
ASEBP. Alberta, Canada (n.d).Retrieved from http://www.asebp.ab.ca/about/health_context.html.




The first activity asked you to select 3 images to‘bring your body’ into learning in, through and about
HPE. For this section of the task you are required to select no more than 6 images (either the first images or others) to illuminate your biography and values about HPE – consider your socialisation into/about physical activities/health/relationships, values you might have about learners/health/physical activity/ personal development, your biography/values beyond HPE that may influence your teaching.
Writea150-­200 word exposition to explain the collection of images and elucidate your biographies and values. Use your reading s to justify learner/HPE values and beliefs. Further
to the analysis and justification, consider how your body biography/values influence your (currentandfuture personal pedagogies in HPE.

Write a 150-­‐200 word exposition that describes yourself as a teacher of HPE in light of taking a critical lens to your biography, values, belief and incident interpretations.
Consider new actions to undertake so as to create new understandings of action situations, new understandings of self as a teacher in terms of cultura land political setting of teaching,and new understandings of taken-­‐for-­‐granted assumptionsabout HPE (and general) teaching.

Part1:Incident and analysis

Part1:Incident and analysis (300-­‐400words)


This incident that I am commenting on is one that will remain with me for a long time. This happened on my first practicum here and was a use of physical activity to punish and humiliate a group of children into "acting appropriately". There were two situations that occurred that had the same outcome meaning that the children needed to perform running drills at lunchtime on the school field with the watching eyes and cheers/jeers of the other children playing games and sports on the field.
 The first situation that caused the event to happen were uniform based and to a large extent not the action of the child but the parent and also were class based with the children from the lower socio-economic area of the class punished for not having the correct school uniform. In my opinion the parent and children had made a best attempt with the uniform but had failed in their choice of school shoes (they were not considered polishable). These children were brought up and publicly shown as worst practice.
The second group was also to do with clothing and were those who did not put their clothes in their bag or tote tray and whose clothing was found around the class. These children were brought up once a piece of clothing was found and asked to identify it (this was easy as all the children’s clothing seemed to be named) and names were written on the board for future punishment.
In this class breaking from the norm was seen as rebellious and unacceptable and the use of running drills as punishment seemed to be his way of breaking the kids and making them succumb to the will of the class and teacher. Having them lose lunchtime and be publicly shamed appeared to be the way to create order in a classroom. My view of this at the time was shock, I was not a fan of humiliation and physical exercise as a punishment having been on the other end many times having gone to an all boys' high school and parents may see this as punitive or an overreaction. This is counterproductive, it creates a controlled class and pliable children but does not make for a comfortable and happy work environment, it can create an environment of fear and an underclass within the room. The victims here are those who are generally great kids but ones that come from the poorer homes and those who had difficulties adapting to the rigid classroom structure (I had difficulties here with adapting too).
There were many options for alternative punishments and ways to deal with the problem. My first port would be to make a pile of the clothing and have the children stay and have to collect each piece before they leave for lunch or home, alternatively note the names from each piece of clothing and have them on a clothing report to their parents to make sure that all is accounted for if it is seen as such a problem. But for the children with the incorrect uniform, making contact with the parents is first point of call and explain the situation to them and how this does not fit with the schools code and maybe negotiate an outcome.


Select one specific event from your participation in physical activities/sport/physical education classes and analyse it-‐ this event could be either positive or negative (please ensure it is a specific incident and not a complete lesson or summary of events).
You could be a participant or observer in this particular incident. An example of a personal experience/ ”teaching as usual”incident might be specific event where physical activity was used as punishment or where praise, represented here as a commentor statement, was only given to the elite athlete.
Using the questions above analyse this observation to identify the taken-­‐for-­‐granted assumption that this practice is deemed appropriate (and by whom). Essentially, you are undertaking reflective writing by recalling and analysing a‘criticalincident’.

The following questions(adapted from Francis 1997) are to be used as a guide for an objective (non-­‐judgmental) analysis of the selected personal experiences/”teaching as usual” incident. They are to be used as subheadings in the analysis.
• What happened here? (What was I doing? What were others doing?) – context in which the experience/incident occurred
• What was I trying to achieve?
OR What was trying to be achieved?
• How might others give meaning differently? (teachers, students, parents)
• What alternatives for action were there?
• Who was disadvantaged/advantaged?
• What are the taken-­‐for-­‐granted assumptions?

Answers to the 3 Questions

1. HPE–building  a certain citizen: In light of your experiences, images and conceptual knowledge, what type of citizen do you see possible within your teaching of HPE(refer toTinning & McCuaig and Dinan Thompson readings)?

The person I see when I think of myself as a teacher of HPE is quite a different person to the ones I saw initially in the Tinning article where everything seemed geared towards women working in the home and Men being the masculine "soldier" type of the early to middle part of the last century. This was when my Father was educated (beginning school in 1937)and this was what was expected of him as a man to fit a certain criteria and fulfill those life goals set by society at that time. This was in a time when war was a reality and the next was seen as just around the corner.
Now we worry about the Video game soft "generation Y". here we are informed of people who live online, meaning that technology has taken over from real human social contact or that they are using ever more "violent games [that] might be causing young people to become violent - and there is some evidence to support this. Studies have shown that violent games can:

• increase physiological arousal (the 'fight or flight' response)
• increase aggressive thoughts and emotions
• increase aggressive behaviour
• reduce helping behaviour (where people become less likely to help others)."

 (http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics, n.d)

These are the images that are coming from the media of the people we are breeding today, it is important that our students are well rounded and have a good mix of these technologies and an awareness of how they can benefit our lives and other aspects of their lives like family, play and sports that they need to know as a part of being a well rounded human being. 

The focus on creating the right type of citizen is a dangerous one, we can help the children to be all they can be and to learn and make the most of what they have, but when we actively try to shape a society that is when dangerous things can happen. here I am thinking of "oneparty" states like North Korea. having visited this country and seen first hand the level of governmental control they have over the people and the lack of rights that are apparent in this society and others around the world and historic examples like Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy.

We want and need to develop a society of well educated, well rounded individuals who strive to do their best and have an active life that includes Health and Physical education principles that have been instilled in them through quality education in our school systems.
governments have a different veiw of this and what the want from our teachin Tinning said that Governments are concerned with the health of our populations because an unhealthy population is a non-productive population and can cost many billions in health care and lost production.

So in conclusion we are wanting to create citizens that have the ability to think for themselves and make appropriate decisions anout their education and their bodies as HPE is concerned. To know moderation in all things and to be able to use technology in a way that does not take over their lives and have time for other activities, social and familyactivities and be a holistic being combining the mental, physical, spiritual and social.


2. Can you describe your emerging identity as a teacher of HPE (use your images to expand on this)?
My emerging identity as a teacher of HPE is one that can work with and motivate a variety of different types of students, having worked and instructed in HPE with several different groups including that of my peers and classes at practicum and placement and my voluntary work at Silverdale with an Autistic boy. I feel my identity is one of a caring and respectful teacher that is willing to get out and involved in activities with the students and members of the school. It is very important to me and being there to help them to feel safe and secure when experiencing new things is crucial to me me so they can achieve and not get discouraged and give up when trying something that may be considered new and put into the too-hard box. 
I see it as important to our mental growth at this stage to feel safe and secure in ourselves and our environment and for these new experience to be positive and something that is able to be built on as a skill and a way to teach effectively.
Being creative and having fun is super important in any curriculum area and especially here in an area where many children are nervous and outside of their comfort zones. Knowing that being the best and fastest is not as important as learning new skills and trying and beating your own personal goals.  

Gilbert & Trudel (2001) found that good coaches act like good teachers.They 

care about those over whom they have responsibility and constantly engage

 in reflection on what they do and how they do it. 

So in essence there are many aspect to my emerging identity as a teacher of 

HPE, having respect for the students and their different levels of ability as 

well as seeing them as holistic entities incorperating their physical, mental,

 social and spiritual sides. being reflective in what I do constantly and 

evolving as a teacher.

 

(Look at HPE Values Photos and captions for more information)

 
3. What are areas needing attention for you to become a quality teacher of HPE?

What I see as needing attention at present to become a more quality teacher of HPE is to be more in tune with the "H" aspect of this. I recently had the opportunity to help with the instruction of the "Keeping ourself safe" unit. This was quite difficult for myself to deal with being a male in the classroom and the topics that this can bring up (one was touching). I felt this was very uncomfortable to do and was not ready for the questions from the children and responses from the kids too. I was not leading this it was Constable Jo from the police in the class I was helping in but the responses and attitudes of some children were revealing to say the least. I need to be more prepared for situations like this that can occur in the Health curriculum.

A second area I see as needing attention is the area of coaching children in a sporting area, there is a big difference from being able to participate and compete in sporting activities to being able to coach them effectively. Having playing skills and knowledge of a sport does not help in being able to instruct and motivate a group or individuals to perform and improve their skills in a given area. 

References:

Gilbert, W., & Trudel, P. (2001). Learning to coach through experience: Reflection in model youth sport coaches. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 21, 16-34.

Child and Youth Health. South Australia retrieved from http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics, n.d)


Tinning, R & McCuaig, L (2006). Chapter 1: Making a certain Citizen:     Schooling   and HPE. In Teaching Health and Physical Education in Australian Schools. Prentice Hall. French's Forest. N.S.W. 

Personal Pedagogies

 Personal Pedagogies

The goal here was to use the Convergent discovery pedagogical style to try to get the group (five people) to make a cup and saucer using a long rope.

The idea of this style of pedagogical thinking is to set the problem forth and have the group try to figure it out and find the most appropriate solution. This was difficult in the group with the sheer scale of the rope and the time factors involved. This needed a supportive environment and clear stated guidelines for it to come close to working. Each member had to work closely with the others to find a solution to the problem co-operatively. They did work co-operatively but no solution was found in the time frame.  

If we understand how people learn through the use of different pedagogical styles, this will show us how we can play a part in that then we can hopefully make that learning most effective by using the most appropriate pedagogical style. 

In the Convergent discovery style the learners make decisions about:

1. The steps to take for discovering the one correct answer to a question,or the one solution to a problem.

2. The series and sequence of questions to ask (this aspect distinguishesConvergent from Guided Discovery, in which the teacher makes thedecision about each step.)

3. The selection of cognitive operations (the temporary hierarchy) to recruit to converge on the discovered answer. The learners are autonomous during the search for the solution and in the construction of the solution itself.

References:

  Mosston, M & Ashworth, S.(2008) Teaching Physical Education. First Online Edition. Retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/83809863/53/The-Anatomy-of-the-Convergent-Discovery-Style