Babs Marshall 1

Babs Marshall

Dr. Nesbitt

PEDU 451

12 November 2017

Teaching Philosophy

Teaching physical education for learningthis has been the phrase that has shaped my

learning experience in the physical education program at the University of South Carolina. This

is not just because it is the title of one of our textbooks, but because this idea of teaching students

in physical education so that they actually learn and change from the material has become the

foundation on which we have built every future professional learning experience in this program.

It is from this phrase that, as a student, I have been able to develop my own interpretation of

what it means to teach for learning. My philosophy on teaching includes my concept of learning

and teaching, the goals I have for my future students, the methods I will use to reach these goals

and how I plan to continue growing as a teacher. All of these concepts will be applied to my

desire to teach high school students.

For a student to truly learn, I believe that a change in them must take place. If I cannot

visibly observe or take note of change through assessments, then it would be reasonable to

conclude that my students have not actually learned anything. In order to set up an optimal

learning environment for my students, there are several things I believe I need to take into

account. Probably the most obvious of these is that I need to have enough equipment available so

that all my students have equal opportunities to respond. There also needs to be a variety of

equipment that appeals to students from all developmental levels. It is also exceedingly

important to me that all of my students share in a feeling of safety. This feeling of safety should
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stem from the fact that all of them come into my classroom free from a fear of ridicule or

exclusivity. A student in fear of the learning environment will never be motivated to learn.

Motivation is the most crucial aspect of learning. If students are not motivated to succeed, they

will never learn to their full capacity. Stemming from this belief, I will aim for all of my students

to be able to succeed at a task or skill at least 80% of the time. Without success, students will

lose motivation and without motivation, there is not real learning or noticeable change in the

students. With such high expectations for facilitating an optimal learning environment, I must

recognize that I need to hold myself to even higher standards to make this possible.

Generally speaking, I desire for every student that goes through my physical education

class to come to love and value some form of physical activity for the sake of their health. In

order to achieve this, I know that I will need to teach a wide variety of activities so that I can do

my best to appeal to all students with a variety of interests and fitness or health needs. As a

whole, my greatest joy would be to see my students, years after leaving my class, trying new

physical activities with confidence and motivation to succeed. This type of confidence and

motivation proved true in my own life when I tried rock climbing for the very first time my

junior year of college and absolutely fell in love with it, even though I had to work very hard at it

initially. Out of this confidence to try new activities and genuine love for staying active, I want

my students to be capable of evaluating their own levels of fitness and health and be able to

design a program for change as a result. More than anything I desire to be a go-to person for

my students. My students should feel like I am relational enough to counsel them on tough

decisions and different stages of life. My role as a teacher is simply thischallenge my students

with high expectations, teach to every domain of learning (psychomotor, cognitive and
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affective), universally design my curriculum so that each student can enjoy physical activity and

has the opportunity to find a love for health and some type of physical activity or fitness.

As a result of my teaching, each student should be able to achieve 80% of my objectives.

If this happens not to be the case with a group of students, I need to reconsider my curriculum

and expectations. My students will be held to the standard of achieving both sport- specific and

health- related fitness goals. The health- related fitness goals will obviously be assessed through

the Fitnessgram assessments of all five health- related fitness componentsbody composition,

muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance and flexibility. Concerning

sport- specific skills, I will focus on my students meeting objectives that relate to agility,

balance, speed, coordination and reaction time. In agreement with Judith Rink on page 32 of her

book Teaching Physical Education for Learning, I believe that each learner in my class will

adapt their performance of the skills I teach to their abilities. Of course each student will learn

and excel at a different rate, but I will still expect that all my students strive to achieve their

personal best. I recognize that students success in physical education stems from several factors

such as whether they are an athlete or not, body composition, experience with physical activity

and their parents value of health and physical activity. As a whole I only have three main skills

that I want my students to obtainmeet all psychomotor, cognitive and affective objectives,

value physical activity for life and value physical activity for social aspects. The most important

of these is for them to learn to truly enjoy some type of physical activity that will lead to intrinsic

motivation to participate in it for their lifetime.

As can be concluded from what I have already stated, I will utilize many methods that

stem from the behaviorist orientation. According to Rink, a behaviorist orientation to learning

stresses the role that the external environment plays in shaping behavior (Rink, 24). This goes
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back to my initial definition of learning that stated that some sort of visible or noticeable change

must take place in order for learning to occur. One method that I consider absolutely essential to

utilize is practice variability. I will teach skills in various practice conditions and teach a variety

of skills so that learning is optimized (Rink, 33-34). Along with this, I recognize that distributed

practice is better for student learning than mass practice. On page 35 of Rinks book she states,

Lessons that vary (1) the skills that are practiced and used and (2) the way in which skills are

practiced have more potential to maintain student motivation for practice. Due to one of my

major goals for my students being intrinsic motivation, it only makes sense that I would utilize

practice variability being that it is proven to increase student motivation. I will evaluate these

various goals in pre- and post- assessments for all learning domains, using checklists of

observable skills, student discussions to facilitate critical thinking of success and need for

improvement and written assessments for the cognitive and affective learning domain. However,

I do believe that a great way to assess my students understanding in all domains is through

requiring them to design their own exercise plan based on their fitness and health needs.

As I become a teacher and begin to utilize all of these methods that I have included, it is

essential that I understand that my learning does not stop when I graduate college. I understand

that information is always being changed and updated and it is my job as a professional to utilize

the resources that are available to me to further my knowledge. I can do this by attending

professional conferences such as SCAHPERD (South Carolina Allegiance for Health, Physical

Education, Recreation and Dance) and collaborating with other teachers and networking through

connections I make at these professional functions. Another strong desire I have is to further my

teaching expertise through international teaching or coaching experience. This would help me

learn how to better comprehend and address cultural differences and diversity in my classroom.
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A way to that I plan to pursue this is by doing the Journeymen program with the International

Mission Board in which I would spend two years living in another country doing sports ministry.

I also recognize that I can always gain more knowledge in the field of biomechanics. A class that

I have this semester has really sparked my interest in that area and I know for certain that I will

continue to pursue this type of knowledge.

In conclusion, my professional teaching style in less than a year from now will involve

concepts and methods that have shaped me throughout my time as a student in the physical

education program at the University of South Carolina. I will assess my students learning

through a behaviorist orientation. I will hold my students to high standards where they should

reach all of my objectives at a rate of 80%. My most important goal for my students will be to

learn to value any type of physical activity enough to cultivate intrinsic motivation to continue in

it for their lifetime and to have the confidence to attempt new physical activities when they are

able, no matter their age. I will utilize methods such as practice variability and distributed

practice to optimize my students success. Furthermore, I will continue to stretch myself as a

teacher my attending professional conferences, seeking international experience and utilizing

resources available to me to extend my knowledge of biomechanics and other kinesiology-

related areas of study.

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Works Cited

Rink, Judith. Teaching Physical Education for Learning. McGraw-Hill, 2014.