Summary of PDHPE Week 5 & 6 (Fortnight Blog) PDF

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Summary of the content covered in PDHPE for weeks 5 & 6. Links to pedagogy, PDHPE K-10 syllabus and has personal experience added into it. Achieved distinction grade for blog....

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Over the past six weeks, my knowledge of Physical Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) has been refreshed to a great extent, as this is my second time completing the unit. All that I have learnt once again will be extremely beneficial to my future teaching pedagogies in terms of PDHPE and games with students. The interconnecting aspect of all topics studied to date has been an eye-opener once again, providing me with the ability to enhance overall performance and interest at work, as I strongly believe that what has been taught can be applied to not just school settings, but also OOSH. This blog will summarise all my learnings and discoveries from this semester thus far, explaining how I have or will incorporate it into my future teachings, with close reference to my personal experience at work.

Ever since Week 1’s teaching of SOCKS UP, the pedagogy has benefited me greatly throughout the term, as I now use this on a weekly basis to plan all sporting activities for children as I have successfully been able to implement that into my plans for work. This has helped me to gather further interest from my kids at work, as it has provided me with the opportunity to practice first-hand how I should appropriately plan sports games for children at OOSH. Not only has it improved participation from students I work with but has allowed me to be more attentive with how I should conduct play with them, implementing the correct organisational strategies to ensure safety and fun throughout the time I spend with the children. I previously spoke about how my co-workers and I would always come up with ideas of activities on the spot, or allow children to choose, which although is a great way for them to become independent thinkers, has been less engaging as children almost always choose the same activity every day. However, upon learning this pedagogy, my co-workers and I have become more attentive with how children play and what we could do to improve their engagement, starting with observation of how and what they play during free time. Through this method, we began to brainstorm games that stemmed from their interests, creating games that are more challenging yet similar to what they enjoy playing. Furthermore, this has lessened tears during sports, as we have been able to introduce more simple or challenging aspects to the game, depending on the age group or level of skill. Following Pekrun & Stephens’ (2009) discovery, the importance of organised materials and instructions has been proven of great significance even in the OOSH setting, as I have witnessed students being able to adjust to and actively participate in the task introduced to them.

By implementing the SOCKS UP approach more thoroughly into my routine, it inspired me to look at Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) in a more critical perspective, where I furthered my pre-existing knowledge on whether the games that were being played at OOSH would help children establish and strengthen their own understandings of sports

and their fundamental movement skills (FMS). I started looking at what the focus of games were for children and whether they could appreciate what they were participating in, how they executed their decisions and if they were using tactical approaches into how they produced movements in games to enhance their performance. Although this is simple OOSH sports and games, these observations and implementations of pedagogies have helped me become more confident in TGfU and what I should look for in the future. Subsequently, I personally believe I have developed a stronger understanding in how to encourage students to perform better and how I can simplify or challenge them in particular aspects of activity. I even introduced children to ‘Obstacle Snooker’ mentioned in one of the worksheets, and it was interesting to see how they utilised both their nonlocomotor and locomotor skills and tactical decision makings. These teachings already strongly benefit me in my current work environment, and I believe that with more experience, I will be able to utilise what I have learnt to the best of my ability, ensuring all children are participating in sports and games confidently.

Aside from the SOCKS UP method, the FISH principle has made games for students more interesting as well. An example of how I have utilised the principle for a more engaging game, such as ‘Continuous Soccer’ is simply adding music and prize incentives for children. This includes allowing winning students to be captain of the next round or choosing whether they want their team to be attack or defence first round. This has garnered extremely high involvement from children, as the captain title is irresistible for them. Watching how children interact with their peers and the game has positively impacted my personal observation skills in regard to their strengths and areas of improvement. However, as I am not their class teacher, I choose to only encourage them through joining them in the game to give them a visual demonstration of how they can improve and how they can strengthen their decision making skills, rather than providing verbal advice as I want to avoid a classroom scenario during after school care. This will change once I become a professional teacher.

Aside from the physical benefits of PDHPE and games, children see strong advantages in improving their health literacy and mental health when participating in PDHPE. The NSW PDHPE K-10 Syllabus (2018) defines health literacy as the ability to selectively access and critically analyse information, navigate community services and resources, and take action to promote personal health and the health of others. The definition alone demonstrates the importance of children being able to understand what health literacy is and how it will positively benefit them in the long term. By allowing children to access health related information, they form a strong understanding of what they should do to maintain a healthy lifestyle for themselves and others. Similarly, staying active and

having fundamental knowledge on the benefits of physical activity (PA) through health literacy will also allow students to identify the importance of mental health. Andermo et. al., (2020) discusses this in their research, where they have found that school-related PA may help students in reducing anxiety, boost their resilience and increase positive mental health. They elaborate on the importance of school-related PA in children as it generates a strong bond between children, PA and their willingness to participate in sports in the future.

I believe it is fair for me to say that what I have said about the first three weeks have proven to be extremely helpful in practical terms already. It has allowed for me to become a better organiser in terms of creating more interest-capturing game for children and has significantly improved my observation abilities in terms of a child’s interest, safety, how I can help enhance their decision making skills and creating an inclusive environment for children all ages and genders. Watching children interact with new and improved games has also shown how they can adapt to changes quickly and how they use their FMS and locomotor skills more confidently when participating in sports. I have not incorporated last fortnight’s teachings in regard to gymnastics, athletics and risk management plans into my work yet, however it is knowledge that will be necessary for future endeavours.

Teaching students gymnastics in an educational setting encourages them to learn skills through movement that are ageappropriate, experiential and develop their FMS. Culjak, et. al, (2014) discusses the importance of teaching children gymnastics, identifying one of the factors as helping children in strengthening their locomotor skills and developing new understandings of movement. Children will become more aware of the space, body movements and body control through gymnastics, furthering their FMS.

Athletics not only consists of running, but also high and long jump, discus, shotput and javelin. Teaching children athletics such as running in different forms helps them to critically think about what movements and body parts are needed for the most comfortable running position. It will also improve their physical literacy, as they have experience in determining what is the correct position they should run in, providing them with more confidence in movement. To ensure that children can positively and safely participate in athletics, it is vital to understand that some activities and the use of related equipment may be dangerous if they are not taught correctly, or with different objects before the proper equipment. The athletics workshop showcased different methods in teaching students how to throw using object familiarisation. This means

using substitute equipment to allow students to understand the weight, size and proper techniques needed to engage in the sport, all whilst developing their physical literacy. For example, discus can be replaced with a frisbee and shot put with a bean bag, until students can identify the correct techniques and understand the safety rules before using the proper objects. Furthermore, object familiarisation will assist children in their hand-eye coordination, understanding the safety measures (e.g. use of whistle) and object control. Similarly, long and high jump should be taught using similar objects before students are subjected to the proper equipment needed, to ensure they the basic skills required to perform the task. This will greatly reduce the risk of injury whilst also helping them build confidence to perform successfully.

Safety is a major factor in PDHPE, as there are risks in nearly every aspect of games and sports. To ensure that these risks are reduced, risk assessments are implemented. This is a report containing all identifiable and potential dangers in activities. Writing risk assessments prior to events such as cross country and athletics carnivals will provide all teachers and caregivers with the correct information needed to ensure the safety of all students at participating events. This fortnight’s teachings has helped me to identify hazards more easily and finding possible solutions to minimise the potential dangers. From the environment to the equipment, there are many possible aspects in which may prove dangerous to children, especially if they are not on school grounds. Thus, it is imperative that risk assessments are written, to ensure the safety of children.

To summarise this blog, through the past six week’s learning I have created an interconnecting link between everything studied and how they are all crucial in terms of PDHPE. Understanding the importance of health and physical literacy, to identifying the strengthens and need for improvement in children, to creating a safe and inclusive environment has all been covered to ensure that I will know how to implement these methods into future teachings. I hope to use all this knowledge to the best of my ability in the future, whilst also continuing to improve on it at my work, as this is a very good chance to observe how children move and to tweak my knowledge to a more generalist teaching methodology, as I have the right number of children in different age groups.

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