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Using Physical Activity and Sport to Teach Personal and Social Responsibility
by Doris L. Watson and Brian D. Clocksin
200 Pages, 8.5
Using Physical Activity and Sport to Teach Personal and Social Responsibility shows you how to implement a character education program in your school or community organization. Authors Watson and Clocksin offer an ideal companion text to Don Hellison's classic Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Through Physical Activity. In this text, Watson and Clocksin provide the practical tools for applying Hellison’s Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) model to sport and fitness activities.
You’ll find samples of units, lessons, and assessments incorporating the TPSR model in teaching basketball, golf, soccer, volleyball, team handball, tennis, yoga, fitness, and adventure education. An excellent text for the novice teacher, Using Physical Activity and Sport to Teach Personal and Social Responsibility also offers information and techniques on facilitating youth development in a variety of movement settings and with diverse populations.
This text begins with an introduction to the TPSR model that prepares you for practical applications to follow. Part I of the text presents the history and evolution of the TPSR model. It also discusses how TPSR meets current National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) standards for physical education instruction. Next you’ll find an examination of current research on motivating students in a physical activity context, creating positive learning climates, and facilitating student-centered learning. Part I concludes with a look at current literature demonstrating the effect of the TPSR model in the sport and physical activity setting.
Part II centers on methods for teaching life skills and values through nine sports and physical activities. Each of the nine chapters is organized using the TPSR lesson plan format (awareness talk, lesson focus, group meeting, and reflection) in connection to each developmental stage (1, 2, and 3). It includes a summary and recommendations for additional readings. For each sport or physical activity, you’ll find suggested activities for teaching sport skills and TPSR skills in tandem, examples of guided questions, and information on skill assessments. Each chapter includes easy-to-reference tables examining possible instructional strategies to use (such as command, reciprocal, inclusion, and self-check), teaching considerations for each strategy, and how each strategy can guide your students in accomplishing TPSR goals at their developmental level.
Part III of this resource includes a chapter featuring profiles of teachers and youth workers who are using the TPSR model effectively. The book concludes with a look at how teaching personal and social responsibility through sport can support the creation of young leaders in school and community settings.
Using Physical Activity and Sport to Teach Personal and Social Responsibility offers undergraduates, teachers, and youth workers a bridge to connect Hellison’s TPSR model to their own practices. More than a text on physical education or sport instruction, this book can help you turn sport and physical activity into opportunities to create deeper, more positive connections with students and nuture their personal and social growth.
Part I. The Foundation of the TPSR Model
Chapter 1. Introduction to the Personal and Social Responsibility Model
Chapter 2. What Works
Chapter 3. Creating a Positive Learning Environment
Part II. Using TPSR in Physical Activity and Sport Settings
Chapter 4. Adventure Education
Chapter 5. Volleyball
Chapter 6. Yoga
Chapter 7. Soccer
Chapter 8. Basketball
Chapter 9. Team Handball
Chapter 10. Golf
Chapter 11. Tennis
Chapter 12. Fitness
Part III. TPSR in Action
Chapter 13. In the Trenches
Chapter 14. What Matters in Youth Leadership
Doris L. Watson, PhD, is an associate professor in the department of educational psychology and higher education at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Watson serves as assistant chair and graduate coordinator.
Watson has over 20 years of experience in sport pedagogy and physical education teacher education. Her areas of expertise include student learning and development, working with and in diverse organizations, community-based research, and issues in preparing culturally responsive leaders in higher education. She has published work on creating a caring environment in a physical activity setting and facilitation of personal and social responsibility through physical activity.
Watson has two decades of experience in facilitating TPSR-based after-school and summer programs for underserved youth ages 8 to 15 years. She has worked with the NCAA Youth Day in creating a curriculum based on the TPSR model. She has also taught and conducted TPSR workshops in Nepal, Ireland, and Trinidad. Also a certified high- and low-ropes facilitator, Watson works with people ages 8 to 40-plus, sport teams, and professionals.
Brian D. Clocksin, PhD, is chairman of the department of movement and sports science and associate professor of movement and sports science at the University of La Verne in La Verne, California. Clocksin previously taught at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, as an associate professor in the department of physical education and sport science, where he taught courses in physical education methods, adapted physical education, adventure education, and motor behavior. In addition to his teaching duties, Clocksin served as the graduate coordinator for the department of physical education and sport sciences. He also ran Moving and Shaking with Hofstra (MASH), an after-school physical activity program for fourth- through fifth-grade students that used the TPSR model.
Clocksin has published 10 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 6 abstracts and invited articles. He is a regular presenter at national, regional, and state conferences on adventure education and decreasing childhood obesity through physical activity interventions.
Clocksin is an active member of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD). He served as the chair for the Council for Adventure & Outdoor Education/Recreation (CAOER) and as a board member with the American Association for Physical Activity and Recreation (AAPAR). Clocksin also served as a program reviewer and auditor for the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) certification programs. He is currently a reviewer for the Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, The Physical Educator, Journal of School Health, and International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education.
Clocksin has facilitated TPSR-based after-school, summer, and in-school programs since 2002 with elementary students. He has led workshops on the use of TPSR in physical activity and sport settings and prepares physical education teacher education candidates to use the model. While at Hofstra University, Clocksin directed the adventure education program, facilitating groups ranging from second-graders to corporate leadership teams.
Relinquish control and enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student–teacher and student–student relationships.
Student-Centered Learning
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student-teacher and student-student relationships. An easy way to think about this is to ask ourselves as teachers, How do I invite the views, thoughts, or input of my students into my teaching? Given how we invite our students to share in the methods we use to teach, we are creating a situation through which we relinquish control and thus enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships.
A way to think about how we invite students into our teaching is to use the spectrum of teaching styles by Mosston and Ashworth (2002). The spectrum places the teaching context on a continuum (figure 3.3). The continuum is anchored on one end by teaching styles that are convergent or that come to a common goal. The opposite end of the continuum is anchored by teaching styles that are divergent or that have many goals or possible answers.
Mosston conceptualized the teaching spectrum on the basis of the decisions the teachers made; as he states, “Teaching behavior is a chain of decision making” (Mosston & Ashworth 2002, p. 4). For Mosston, the spectrum identified teaching and learning options. Thus, the goal of the spectrum was for teachers to become proficient in generating a variety of teaching contexts based on the content focus, objectives, and learner needs. Movement along the teaching continuum is based on manipulation of the three phases of teaching: preimpact, impact, and postimpact.
- The preimpact phase entails establishing the lesson objectives and focus. It is often the teacher who is primarily in charge of this aspect of teaching.
- The impact phase is the actual execution of the teaching. This includes elements such as the pace of the lesson and the types of learning activities. Obviously, these aspects can also be primarily teacher centered; but within the spectrum, it is when we step away from the center in the impact phase that we begin to elicit a more student-centered approach.
- The postimpact phase includes evaluation of the student's performance both during and after completion of the task.
As the teacher begins to release control of the various phases to the student, the style of teaching changes and typically moves from the convergent end of the continuum toward the divergent end.
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Mosston identified 11 styles of teaching, labeled styles A through K. The first five styles (A through E) represent teaching decisions that foster and support reproduction of past knowledge; these styles are called command, practice/task, reciprocal, inclusion, and self-check. The rest of the styles (F through K) represent options that foster production of new knowledge; these styles are called guided discovery, convergent discovery, divergent discovery, learner-designed individual program, learner-initiated, and self-teaching.
Here we briefly discuss the styles incorporated into part II of this book. For a more detailed discussion of all the styles (A through K), the reader is directed to Mosston and Ashworth (2002).
Command
Response is influenced by telling students what to do, telling them how to practice, and directing practice.
Most effective approach when:
- Goal is to learn and perform specific skill
- Teacher is looking for a specific response
- Teacher has limited experience working with a group
- Time for organization is limited
Practice/Task
The teacher presents information through tasks, often organized into stations, that provide the teacher with the flexibility to maintain control over the teaching phases (teacher-centered) or begin to release some control to the students.
- Involves different students (often individually or in pairs) practicing different tasks at the same time
- Involves stations and task cards
- Works well when students need to practice skills they have already been taught
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher explains stations or tasks well beforehand
- Teacher makes managerial aspects clear
- Teacher frequently checks with students
- Students start with only a few stations or tasks
- Students work well independently
- Students are able to function without close supervision
Reciprocal
Teacher designs and communicates tasks, and students assume roles of providing feedback and assessment to peers.
Most effective approach when:
- Skill to be taught is simple
- Cues for observation are clear
- Performance is easily measured
Inclusion
The teacher designs tasks; students are allowed to choose the level at which they begin the tasks that best meets their needs or ability levels. Learners make a decision based on self-assessment of their entry point (e.g., size of ball, distance to goal). When the learner meets that goal, she can challenge herself again at a new level.
- Accommodates individual learning differences
- Individualizes further because choices are presented
- Is really a developmentally appropriate approach
Most effective approach when:
- Criteria for self-evaluation and assessment of success are clear
- Performance is easily measured
- Students work well independently
Self-Check
Similar to the reciprocal style, the teacher designs and communicates the task; however, in this style students assume a self-teaching role as they perform the task and then self-assess and reflect upon their performance.
- Carryover from task and reciprocal styles
- Decisions shifted to the learner in the impact and postimpact phases
- Learners weaned away from external feedback; they provide their own feedback as they self-monitor their progress on task
- Learner decides the context based on feedback from self-evaluation
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher values the learner's ability to develop self-monitoring capacity
- Teacher trusts the student to be honest
- Learner can identify own limits, successes, and failures
- Learner can use self-check as feedback
- Learner can work independently
Guided Discovery
Teaching is through questioning, designed to let students think and solve problems. Two versions:
- Convergent inquiry: Students discover the same answer to a series of questions.
- Divergent inquiry: Students find multiple answers to a problem.
Most effective approach when:
- Students are encouraged to think independently to discover new and different approaches to performing skill
- Students are encouraged to solve questions related to teamwork and strategy as they relate to skill performance
- Students are encouraged to explore a movement when they are not yet ready to learn a mature version of the skill
Once we make the decision to alter the style of teaching, we are also making the decision to give the student a greater role in the lesson and thus are facilitating development of personal and social responsibility. As noted in table 1.1 (chapter 1), each teaching style connects the student to a different TPSR level focus and underscores the student's awareness and recognition of his personal and eventually social responsibility. Thus, as noted in this book and by Don, it is critical that TPSR be integrated within all aspects of your lessons and content. Incorporating divergent teaching styles allows students to make decisions within the learning context. This approach is unique in that it engages the learner in the discovery and production of options within the subject matter (Mosston & Ashworth 2002).
For example, when youth are afforded the opportunity to set their own learning pace during lesson practice, select the type(s) of equipment that best match their ability level, and work in small collaborative groups, this allows them to work on skills of self-direction, participation, cooperation, and goal setting (TPSR Levels II and III). Divergent teaching styles also create opportunities for students to learn how to assess their own performance as well as to assess and provide feedback to each other through peer or reciprocal learning (Levels III and IV).
Alteration of one's teaching style is crucial by its very nature to creating a caring environment. Therefore incorporation of the styles of teaching serves to create an environment ripe with teachable moments that enhance and connect to the TPSR model. Whether students are learning sport skills or life skills, infusion of the strategies presented here will help teachers develop youth who are responsible and caring members of their school and community.
The choice of teaching style depends on a number of factors, including the following:
- Teacher beliefs: It is difficult to loosen control; is the teacher comfortable doing so?
- Goals of lessons: Are the skills or tasks familiar to the students or are they completely new?
- Teacher skill and preference: Is the teacher confident about her teaching skills?
- Student characteristics: Do students work well independently without supervision?
- Nature of content: Are students familiar with the content? How complex is it?
- Context of teaching: How much equipment and space are available?
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Starting out with Developmental Stage 1
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students.
Developmental Stage 1
As we discussed in the beginning of this book, students in the first developmental stage are often working on exhibiting Level I (respect) and II (participating with effort) behaviors consistently. During this stage the teacher takes the predominant role in leading the awareness talk, choosing developmentally appropriate tasks and challenges, structuring the group meeting, and providing reflection opportunities. As the lessons progress, the teacher is mindful to provide students with opportunities to begin to transition to developmental stage 2 (TPSR Level III, self-direction).
Relationship Time
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students. Icebreaker games provide an opportunity for students and teachers to interact, develop relationships, and have fun. Icebreakers can vary in length but all serve the purpose of creating an environment that fosters acceptance and interaction. A number of resources for icebreaker activities for all ages appear on the list at the end of the resources section in the back of the book. When working with developmental stage 1 learners, consider selecting activities that focus on individual traits (communication, cooperation, self-control, respect, and effort) within the context of group interactions.
The Mystery Move activity (Model in Action 5.1) gives students the opportunity to demonstrate self-control and cooperation (Level I) as well as to participate with effort (Level II). There is often a point in the game when a student is unable to identify who is leading the activity and begins to point madly at everyone. This bit of conflict can allow for the group to reset and to establish limits on the number of times a person can guess the leader before he switches places. It also gives the teacher and students the opportunity to compliment the student leading the activity, as well as the whole group on their cooperation, which provides a nice transition to the awareness talk.
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Awareness Talk
During the first developmental stage, the teacher takes the primary role during the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, guides the questioning, and makes the connection to teachable moments in the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 1 include respect, self-control, participation, effort, and effective communication. We like to use icebreakers during the relationship time, because they provide a leaping-off point from the activity to the remainder of the lesson. We also use the “What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?” method of structuring the awareness talk. This technique helps us draw meaning from the activity during the relationship time; it also models for students how they may direct the awareness talk as we eventually move to the side and allow them to lead this portion of the lesson (developmental stages 2 and 3). For example, in developmental stage 1, we might ask these questions:
- “What were some of the things we needed to do in Mystery Move to be successful as a group?”
- “What did you need to do to support the group?”
On the basis of responses from the students, we then lead them to extend their thinking by asking questions such as the following:
- “So what might be some things from the activity you might want to work on personally?”
- “What might be a couple things you know about yourself that you want to try to stop doing?”
- “Today we are starting our volleyball unit. What can you do in this unit to demonstrate some of those characteristics or behaviors?”
- “As you consider where you are, what are some goals you can take forward during today's lesson? Challenge yourself a bit!”
Lesson Focus
The theme identified during the awareness talk can set the stage for teachable moments throughout the lesson focus. You can select tasks or use pedagogical strategies that provide opportunities for students to make a cognitive or affective connection between the tasks and the theme. The teaching style you use can help to create a space for those teachable moments to occur. Although in developmental stage 1 it is often beneficial to maintain a somewhat teacher-centered approach (command style), we must also give students opportunities to work toward skill development in developmental stage 2. The style you choose will be influenced by your teaching philosophy, the learning styles of your students, and the context in which the lesson is presented. Here we provide an example of a lesson focus on a volleyball skill using two different styles of teaching.
Table 5.1 presents considerations for teaching the Dot Drills (Model in Action 5.2) activity using two teaching styles and shows how these connect to the TPSR model. The command style is more teacher centered, and the reciprocal style progresses a bit toward the divergent end of the teaching spectrum.
Command (Direct) Style
Presenting the Dot Drills activity through a command style allows you to direct the students through the progression of tasks. This encourages students to perform the task in the same way at the same time and allows you to check student performance. For each separate drill, provide a demonstration of the drill and identify cues:
- Keep knees bent.
- Move feet quickly from dot to dot.
- Keep body in a ready position with hands and arms out.
The teacher starts and stops the students for each drill, demonstrating the new variation and establishing cues. Throughout the activity the teacher moves about the space providing feedback.
Reciprocal Style
To present the same drill in reciprocal style, organize students into pairs. Each pair has a Dot Drill diagram on the floor. Students also have task sheets that briefly describe each drill and provide cues. In addition, we suggest providing a list of possible motivation-type feedback phrases students can use, such as “Way to keep your feet moving” or “Great job! Keep with it!”
Each pair of partners begins when ready. One student completes one rotation of the drill while the partner observes and provides feedback. The feedback should relate to the cues identified on the task sheet. After one rotation of the drill, students switch roles; the observer becomes the doer, and the doer becomes the observer. This process is repeated for each drill variation. The teacher's role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. The teacher must step in to provide feedback if a safety issue arises. Otherwise, the teacher encourages or suggests feedback to the observer only if the observer is not providing feedback. Key to this style is getting the students to interact with minimal or no input from the teacher.
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Group Meeting
Group meetings during the first developmental stage are facilitated by the teacher but provide an opportunity for students to have a voice in the learning process. This is the time for students to give input on how the lesson went, how their peers did, and even how the teacher did, all in relation to working on goals of developmental stage 1. Questions about how the activities challenged the students and how they felt participating in the lesson when the teacher used a given teaching style are good beginning points. Students can also be asked how they felt the class as a whole or just they and their partner or small group did. Lastly, you can ask how you as the teacher did and what you might work on for next session. As Don Hellison notes, this facet of the lesson tends to be foreign to students initially, as young people are not often asked to provide feedback to each other, much less to and about the teacher. Over time, students will feel more comfortable verbalizing their thoughts as this becomes a consistent part of the class.
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Don suggests that teachers initially lay down some ground rules; they can do this in collaboration with the students. These are examples of group meeting ground rules:
- No blaming others—accept responsibility for yourself.
- Include everyone in the discussion.
- Be respectful of yourself and others (full-value contract).
- Use each other's names.
- Do not talk over each other.
- Wait for classmates to finish their comments.
These are only a few examples; again, we encourage teachers to solicit input from their classes about what the ground rules should include.
Another especially relevant issue concerning group meetings is time. If you do not have sufficient time to check in with all students, ask for responses on how things went from a few students. A common practice in many TPSR-based programs is to have the students keep a journal. They can do this as homework and turn in their comments the next day. This way you keep track of how things are going and get timely input from the class.
Reflection
Reflection time should flow fairly seamlessly from the group meeting time. Group meeting time focuses on student evaluation of the lesson, and reflection time focuses on evaluation of the students' roles as learners and support. Thus, questions can move from how the activities or style of teaching challenged or engaged the students to a focus on how they participated as independent learners, demonstrated respect, showed self-direction, and cooperated during the lesson. During developmental stage 1, the teacher directs the discussion. The thumbometer is a technique often used for reflection time. In response to questions from the teacher, students point their thumbs up, sideways, or down to indicate how well they did on a particular aspect of the lesson. These are examples of questions the teacher might ask:
- “During Dot Drill today, did you demonstrate cooperation with your partner by giving feedback?”
- “Did you show stick-to-itiveness during Dot Drill as it got harder?”
- “Did you show self-direction by challenging yourself during the drill?”
Students respond as a group by pointing their thumbs. The teacher notes where most of the participants are (e.g., more thumbs up than down) so as to facilitate activities toward the higher levels (Levels III through V). As Don notes in his work, it is important to acknowledge that kids have bad days, too, which means we should support them and encourage honest self-evaluation. We also want to underscore not blaming others for our behavior.
Lastly, the reflection time is when we can begin to encourage students to think about how they can demonstrate the levels outside of the class or program. Asking students where in their out-of-class or out-of-program lives they could demonstrate a given level of responsibility allows them to begin to conceptualize this transition. For some students, reaching a particular level outside of class but still within the school (which is a nice scaffold) might be all that is possible. In any case, we should begin to encourage students to think about responsibility concepts outside the class.
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Transitioning to Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage.
Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage. This means providing opportunities for students to work collaboratively with their peers with little teacher guidance (Level III, self-direction). During the second stage you begin to call upon students to take a role in the learning process. As you will see in this section, you begin to relinquish some of the control of the class to students during awareness talks and group meetings. As this occurs, some students may begin to demonstrate a desire to take leadership roles (Level IV), but most will continue to need some guidance in keeping self-directed without individual supervision.
Relationship Time
Juggler's Carry (Model in Action 8.1) gives students the opportunity to continue to demonstrate respect (Level I) and participate with effort (Level II) while working collaboratively with their classmates without direct supervision from the teacher (Level III). Following the same format (“What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?”) but now inviting more student leadership during the process, we can begin to navigate TPSR Level III and to transition to Level IV concepts.
Awareness Talk
During the second developmental stage, the teacher begins to share the responsibility for the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, asks one or more students to guide the questioning, and draws the connection to the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 2 include self-control, self-direction, goal setting, and problem solving.
Using students to help guide the awareness talk is key in the development of youth leaders (Level IV). Following the activity, you can use student leaders to “debrief” so as to draw the attention of the learners to the cognitive and affective attributes of an activity. These are examples of questions you might provide the student leader following Juggler's Carry:
“What?” Questions
- “What helped you when talking with your group members to be successful at the activity?”
- “What were your feelings when you failed to keep balls from hitting the ground? How did you feel when you were successful in keeping balls from hitting the ground?”
“So What?” Questions
- “How might your feelings when you failed and succeeded help as you work in groups?”
- “How might you do things differently in this activity to find more success individually and as a member of the group?”
“Now What?” Questions
- “Thinking about the activity and how you felt as you succeeded or failed, how can those feelings help you as you engage in other activities during basketball?”
- “What might you do to help regain focus when you are not succeeding at something?”
By providing the students with a selection of questions, you maintain the direction of the conversation while giving students a chance to comfortably explore what it is like to take a leadership role in class.
Lesson Focus
The opportunities for self-direction take center stage during developmental stage 2. Again, activities should transition from individuals performing within the context of the group to individuals positively interacting with partners and small groups in self-guided learning experiences.
Table 8.2 presents considerations for teaching the Pass and Shoot activity (Model in Action 8.3) through two teaching styles and shows how they connect to the TPSR model. You can alter both styles so as to create challenge and, most importantly, provide students with the opportunity to work individually and in groups as well as pace themselves.
Being mindful of the activities used during this stage provides you with opportunities to alter the teaching style and encourage greater student responsibility. This allows for students to begin leading the group meeting segment of the lesson and speaking as to how the lesson activities address the theme or themes identified during the awareness talk.
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Inclusion Style
To use the inclusion style, you demonstrate the cues for Pass and Shoot and present task sheets that provide a diagram and performance cues. Identify the options available for students in deciding how and where to enter the drill. For example, students can vary distances to the basket and use different types of balls to make the task more difficult. Students can also count missed or made shots, or they can time themselves and see how many shots they can make. These options, chosen by the students for themselves, create additional challenges. Students are placed in pairs and dispersed throughout the teaching area. Allow time for the learners to assess their level though trial and error and begin the drill. After each drill, the learners reassess and set new challenges based on the levels available and the achievement of performance criteria.
Your role is to circulate throughout the learning space and provide feedback only on the decisions of the students. You can ask, for example, “How are you doing at the level you have selected?” On the basis of the students' response, inquire about the decisions made and how successful the students feel they are. With this style it is important not to start out by overtly challenging the decision made initially but to help students in their self-assessments.
Reciprocal Style
To use the reciprocal style for this activity, arrange students in groups of three; the third person becomes the observer. Provide task sheets that briefly describe the activity, the cues, and the participants' roles. We also suggest including a list of possible motivation-type feedback for students to use. Clear role expectations for students on the task sheet will help them keep focus. For example, spell out what the observer ought to be observing (performance cues) and what the doers are doing (practicing). Provide a time or a number of passes for each facet of the activity. Once they are finished, the students rotate their roles. This process is repeated for each drill variation.
Your role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. You must step in to provide feedback if there is a safety issue. Otherwise, you encourage or suggest feedback to the observer only if feedback is not occurring.
Group Meeting
The group meeting during the second developmental stage should continue to provide students with an opportunity to have a voice in the learning process but facilitate their leading more of the discussion. Because you have modeled leading the discussion in developmental stage 1, you can help students assume more responsibility by asking questions such as “What sorts of questions did I ask you about the lesson?” and “What questions do you have of your peers from the lesson?” Another strategy is to have students write their questions or comments on a slip of paper and then exchange with partners and engage in small-group discussions. You can then bring them back to the large group and ask for culminating thoughts from the day's lesson. Don't be disappointed if it takes a bit more effort during this developmental stage to get things going. Be consistent, be caring, and be a good model, and your students will begin to assume more responsibility.
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Reflection
Key to this stage is that students begin to lead more of the discussion. Students can be cued on questions that address the particular levels they are working at during this stage (Level III) and begin to scaffold to goals for the next levels (IV and V). These are examples of helpful questions:
- “How did you feel you and your partner worked independent of teacher direction?”
- “What might you improve on?”
- “As we move toward more independence, what goals can you set to show more leadership in class?”
Students can begin to generate these types of questions once you have modeled them. We encourage you to note the many examples in Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Through Physical Activity, Third Edition, of different ways to engage students in reflection time. Methods such as exit slips, journaling, and tapping in (students tap on a poster listing the levels to indicate where they are) can be quite effective and keep this part of the lesson fresh.
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Seeking leadership opportunities in Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult.
Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult. At this stage students should routinely demonstrate behaviors consistent with Levels I to III and actively seek out leadership opportunities. These opportunities for caring and leadership take center stage during developmental stage 3. Caring and leadership can manifest themselves during all aspects of the lesson as students explore ways to engage in the learning process.
Relationship Time
Relationship time during the third developmental stage should be almost entirely run by students. Student leaders can be responsible for setup, instruction, and facilitation of the relationship time tasks. For example, many teachers use a warm-up routine that is performed throughout the year. Consider allowing students to lead, or even better create, the warm-up or other relationship time activities.
The Create-a-Game activity meets the objectives of relationship time by providing opportunities for students to interact with each other constructively; it also meets the developmental stage 3 needs by providing opportunities for students to be self-directed and to develop leadership skills.
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Awareness Talk
Student leaders should be comfortable with identifying the theme, guiding the questioning, and drawing connections to the lesson by the time they reach the third developmental stage. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 3 include self-direction, leadership, and transfer. To illustrate a developmental stage 3 awareness talk, let's consider Create-a-Game (Model in Action 11.6).
In speaking for the Create-a-Game activity, the student leaders would generalize the lessons learned from the activity to the theme and subsequent activities. These are examples of statements and questions they might offer:
- “I liked how my group talked through each step and offered game ideas. How did your group decide on the game you would create?”
- “In our group we selected our five pieces of equipment first and then tried to come up with a unique game that used the equipment. How did other groups decide where to begin?”
In speaking for the experience, the student leaders can generalize what occurred in the activity. Nonverbal behavior on the part of the teacher can be really be important here. Remain involved by demonstrating active listening, nodding your head, and making eye contact with whoever is speaking. This models to the students behaviors that they too can maintain in the process.
Lesson Focus
Developmental stage 3 activities should provide students with the opportunity for leadership experiences and encourage transfer to other aspects of the curriculum. The Two Up, Two Back activity (Model in Action 11.7), a volley drill, offers students opportunities to exhibit behaviors consistent with responsibility Levels I through IV.
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Teaching strategies for developmental stage 3 include providing students with opportunities to emphasize previous levels but, more importantly, focus on Levels IV (caring and leadership) and V (outside the gymnasium). We can elicit these behaviors by modifying the way we present the task.
Table 11.3 presents considerations for teaching Two Up, Two Back through two different styles. You can use a command style, but this minimizes the opportunity for students to demonstrate developmental stage 3 behaviors. Instead, presenting the task through a divergent discovery style or a self-check style provides opportunities for self-directed learning and leadership.
Two Up, Two Back (Model in Action 11.7) provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate responsibility Levels I through IV. Using a guided discovery approach gives students a chance to collaboratively develop tactical awareness for the volley and passing shots. Self-checking enables them to self-assess in the context of group play. At this developmental stage, students have demonstrated the ability to work independently while putting forth effort and showing respect to their peers. At this point we hope you can begin to think of ways to modify the learning environment to promote leadership skills in your students. These skills can be carried over to the group meeting segment of the lesson, increasing the contribution of students to the learning process.
Divergent Discovery Style
Presenting Two Up, Two Back using a divergent discovery approach allows you to engage students in both the cognitive and psychomotor domains. Through questioning or the presentation of a problem, you can have students diverge on solutions for successfully completing the task. With this task you can allow groups of students to diverge on a solution that meets the task requirements.
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Teacher: “Each group will play a modified doubles game. One team starts at the net and the other at the baseline. The team at the baseline begins play, and team locations switch after each point. The first two hits of each round should be easily returnable by the other team. Points can be scored only after two successful hits have been completed. Rotate service each point and play to 10 points.”
After each round of 10 points, have students reflect on the following questions:
- How can you support your partner during a point (think about your movement and positioning on the court)?
- What strategies did the volleying team use to score points?
- What strategies did the baseline team use to score points?
- How can we use one hit to set up our next shot?
Self-Check Style
Shifting to a self-check style provides additional opportunities for students to demonstrate self-direction and leadership behaviors. Create a task sheet that briefly describes the activity and provides learning cues. You can ask a group to demonstrate the activity drills and focus students on their task sheet. Once groups have read their sheets, they can begin the activity at their own pace.
Following each game (to 10 points), students recheck the criteria noted on the task sheet relative to their execution of the volley. Students are responsible for their own feedback based on the criteria for the given skill. The teacher's role is to ask questions related to the student's process of self-checking or self-assessing.
Group Meeting
As with the awareness talk, this portion of the lesson is mostly student led. You can assist by cueing students regarding the levels they are working on, as well as reminding them of what sorts of questions have been asked in previous classes. Questions about how the lesson was conducted, how the activity met the students' needs or provided challenge, and how the style of teaching engaged them are all examples of program-related discussion questions.
During the Two Up, Two Back activity, a student leader can initiate a group reflection on the lesson activities by asking questions like these:
- “How did you support your partner during this drill?”
- “What are other ways we support our doubles partner during tennis?”
- “How can we use a shot to set up our partner for the next shot?”
Reflection
We should expect students at this developmental stage to be able to pose higher-order questions during their reflections. Reflections should continue to serve as an opportunity for students to self-reflect on their actions and what they observed in others throughout the lesson while exploring ways they can transfer the responsibility attributes they are developing in physical education to life beyond the gym. This can be accomplished through a variety of formats in class or outside of class time. Students can read each other's journals and provide feedback, assist each other in goal setting, or create strategies to transfer the levels to environments outside of the program. Again, the teacher remains connected to the process as an active listener and support.
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An extension of TPSR—The Kinesiology Career Club
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.”
The Kinesiology Career Club
David Walsh
Program Description
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.” The more specific goals of KCC for the youth are as follows:
- To maximize motivation to improve in, stay in, and find relevance in school
- To enhance connection between the TPSR goals of respect, effort, goal setting, and leadership skills and the importance they play in youths' futures
- To chart the necessary steps to first become a professional in kinesiology, which provides practical experience in a specific career
- To chart the necessary steps for their own careers of choice and developing strategies for matriculating and graduating from college
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The program takes place in San Francisco at Mission High School, a low-performing inner-city school. It began in spring 2011 and will be ongoing every spring and fall semester. The program runs for 80 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday over the entire semester during second-period physical education. Current KCC students include five girls and nine boys who are all ninth graders. The high school has a diverse population with the following ethnicity breakdown: 14 percent African American, 23 percent Asian, 46 percent Latino, 9 percent Caucasian, and 8 percent other. The KCC students closely reflect this diversity.
As a university-community collaboration, KCC is also part of a course offered at San Francisco State University (SFSU) to graduating kinesiology seniors. Called “SFSU Mentors,” six to eight seniors are selected to conduct their capstone kinesiology course in the community by helping me run this program. I am the lead instructor of KCC, and the SFSU Mentors help lead various physical activities—a combination of martial arts, weight training, dance, and fitness activities—and mentor the students on positive “possible futures” in either a 1-to-1 or 2-to-1 ratio for the final 15 minutes of every session.
Use of TPSR Model
The KCC goals progress through four phases. Each phase allows for the systematic application of TPSR within the program, as well as providing opportunities for students to engage the model as they move through the program.
Phase One Goals
In phase one we use TPSR daily format and strategies to introduce the program, including the various physical activities. This phase focuses on Level I, respect, and Level II, effort. We aim to begin building relationships with the students, have them voice their opinions about the program content and structure, and introduce the field of kinesiology. We also introduce the combined TPSR reflection time and mentoring time, a significant component of the positive “possible futures” emphasis that takes place throughout the program. We talk about our own choice to study kinesiology, connect the physical activities in KCC to the basis and foundation of the field of kinesiology, bridge Levels I and II to the idea of being successful in kinesiology, encourage the students to talk about their own career interests, and begin to get to know and develop relationships with them.
Phase Two Goals
Once phase one goals are mostly achieved, phase two begins to empower the students to take on the advanced TPSR responsibilities (Level III, goal setting; Level IV, leadership). Students are asked to set goals for martial arts, weight training, dance, or fitness skills. They are also encouraged to take on small leadership experiences by way of teaching the activities they worked on during goal-setting time. We encourage the students to consider a career in at least one of the many subdisciplines of kinesiology, connect the physical activities and goal setting and leadership in the program to being successful in the field of kinesiology, and begin to chart the steps to earning a college degree in kinesiology. Phase two also aims at having students reflect on what they are currently doing in school and out of school that could either help or hinder their futures.
Phase Three Goals
Once phase two goals are mostly achieved, phase three continues to empower the students to work on TPSR Levels I through IV. Goal-setting time and leadership roles are extended so that students take on more responsibility. We introduce the potential transference of the steps to a career in kinesiology to the development of responsibility traits necessary for the students' future careers of choice. The idea is to link phase two experiences of understanding how to be successful in kinesiology to understanding what success would mean in the students' own careers of choice. Students actively reflect on what they would like to pursue as a career and effectively discover ways to link what they learned about kinesiology to their own future career interests. We also introduce the importance of having both potential hopes and potential fears—as suggested by the theory of possible selves (Oyserman, Terry, & Bybee 2002)—and doing the hard work as well as having the positive attitude and preparation needed for success.
Phase Four Goals
After students have mostly achieved phase three goals, phase four continues to empower them to work on responsibility Levels I through IV. We introduce Level V, outside the gym, and address how what the students do in school, at home, and in the streets affects their futures. Phase four discussions focus solely on the students' careers of choice. We further reinforce the connection between the TPSR levels and what might prove necessary for the practical realization of their possible futures, including both potential hopes and fears. We provide additional insight into the degree of hard work, positive attitude, and preparation needed for the realization of their possible futures.
Additional Program Elements
Since KCC is run through in-school physical education, we have to integrate traditional physical education elements such as uniform requirements and fitness testing into the program. Unlike after-school programs that students may choose to attend, attending KCC is mandatory. Mission High School has been very supportive of the program and has given us complete autonomy with respect to fulfilling the goals of KCC. It is a collaboration we plan to continue for several years.
Even though KCC has some goals that differ from those of a regular TPSR program, we are able to keep a TPSR focus by systematically implementing the components of a regular TPSR daily format. Each session has relationship time, an awareness talk, physical activities designed as a way for the students to experience the responsibility levels, a group meeting, and a reflection time. Some of the KCC goals require alteration of the TPSR components. For example, a KCC awareness talk includes how the levels relate to the students' futures, and discussions focus on the field of kinesiology. Reflection time takes place with the guidance of SFSU Mentors, which students document in a journal. Students are asked to reflect not only on the levels but also on how they are performing in school and are exploring a “possible future,” first in kinesiology and then in their own careers of choice. An effective strategy has been providing information on the various subdisciplines of kinesiology to give the students the opportunity to find relevance in at least one of them. Some students easily identify with kinesiology as a “possible future” while others connect only with being physically active as an important issue in their lives. As the program progresses, discussions about their own career interests seem to get more detailed and authentic.
Keeping SITE
Though KCC has different goals and purposes, it is still an extension of TPSR. It is crucial for us to keep SITE of the four TPSR themes. KCC includes TPSR's prioritization of the instructor-student relationship through the concern for each student's emotional, social, and physical well-being. KCC is also empowerment based, giving students various leadership roles, providing goal-setting time, giving them a voice in the program's direction, and enabling them to evaluate both themselves and the program. The difference is in how the TPSR levels are integrated into the physical activities as a way to explore a career in kinesiology. Once this is established, then transference of the levels to enhance the students' understanding and exploration of their own careers of interest can occur. KCC is still in its early phases of development and will change as the program evolves, but TPSR will continue to be the foundation and core of the program.
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Relinquish control and enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student–teacher and student–student relationships.
Student-Centered Learning
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student-teacher and student-student relationships. An easy way to think about this is to ask ourselves as teachers, How do I invite the views, thoughts, or input of my students into my teaching? Given how we invite our students to share in the methods we use to teach, we are creating a situation through which we relinquish control and thus enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships.
A way to think about how we invite students into our teaching is to use the spectrum of teaching styles by Mosston and Ashworth (2002). The spectrum places the teaching context on a continuum (figure 3.3). The continuum is anchored on one end by teaching styles that are convergent or that come to a common goal. The opposite end of the continuum is anchored by teaching styles that are divergent or that have many goals or possible answers.
Mosston conceptualized the teaching spectrum on the basis of the decisions the teachers made; as he states, “Teaching behavior is a chain of decision making” (Mosston & Ashworth 2002, p. 4). For Mosston, the spectrum identified teaching and learning options. Thus, the goal of the spectrum was for teachers to become proficient in generating a variety of teaching contexts based on the content focus, objectives, and learner needs. Movement along the teaching continuum is based on manipulation of the three phases of teaching: preimpact, impact, and postimpact.
- The preimpact phase entails establishing the lesson objectives and focus. It is often the teacher who is primarily in charge of this aspect of teaching.
- The impact phase is the actual execution of the teaching. This includes elements such as the pace of the lesson and the types of learning activities. Obviously, these aspects can also be primarily teacher centered; but within the spectrum, it is when we step away from the center in the impact phase that we begin to elicit a more student-centered approach.
- The postimpact phase includes evaluation of the student's performance both during and after completion of the task.
As the teacher begins to release control of the various phases to the student, the style of teaching changes and typically moves from the convergent end of the continuum toward the divergent end.
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Mosston identified 11 styles of teaching, labeled styles A through K. The first five styles (A through E) represent teaching decisions that foster and support reproduction of past knowledge; these styles are called command, practice/task, reciprocal, inclusion, and self-check. The rest of the styles (F through K) represent options that foster production of new knowledge; these styles are called guided discovery, convergent discovery, divergent discovery, learner-designed individual program, learner-initiated, and self-teaching.
Here we briefly discuss the styles incorporated into part II of this book. For a more detailed discussion of all the styles (A through K), the reader is directed to Mosston and Ashworth (2002).
Command
Response is influenced by telling students what to do, telling them how to practice, and directing practice.
Most effective approach when:
- Goal is to learn and perform specific skill
- Teacher is looking for a specific response
- Teacher has limited experience working with a group
- Time for organization is limited
Practice/Task
The teacher presents information through tasks, often organized into stations, that provide the teacher with the flexibility to maintain control over the teaching phases (teacher-centered) or begin to release some control to the students.
- Involves different students (often individually or in pairs) practicing different tasks at the same time
- Involves stations and task cards
- Works well when students need to practice skills they have already been taught
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher explains stations or tasks well beforehand
- Teacher makes managerial aspects clear
- Teacher frequently checks with students
- Students start with only a few stations or tasks
- Students work well independently
- Students are able to function without close supervision
Reciprocal
Teacher designs and communicates tasks, and students assume roles of providing feedback and assessment to peers.
Most effective approach when:
- Skill to be taught is simple
- Cues for observation are clear
- Performance is easily measured
Inclusion
The teacher designs tasks; students are allowed to choose the level at which they begin the tasks that best meets their needs or ability levels. Learners make a decision based on self-assessment of their entry point (e.g., size of ball, distance to goal). When the learner meets that goal, she can challenge herself again at a new level.
- Accommodates individual learning differences
- Individualizes further because choices are presented
- Is really a developmentally appropriate approach
Most effective approach when:
- Criteria for self-evaluation and assessment of success are clear
- Performance is easily measured
- Students work well independently
Self-Check
Similar to the reciprocal style, the teacher designs and communicates the task; however, in this style students assume a self-teaching role as they perform the task and then self-assess and reflect upon their performance.
- Carryover from task and reciprocal styles
- Decisions shifted to the learner in the impact and postimpact phases
- Learners weaned away from external feedback; they provide their own feedback as they self-monitor their progress on task
- Learner decides the context based on feedback from self-evaluation
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher values the learner's ability to develop self-monitoring capacity
- Teacher trusts the student to be honest
- Learner can identify own limits, successes, and failures
- Learner can use self-check as feedback
- Learner can work independently
Guided Discovery
Teaching is through questioning, designed to let students think and solve problems. Two versions:
- Convergent inquiry: Students discover the same answer to a series of questions.
- Divergent inquiry: Students find multiple answers to a problem.
Most effective approach when:
- Students are encouraged to think independently to discover new and different approaches to performing skill
- Students are encouraged to solve questions related to teamwork and strategy as they relate to skill performance
- Students are encouraged to explore a movement when they are not yet ready to learn a mature version of the skill
Once we make the decision to alter the style of teaching, we are also making the decision to give the student a greater role in the lesson and thus are facilitating development of personal and social responsibility. As noted in table 1.1 (chapter 1), each teaching style connects the student to a different TPSR level focus and underscores the student's awareness and recognition of his personal and eventually social responsibility. Thus, as noted in this book and by Don, it is critical that TPSR be integrated within all aspects of your lessons and content. Incorporating divergent teaching styles allows students to make decisions within the learning context. This approach is unique in that it engages the learner in the discovery and production of options within the subject matter (Mosston & Ashworth 2002).
For example, when youth are afforded the opportunity to set their own learning pace during lesson practice, select the type(s) of equipment that best match their ability level, and work in small collaborative groups, this allows them to work on skills of self-direction, participation, cooperation, and goal setting (TPSR Levels II and III). Divergent teaching styles also create opportunities for students to learn how to assess their own performance as well as to assess and provide feedback to each other through peer or reciprocal learning (Levels III and IV).
Alteration of one's teaching style is crucial by its very nature to creating a caring environment. Therefore incorporation of the styles of teaching serves to create an environment ripe with teachable moments that enhance and connect to the TPSR model. Whether students are learning sport skills or life skills, infusion of the strategies presented here will help teachers develop youth who are responsible and caring members of their school and community.
The choice of teaching style depends on a number of factors, including the following:
- Teacher beliefs: It is difficult to loosen control; is the teacher comfortable doing so?
- Goals of lessons: Are the skills or tasks familiar to the students or are they completely new?
- Teacher skill and preference: Is the teacher confident about her teaching skills?
- Student characteristics: Do students work well independently without supervision?
- Nature of content: Are students familiar with the content? How complex is it?
- Context of teaching: How much equipment and space are available?
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Starting out with Developmental Stage 1
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students.
Developmental Stage 1
As we discussed in the beginning of this book, students in the first developmental stage are often working on exhibiting Level I (respect) and II (participating with effort) behaviors consistently. During this stage the teacher takes the predominant role in leading the awareness talk, choosing developmentally appropriate tasks and challenges, structuring the group meeting, and providing reflection opportunities. As the lessons progress, the teacher is mindful to provide students with opportunities to begin to transition to developmental stage 2 (TPSR Level III, self-direction).
Relationship Time
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students. Icebreaker games provide an opportunity for students and teachers to interact, develop relationships, and have fun. Icebreakers can vary in length but all serve the purpose of creating an environment that fosters acceptance and interaction. A number of resources for icebreaker activities for all ages appear on the list at the end of the resources section in the back of the book. When working with developmental stage 1 learners, consider selecting activities that focus on individual traits (communication, cooperation, self-control, respect, and effort) within the context of group interactions.
The Mystery Move activity (Model in Action 5.1) gives students the opportunity to demonstrate self-control and cooperation (Level I) as well as to participate with effort (Level II). There is often a point in the game when a student is unable to identify who is leading the activity and begins to point madly at everyone. This bit of conflict can allow for the group to reset and to establish limits on the number of times a person can guess the leader before he switches places. It also gives the teacher and students the opportunity to compliment the student leading the activity, as well as the whole group on their cooperation, which provides a nice transition to the awareness talk.
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Awareness Talk
During the first developmental stage, the teacher takes the primary role during the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, guides the questioning, and makes the connection to teachable moments in the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 1 include respect, self-control, participation, effort, and effective communication. We like to use icebreakers during the relationship time, because they provide a leaping-off point from the activity to the remainder of the lesson. We also use the “What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?” method of structuring the awareness talk. This technique helps us draw meaning from the activity during the relationship time; it also models for students how they may direct the awareness talk as we eventually move to the side and allow them to lead this portion of the lesson (developmental stages 2 and 3). For example, in developmental stage 1, we might ask these questions:
- “What were some of the things we needed to do in Mystery Move to be successful as a group?”
- “What did you need to do to support the group?”
On the basis of responses from the students, we then lead them to extend their thinking by asking questions such as the following:
- “So what might be some things from the activity you might want to work on personally?”
- “What might be a couple things you know about yourself that you want to try to stop doing?”
- “Today we are starting our volleyball unit. What can you do in this unit to demonstrate some of those characteristics or behaviors?”
- “As you consider where you are, what are some goals you can take forward during today's lesson? Challenge yourself a bit!”
Lesson Focus
The theme identified during the awareness talk can set the stage for teachable moments throughout the lesson focus. You can select tasks or use pedagogical strategies that provide opportunities for students to make a cognitive or affective connection between the tasks and the theme. The teaching style you use can help to create a space for those teachable moments to occur. Although in developmental stage 1 it is often beneficial to maintain a somewhat teacher-centered approach (command style), we must also give students opportunities to work toward skill development in developmental stage 2. The style you choose will be influenced by your teaching philosophy, the learning styles of your students, and the context in which the lesson is presented. Here we provide an example of a lesson focus on a volleyball skill using two different styles of teaching.
Table 5.1 presents considerations for teaching the Dot Drills (Model in Action 5.2) activity using two teaching styles and shows how these connect to the TPSR model. The command style is more teacher centered, and the reciprocal style progresses a bit toward the divergent end of the teaching spectrum.
Command (Direct) Style
Presenting the Dot Drills activity through a command style allows you to direct the students through the progression of tasks. This encourages students to perform the task in the same way at the same time and allows you to check student performance. For each separate drill, provide a demonstration of the drill and identify cues:
- Keep knees bent.
- Move feet quickly from dot to dot.
- Keep body in a ready position with hands and arms out.
The teacher starts and stops the students for each drill, demonstrating the new variation and establishing cues. Throughout the activity the teacher moves about the space providing feedback.
Reciprocal Style
To present the same drill in reciprocal style, organize students into pairs. Each pair has a Dot Drill diagram on the floor. Students also have task sheets that briefly describe each drill and provide cues. In addition, we suggest providing a list of possible motivation-type feedback phrases students can use, such as “Way to keep your feet moving” or “Great job! Keep with it!”
Each pair of partners begins when ready. One student completes one rotation of the drill while the partner observes and provides feedback. The feedback should relate to the cues identified on the task sheet. After one rotation of the drill, students switch roles; the observer becomes the doer, and the doer becomes the observer. This process is repeated for each drill variation. The teacher's role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. The teacher must step in to provide feedback if a safety issue arises. Otherwise, the teacher encourages or suggests feedback to the observer only if the observer is not providing feedback. Key to this style is getting the students to interact with minimal or no input from the teacher.
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Group Meeting
Group meetings during the first developmental stage are facilitated by the teacher but provide an opportunity for students to have a voice in the learning process. This is the time for students to give input on how the lesson went, how their peers did, and even how the teacher did, all in relation to working on goals of developmental stage 1. Questions about how the activities challenged the students and how they felt participating in the lesson when the teacher used a given teaching style are good beginning points. Students can also be asked how they felt the class as a whole or just they and their partner or small group did. Lastly, you can ask how you as the teacher did and what you might work on for next session. As Don Hellison notes, this facet of the lesson tends to be foreign to students initially, as young people are not often asked to provide feedback to each other, much less to and about the teacher. Over time, students will feel more comfortable verbalizing their thoughts as this becomes a consistent part of the class.
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Don suggests that teachers initially lay down some ground rules; they can do this in collaboration with the students. These are examples of group meeting ground rules:
- No blaming others—accept responsibility for yourself.
- Include everyone in the discussion.
- Be respectful of yourself and others (full-value contract).
- Use each other's names.
- Do not talk over each other.
- Wait for classmates to finish their comments.
These are only a few examples; again, we encourage teachers to solicit input from their classes about what the ground rules should include.
Another especially relevant issue concerning group meetings is time. If you do not have sufficient time to check in with all students, ask for responses on how things went from a few students. A common practice in many TPSR-based programs is to have the students keep a journal. They can do this as homework and turn in their comments the next day. This way you keep track of how things are going and get timely input from the class.
Reflection
Reflection time should flow fairly seamlessly from the group meeting time. Group meeting time focuses on student evaluation of the lesson, and reflection time focuses on evaluation of the students' roles as learners and support. Thus, questions can move from how the activities or style of teaching challenged or engaged the students to a focus on how they participated as independent learners, demonstrated respect, showed self-direction, and cooperated during the lesson. During developmental stage 1, the teacher directs the discussion. The thumbometer is a technique often used for reflection time. In response to questions from the teacher, students point their thumbs up, sideways, or down to indicate how well they did on a particular aspect of the lesson. These are examples of questions the teacher might ask:
- “During Dot Drill today, did you demonstrate cooperation with your partner by giving feedback?”
- “Did you show stick-to-itiveness during Dot Drill as it got harder?”
- “Did you show self-direction by challenging yourself during the drill?”
Students respond as a group by pointing their thumbs. The teacher notes where most of the participants are (e.g., more thumbs up than down) so as to facilitate activities toward the higher levels (Levels III through V). As Don notes in his work, it is important to acknowledge that kids have bad days, too, which means we should support them and encourage honest self-evaluation. We also want to underscore not blaming others for our behavior.
Lastly, the reflection time is when we can begin to encourage students to think about how they can demonstrate the levels outside of the class or program. Asking students where in their out-of-class or out-of-program lives they could demonstrate a given level of responsibility allows them to begin to conceptualize this transition. For some students, reaching a particular level outside of class but still within the school (which is a nice scaffold) might be all that is possible. In any case, we should begin to encourage students to think about responsibility concepts outside the class.
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Transitioning to Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage.
Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage. This means providing opportunities for students to work collaboratively with their peers with little teacher guidance (Level III, self-direction). During the second stage you begin to call upon students to take a role in the learning process. As you will see in this section, you begin to relinquish some of the control of the class to students during awareness talks and group meetings. As this occurs, some students may begin to demonstrate a desire to take leadership roles (Level IV), but most will continue to need some guidance in keeping self-directed without individual supervision.
Relationship Time
Juggler's Carry (Model in Action 8.1) gives students the opportunity to continue to demonstrate respect (Level I) and participate with effort (Level II) while working collaboratively with their classmates without direct supervision from the teacher (Level III). Following the same format (“What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?”) but now inviting more student leadership during the process, we can begin to navigate TPSR Level III and to transition to Level IV concepts.
Awareness Talk
During the second developmental stage, the teacher begins to share the responsibility for the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, asks one or more students to guide the questioning, and draws the connection to the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 2 include self-control, self-direction, goal setting, and problem solving.
Using students to help guide the awareness talk is key in the development of youth leaders (Level IV). Following the activity, you can use student leaders to “debrief” so as to draw the attention of the learners to the cognitive and affective attributes of an activity. These are examples of questions you might provide the student leader following Juggler's Carry:
“What?” Questions
- “What helped you when talking with your group members to be successful at the activity?”
- “What were your feelings when you failed to keep balls from hitting the ground? How did you feel when you were successful in keeping balls from hitting the ground?”
“So What?” Questions
- “How might your feelings when you failed and succeeded help as you work in groups?”
- “How might you do things differently in this activity to find more success individually and as a member of the group?”
“Now What?” Questions
- “Thinking about the activity and how you felt as you succeeded or failed, how can those feelings help you as you engage in other activities during basketball?”
- “What might you do to help regain focus when you are not succeeding at something?”
By providing the students with a selection of questions, you maintain the direction of the conversation while giving students a chance to comfortably explore what it is like to take a leadership role in class.
Lesson Focus
The opportunities for self-direction take center stage during developmental stage 2. Again, activities should transition from individuals performing within the context of the group to individuals positively interacting with partners and small groups in self-guided learning experiences.
Table 8.2 presents considerations for teaching the Pass and Shoot activity (Model in Action 8.3) through two teaching styles and shows how they connect to the TPSR model. You can alter both styles so as to create challenge and, most importantly, provide students with the opportunity to work individually and in groups as well as pace themselves.
Being mindful of the activities used during this stage provides you with opportunities to alter the teaching style and encourage greater student responsibility. This allows for students to begin leading the group meeting segment of the lesson and speaking as to how the lesson activities address the theme or themes identified during the awareness talk.
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Inclusion Style
To use the inclusion style, you demonstrate the cues for Pass and Shoot and present task sheets that provide a diagram and performance cues. Identify the options available for students in deciding how and where to enter the drill. For example, students can vary distances to the basket and use different types of balls to make the task more difficult. Students can also count missed or made shots, or they can time themselves and see how many shots they can make. These options, chosen by the students for themselves, create additional challenges. Students are placed in pairs and dispersed throughout the teaching area. Allow time for the learners to assess their level though trial and error and begin the drill. After each drill, the learners reassess and set new challenges based on the levels available and the achievement of performance criteria.
Your role is to circulate throughout the learning space and provide feedback only on the decisions of the students. You can ask, for example, “How are you doing at the level you have selected?” On the basis of the students' response, inquire about the decisions made and how successful the students feel they are. With this style it is important not to start out by overtly challenging the decision made initially but to help students in their self-assessments.
Reciprocal Style
To use the reciprocal style for this activity, arrange students in groups of three; the third person becomes the observer. Provide task sheets that briefly describe the activity, the cues, and the participants' roles. We also suggest including a list of possible motivation-type feedback for students to use. Clear role expectations for students on the task sheet will help them keep focus. For example, spell out what the observer ought to be observing (performance cues) and what the doers are doing (practicing). Provide a time or a number of passes for each facet of the activity. Once they are finished, the students rotate their roles. This process is repeated for each drill variation.
Your role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. You must step in to provide feedback if there is a safety issue. Otherwise, you encourage or suggest feedback to the observer only if feedback is not occurring.
Group Meeting
The group meeting during the second developmental stage should continue to provide students with an opportunity to have a voice in the learning process but facilitate their leading more of the discussion. Because you have modeled leading the discussion in developmental stage 1, you can help students assume more responsibility by asking questions such as “What sorts of questions did I ask you about the lesson?” and “What questions do you have of your peers from the lesson?” Another strategy is to have students write their questions or comments on a slip of paper and then exchange with partners and engage in small-group discussions. You can then bring them back to the large group and ask for culminating thoughts from the day's lesson. Don't be disappointed if it takes a bit more effort during this developmental stage to get things going. Be consistent, be caring, and be a good model, and your students will begin to assume more responsibility.
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Reflection
Key to this stage is that students begin to lead more of the discussion. Students can be cued on questions that address the particular levels they are working at during this stage (Level III) and begin to scaffold to goals for the next levels (IV and V). These are examples of helpful questions:
- “How did you feel you and your partner worked independent of teacher direction?”
- “What might you improve on?”
- “As we move toward more independence, what goals can you set to show more leadership in class?”
Students can begin to generate these types of questions once you have modeled them. We encourage you to note the many examples in Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Through Physical Activity, Third Edition, of different ways to engage students in reflection time. Methods such as exit slips, journaling, and tapping in (students tap on a poster listing the levels to indicate where they are) can be quite effective and keep this part of the lesson fresh.
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Seeking leadership opportunities in Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult.
Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult. At this stage students should routinely demonstrate behaviors consistent with Levels I to III and actively seek out leadership opportunities. These opportunities for caring and leadership take center stage during developmental stage 3. Caring and leadership can manifest themselves during all aspects of the lesson as students explore ways to engage in the learning process.
Relationship Time
Relationship time during the third developmental stage should be almost entirely run by students. Student leaders can be responsible for setup, instruction, and facilitation of the relationship time tasks. For example, many teachers use a warm-up routine that is performed throughout the year. Consider allowing students to lead, or even better create, the warm-up or other relationship time activities.
The Create-a-Game activity meets the objectives of relationship time by providing opportunities for students to interact with each other constructively; it also meets the developmental stage 3 needs by providing opportunities for students to be self-directed and to develop leadership skills.
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Awareness Talk
Student leaders should be comfortable with identifying the theme, guiding the questioning, and drawing connections to the lesson by the time they reach the third developmental stage. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 3 include self-direction, leadership, and transfer. To illustrate a developmental stage 3 awareness talk, let's consider Create-a-Game (Model in Action 11.6).
In speaking for the Create-a-Game activity, the student leaders would generalize the lessons learned from the activity to the theme and subsequent activities. These are examples of statements and questions they might offer:
- “I liked how my group talked through each step and offered game ideas. How did your group decide on the game you would create?”
- “In our group we selected our five pieces of equipment first and then tried to come up with a unique game that used the equipment. How did other groups decide where to begin?”
In speaking for the experience, the student leaders can generalize what occurred in the activity. Nonverbal behavior on the part of the teacher can be really be important here. Remain involved by demonstrating active listening, nodding your head, and making eye contact with whoever is speaking. This models to the students behaviors that they too can maintain in the process.
Lesson Focus
Developmental stage 3 activities should provide students with the opportunity for leadership experiences and encourage transfer to other aspects of the curriculum. The Two Up, Two Back activity (Model in Action 11.7), a volley drill, offers students opportunities to exhibit behaviors consistent with responsibility Levels I through IV.
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Teaching strategies for developmental stage 3 include providing students with opportunities to emphasize previous levels but, more importantly, focus on Levels IV (caring and leadership) and V (outside the gymnasium). We can elicit these behaviors by modifying the way we present the task.
Table 11.3 presents considerations for teaching Two Up, Two Back through two different styles. You can use a command style, but this minimizes the opportunity for students to demonstrate developmental stage 3 behaviors. Instead, presenting the task through a divergent discovery style or a self-check style provides opportunities for self-directed learning and leadership.
Two Up, Two Back (Model in Action 11.7) provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate responsibility Levels I through IV. Using a guided discovery approach gives students a chance to collaboratively develop tactical awareness for the volley and passing shots. Self-checking enables them to self-assess in the context of group play. At this developmental stage, students have demonstrated the ability to work independently while putting forth effort and showing respect to their peers. At this point we hope you can begin to think of ways to modify the learning environment to promote leadership skills in your students. These skills can be carried over to the group meeting segment of the lesson, increasing the contribution of students to the learning process.
Divergent Discovery Style
Presenting Two Up, Two Back using a divergent discovery approach allows you to engage students in both the cognitive and psychomotor domains. Through questioning or the presentation of a problem, you can have students diverge on solutions for successfully completing the task. With this task you can allow groups of students to diverge on a solution that meets the task requirements.
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Teacher: “Each group will play a modified doubles game. One team starts at the net and the other at the baseline. The team at the baseline begins play, and team locations switch after each point. The first two hits of each round should be easily returnable by the other team. Points can be scored only after two successful hits have been completed. Rotate service each point and play to 10 points.”
After each round of 10 points, have students reflect on the following questions:
- How can you support your partner during a point (think about your movement and positioning on the court)?
- What strategies did the volleying team use to score points?
- What strategies did the baseline team use to score points?
- How can we use one hit to set up our next shot?
Self-Check Style
Shifting to a self-check style provides additional opportunities for students to demonstrate self-direction and leadership behaviors. Create a task sheet that briefly describes the activity and provides learning cues. You can ask a group to demonstrate the activity drills and focus students on their task sheet. Once groups have read their sheets, they can begin the activity at their own pace.
Following each game (to 10 points), students recheck the criteria noted on the task sheet relative to their execution of the volley. Students are responsible for their own feedback based on the criteria for the given skill. The teacher's role is to ask questions related to the student's process of self-checking or self-assessing.
Group Meeting
As with the awareness talk, this portion of the lesson is mostly student led. You can assist by cueing students regarding the levels they are working on, as well as reminding them of what sorts of questions have been asked in previous classes. Questions about how the lesson was conducted, how the activity met the students' needs or provided challenge, and how the style of teaching engaged them are all examples of program-related discussion questions.
During the Two Up, Two Back activity, a student leader can initiate a group reflection on the lesson activities by asking questions like these:
- “How did you support your partner during this drill?”
- “What are other ways we support our doubles partner during tennis?”
- “How can we use a shot to set up our partner for the next shot?”
Reflection
We should expect students at this developmental stage to be able to pose higher-order questions during their reflections. Reflections should continue to serve as an opportunity for students to self-reflect on their actions and what they observed in others throughout the lesson while exploring ways they can transfer the responsibility attributes they are developing in physical education to life beyond the gym. This can be accomplished through a variety of formats in class or outside of class time. Students can read each other's journals and provide feedback, assist each other in goal setting, or create strategies to transfer the levels to environments outside of the program. Again, the teacher remains connected to the process as an active listener and support.
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An extension of TPSR—The Kinesiology Career Club
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.”
The Kinesiology Career Club
David Walsh
Program Description
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.” The more specific goals of KCC for the youth are as follows:
- To maximize motivation to improve in, stay in, and find relevance in school
- To enhance connection between the TPSR goals of respect, effort, goal setting, and leadership skills and the importance they play in youths' futures
- To chart the necessary steps to first become a professional in kinesiology, which provides practical experience in a specific career
- To chart the necessary steps for their own careers of choice and developing strategies for matriculating and graduating from college
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The program takes place in San Francisco at Mission High School, a low-performing inner-city school. It began in spring 2011 and will be ongoing every spring and fall semester. The program runs for 80 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday over the entire semester during second-period physical education. Current KCC students include five girls and nine boys who are all ninth graders. The high school has a diverse population with the following ethnicity breakdown: 14 percent African American, 23 percent Asian, 46 percent Latino, 9 percent Caucasian, and 8 percent other. The KCC students closely reflect this diversity.
As a university-community collaboration, KCC is also part of a course offered at San Francisco State University (SFSU) to graduating kinesiology seniors. Called “SFSU Mentors,” six to eight seniors are selected to conduct their capstone kinesiology course in the community by helping me run this program. I am the lead instructor of KCC, and the SFSU Mentors help lead various physical activities—a combination of martial arts, weight training, dance, and fitness activities—and mentor the students on positive “possible futures” in either a 1-to-1 or 2-to-1 ratio for the final 15 minutes of every session.
Use of TPSR Model
The KCC goals progress through four phases. Each phase allows for the systematic application of TPSR within the program, as well as providing opportunities for students to engage the model as they move through the program.
Phase One Goals
In phase one we use TPSR daily format and strategies to introduce the program, including the various physical activities. This phase focuses on Level I, respect, and Level II, effort. We aim to begin building relationships with the students, have them voice their opinions about the program content and structure, and introduce the field of kinesiology. We also introduce the combined TPSR reflection time and mentoring time, a significant component of the positive “possible futures” emphasis that takes place throughout the program. We talk about our own choice to study kinesiology, connect the physical activities in KCC to the basis and foundation of the field of kinesiology, bridge Levels I and II to the idea of being successful in kinesiology, encourage the students to talk about their own career interests, and begin to get to know and develop relationships with them.
Phase Two Goals
Once phase one goals are mostly achieved, phase two begins to empower the students to take on the advanced TPSR responsibilities (Level III, goal setting; Level IV, leadership). Students are asked to set goals for martial arts, weight training, dance, or fitness skills. They are also encouraged to take on small leadership experiences by way of teaching the activities they worked on during goal-setting time. We encourage the students to consider a career in at least one of the many subdisciplines of kinesiology, connect the physical activities and goal setting and leadership in the program to being successful in the field of kinesiology, and begin to chart the steps to earning a college degree in kinesiology. Phase two also aims at having students reflect on what they are currently doing in school and out of school that could either help or hinder their futures.
Phase Three Goals
Once phase two goals are mostly achieved, phase three continues to empower the students to work on TPSR Levels I through IV. Goal-setting time and leadership roles are extended so that students take on more responsibility. We introduce the potential transference of the steps to a career in kinesiology to the development of responsibility traits necessary for the students' future careers of choice. The idea is to link phase two experiences of understanding how to be successful in kinesiology to understanding what success would mean in the students' own careers of choice. Students actively reflect on what they would like to pursue as a career and effectively discover ways to link what they learned about kinesiology to their own future career interests. We also introduce the importance of having both potential hopes and potential fears—as suggested by the theory of possible selves (Oyserman, Terry, & Bybee 2002)—and doing the hard work as well as having the positive attitude and preparation needed for success.
Phase Four Goals
After students have mostly achieved phase three goals, phase four continues to empower them to work on responsibility Levels I through IV. We introduce Level V, outside the gym, and address how what the students do in school, at home, and in the streets affects their futures. Phase four discussions focus solely on the students' careers of choice. We further reinforce the connection between the TPSR levels and what might prove necessary for the practical realization of their possible futures, including both potential hopes and fears. We provide additional insight into the degree of hard work, positive attitude, and preparation needed for the realization of their possible futures.
Additional Program Elements
Since KCC is run through in-school physical education, we have to integrate traditional physical education elements such as uniform requirements and fitness testing into the program. Unlike after-school programs that students may choose to attend, attending KCC is mandatory. Mission High School has been very supportive of the program and has given us complete autonomy with respect to fulfilling the goals of KCC. It is a collaboration we plan to continue for several years.
Even though KCC has some goals that differ from those of a regular TPSR program, we are able to keep a TPSR focus by systematically implementing the components of a regular TPSR daily format. Each session has relationship time, an awareness talk, physical activities designed as a way for the students to experience the responsibility levels, a group meeting, and a reflection time. Some of the KCC goals require alteration of the TPSR components. For example, a KCC awareness talk includes how the levels relate to the students' futures, and discussions focus on the field of kinesiology. Reflection time takes place with the guidance of SFSU Mentors, which students document in a journal. Students are asked to reflect not only on the levels but also on how they are performing in school and are exploring a “possible future,” first in kinesiology and then in their own careers of choice. An effective strategy has been providing information on the various subdisciplines of kinesiology to give the students the opportunity to find relevance in at least one of them. Some students easily identify with kinesiology as a “possible future” while others connect only with being physically active as an important issue in their lives. As the program progresses, discussions about their own career interests seem to get more detailed and authentic.
Keeping SITE
Though KCC has different goals and purposes, it is still an extension of TPSR. It is crucial for us to keep SITE of the four TPSR themes. KCC includes TPSR's prioritization of the instructor-student relationship through the concern for each student's emotional, social, and physical well-being. KCC is also empowerment based, giving students various leadership roles, providing goal-setting time, giving them a voice in the program's direction, and enabling them to evaluate both themselves and the program. The difference is in how the TPSR levels are integrated into the physical activities as a way to explore a career in kinesiology. Once this is established, then transference of the levels to enhance the students' understanding and exploration of their own careers of interest can occur. KCC is still in its early phases of development and will change as the program evolves, but TPSR will continue to be the foundation and core of the program.
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Relinquish control and enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student–teacher and student–student relationships.
Student-Centered Learning
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student-teacher and student-student relationships. An easy way to think about this is to ask ourselves as teachers, How do I invite the views, thoughts, or input of my students into my teaching? Given how we invite our students to share in the methods we use to teach, we are creating a situation through which we relinquish control and thus enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships.
A way to think about how we invite students into our teaching is to use the spectrum of teaching styles by Mosston and Ashworth (2002). The spectrum places the teaching context on a continuum (figure 3.3). The continuum is anchored on one end by teaching styles that are convergent or that come to a common goal. The opposite end of the continuum is anchored by teaching styles that are divergent or that have many goals or possible answers.
Mosston conceptualized the teaching spectrum on the basis of the decisions the teachers made; as he states, “Teaching behavior is a chain of decision making” (Mosston & Ashworth 2002, p. 4). For Mosston, the spectrum identified teaching and learning options. Thus, the goal of the spectrum was for teachers to become proficient in generating a variety of teaching contexts based on the content focus, objectives, and learner needs. Movement along the teaching continuum is based on manipulation of the three phases of teaching: preimpact, impact, and postimpact.
- The preimpact phase entails establishing the lesson objectives and focus. It is often the teacher who is primarily in charge of this aspect of teaching.
- The impact phase is the actual execution of the teaching. This includes elements such as the pace of the lesson and the types of learning activities. Obviously, these aspects can also be primarily teacher centered; but within the spectrum, it is when we step away from the center in the impact phase that we begin to elicit a more student-centered approach.
- The postimpact phase includes evaluation of the student's performance both during and after completion of the task.
As the teacher begins to release control of the various phases to the student, the style of teaching changes and typically moves from the convergent end of the continuum toward the divergent end.
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Mosston identified 11 styles of teaching, labeled styles A through K. The first five styles (A through E) represent teaching decisions that foster and support reproduction of past knowledge; these styles are called command, practice/task, reciprocal, inclusion, and self-check. The rest of the styles (F through K) represent options that foster production of new knowledge; these styles are called guided discovery, convergent discovery, divergent discovery, learner-designed individual program, learner-initiated, and self-teaching.
Here we briefly discuss the styles incorporated into part II of this book. For a more detailed discussion of all the styles (A through K), the reader is directed to Mosston and Ashworth (2002).
Command
Response is influenced by telling students what to do, telling them how to practice, and directing practice.
Most effective approach when:
- Goal is to learn and perform specific skill
- Teacher is looking for a specific response
- Teacher has limited experience working with a group
- Time for organization is limited
Practice/Task
The teacher presents information through tasks, often organized into stations, that provide the teacher with the flexibility to maintain control over the teaching phases (teacher-centered) or begin to release some control to the students.
- Involves different students (often individually or in pairs) practicing different tasks at the same time
- Involves stations and task cards
- Works well when students need to practice skills they have already been taught
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher explains stations or tasks well beforehand
- Teacher makes managerial aspects clear
- Teacher frequently checks with students
- Students start with only a few stations or tasks
- Students work well independently
- Students are able to function without close supervision
Reciprocal
Teacher designs and communicates tasks, and students assume roles of providing feedback and assessment to peers.
Most effective approach when:
- Skill to be taught is simple
- Cues for observation are clear
- Performance is easily measured
Inclusion
The teacher designs tasks; students are allowed to choose the level at which they begin the tasks that best meets their needs or ability levels. Learners make a decision based on self-assessment of their entry point (e.g., size of ball, distance to goal). When the learner meets that goal, she can challenge herself again at a new level.
- Accommodates individual learning differences
- Individualizes further because choices are presented
- Is really a developmentally appropriate approach
Most effective approach when:
- Criteria for self-evaluation and assessment of success are clear
- Performance is easily measured
- Students work well independently
Self-Check
Similar to the reciprocal style, the teacher designs and communicates the task; however, in this style students assume a self-teaching role as they perform the task and then self-assess and reflect upon their performance.
- Carryover from task and reciprocal styles
- Decisions shifted to the learner in the impact and postimpact phases
- Learners weaned away from external feedback; they provide their own feedback as they self-monitor their progress on task
- Learner decides the context based on feedback from self-evaluation
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher values the learner's ability to develop self-monitoring capacity
- Teacher trusts the student to be honest
- Learner can identify own limits, successes, and failures
- Learner can use self-check as feedback
- Learner can work independently
Guided Discovery
Teaching is through questioning, designed to let students think and solve problems. Two versions:
- Convergent inquiry: Students discover the same answer to a series of questions.
- Divergent inquiry: Students find multiple answers to a problem.
Most effective approach when:
- Students are encouraged to think independently to discover new and different approaches to performing skill
- Students are encouraged to solve questions related to teamwork and strategy as they relate to skill performance
- Students are encouraged to explore a movement when they are not yet ready to learn a mature version of the skill
Once we make the decision to alter the style of teaching, we are also making the decision to give the student a greater role in the lesson and thus are facilitating development of personal and social responsibility. As noted in table 1.1 (chapter 1), each teaching style connects the student to a different TPSR level focus and underscores the student's awareness and recognition of his personal and eventually social responsibility. Thus, as noted in this book and by Don, it is critical that TPSR be integrated within all aspects of your lessons and content. Incorporating divergent teaching styles allows students to make decisions within the learning context. This approach is unique in that it engages the learner in the discovery and production of options within the subject matter (Mosston & Ashworth 2002).
For example, when youth are afforded the opportunity to set their own learning pace during lesson practice, select the type(s) of equipment that best match their ability level, and work in small collaborative groups, this allows them to work on skills of self-direction, participation, cooperation, and goal setting (TPSR Levels II and III). Divergent teaching styles also create opportunities for students to learn how to assess their own performance as well as to assess and provide feedback to each other through peer or reciprocal learning (Levels III and IV).
Alteration of one's teaching style is crucial by its very nature to creating a caring environment. Therefore incorporation of the styles of teaching serves to create an environment ripe with teachable moments that enhance and connect to the TPSR model. Whether students are learning sport skills or life skills, infusion of the strategies presented here will help teachers develop youth who are responsible and caring members of their school and community.
The choice of teaching style depends on a number of factors, including the following:
- Teacher beliefs: It is difficult to loosen control; is the teacher comfortable doing so?
- Goals of lessons: Are the skills or tasks familiar to the students or are they completely new?
- Teacher skill and preference: Is the teacher confident about her teaching skills?
- Student characteristics: Do students work well independently without supervision?
- Nature of content: Are students familiar with the content? How complex is it?
- Context of teaching: How much equipment and space are available?
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Starting out with Developmental Stage 1
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students.
Developmental Stage 1
As we discussed in the beginning of this book, students in the first developmental stage are often working on exhibiting Level I (respect) and II (participating with effort) behaviors consistently. During this stage the teacher takes the predominant role in leading the awareness talk, choosing developmentally appropriate tasks and challenges, structuring the group meeting, and providing reflection opportunities. As the lessons progress, the teacher is mindful to provide students with opportunities to begin to transition to developmental stage 2 (TPSR Level III, self-direction).
Relationship Time
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students. Icebreaker games provide an opportunity for students and teachers to interact, develop relationships, and have fun. Icebreakers can vary in length but all serve the purpose of creating an environment that fosters acceptance and interaction. A number of resources for icebreaker activities for all ages appear on the list at the end of the resources section in the back of the book. When working with developmental stage 1 learners, consider selecting activities that focus on individual traits (communication, cooperation, self-control, respect, and effort) within the context of group interactions.
The Mystery Move activity (Model in Action 5.1) gives students the opportunity to demonstrate self-control and cooperation (Level I) as well as to participate with effort (Level II). There is often a point in the game when a student is unable to identify who is leading the activity and begins to point madly at everyone. This bit of conflict can allow for the group to reset and to establish limits on the number of times a person can guess the leader before he switches places. It also gives the teacher and students the opportunity to compliment the student leading the activity, as well as the whole group on their cooperation, which provides a nice transition to the awareness talk.
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Awareness Talk
During the first developmental stage, the teacher takes the primary role during the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, guides the questioning, and makes the connection to teachable moments in the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 1 include respect, self-control, participation, effort, and effective communication. We like to use icebreakers during the relationship time, because they provide a leaping-off point from the activity to the remainder of the lesson. We also use the “What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?” method of structuring the awareness talk. This technique helps us draw meaning from the activity during the relationship time; it also models for students how they may direct the awareness talk as we eventually move to the side and allow them to lead this portion of the lesson (developmental stages 2 and 3). For example, in developmental stage 1, we might ask these questions:
- “What were some of the things we needed to do in Mystery Move to be successful as a group?”
- “What did you need to do to support the group?”
On the basis of responses from the students, we then lead them to extend their thinking by asking questions such as the following:
- “So what might be some things from the activity you might want to work on personally?”
- “What might be a couple things you know about yourself that you want to try to stop doing?”
- “Today we are starting our volleyball unit. What can you do in this unit to demonstrate some of those characteristics or behaviors?”
- “As you consider where you are, what are some goals you can take forward during today's lesson? Challenge yourself a bit!”
Lesson Focus
The theme identified during the awareness talk can set the stage for teachable moments throughout the lesson focus. You can select tasks or use pedagogical strategies that provide opportunities for students to make a cognitive or affective connection between the tasks and the theme. The teaching style you use can help to create a space for those teachable moments to occur. Although in developmental stage 1 it is often beneficial to maintain a somewhat teacher-centered approach (command style), we must also give students opportunities to work toward skill development in developmental stage 2. The style you choose will be influenced by your teaching philosophy, the learning styles of your students, and the context in which the lesson is presented. Here we provide an example of a lesson focus on a volleyball skill using two different styles of teaching.
Table 5.1 presents considerations for teaching the Dot Drills (Model in Action 5.2) activity using two teaching styles and shows how these connect to the TPSR model. The command style is more teacher centered, and the reciprocal style progresses a bit toward the divergent end of the teaching spectrum.
Command (Direct) Style
Presenting the Dot Drills activity through a command style allows you to direct the students through the progression of tasks. This encourages students to perform the task in the same way at the same time and allows you to check student performance. For each separate drill, provide a demonstration of the drill and identify cues:
- Keep knees bent.
- Move feet quickly from dot to dot.
- Keep body in a ready position with hands and arms out.
The teacher starts and stops the students for each drill, demonstrating the new variation and establishing cues. Throughout the activity the teacher moves about the space providing feedback.
Reciprocal Style
To present the same drill in reciprocal style, organize students into pairs. Each pair has a Dot Drill diagram on the floor. Students also have task sheets that briefly describe each drill and provide cues. In addition, we suggest providing a list of possible motivation-type feedback phrases students can use, such as “Way to keep your feet moving” or “Great job! Keep with it!”
Each pair of partners begins when ready. One student completes one rotation of the drill while the partner observes and provides feedback. The feedback should relate to the cues identified on the task sheet. After one rotation of the drill, students switch roles; the observer becomes the doer, and the doer becomes the observer. This process is repeated for each drill variation. The teacher's role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. The teacher must step in to provide feedback if a safety issue arises. Otherwise, the teacher encourages or suggests feedback to the observer only if the observer is not providing feedback. Key to this style is getting the students to interact with minimal or no input from the teacher.
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Group Meeting
Group meetings during the first developmental stage are facilitated by the teacher but provide an opportunity for students to have a voice in the learning process. This is the time for students to give input on how the lesson went, how their peers did, and even how the teacher did, all in relation to working on goals of developmental stage 1. Questions about how the activities challenged the students and how they felt participating in the lesson when the teacher used a given teaching style are good beginning points. Students can also be asked how they felt the class as a whole or just they and their partner or small group did. Lastly, you can ask how you as the teacher did and what you might work on for next session. As Don Hellison notes, this facet of the lesson tends to be foreign to students initially, as young people are not often asked to provide feedback to each other, much less to and about the teacher. Over time, students will feel more comfortable verbalizing their thoughts as this becomes a consistent part of the class.
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Don suggests that teachers initially lay down some ground rules; they can do this in collaboration with the students. These are examples of group meeting ground rules:
- No blaming others—accept responsibility for yourself.
- Include everyone in the discussion.
- Be respectful of yourself and others (full-value contract).
- Use each other's names.
- Do not talk over each other.
- Wait for classmates to finish their comments.
These are only a few examples; again, we encourage teachers to solicit input from their classes about what the ground rules should include.
Another especially relevant issue concerning group meetings is time. If you do not have sufficient time to check in with all students, ask for responses on how things went from a few students. A common practice in many TPSR-based programs is to have the students keep a journal. They can do this as homework and turn in their comments the next day. This way you keep track of how things are going and get timely input from the class.
Reflection
Reflection time should flow fairly seamlessly from the group meeting time. Group meeting time focuses on student evaluation of the lesson, and reflection time focuses on evaluation of the students' roles as learners and support. Thus, questions can move from how the activities or style of teaching challenged or engaged the students to a focus on how they participated as independent learners, demonstrated respect, showed self-direction, and cooperated during the lesson. During developmental stage 1, the teacher directs the discussion. The thumbometer is a technique often used for reflection time. In response to questions from the teacher, students point their thumbs up, sideways, or down to indicate how well they did on a particular aspect of the lesson. These are examples of questions the teacher might ask:
- “During Dot Drill today, did you demonstrate cooperation with your partner by giving feedback?”
- “Did you show stick-to-itiveness during Dot Drill as it got harder?”
- “Did you show self-direction by challenging yourself during the drill?”
Students respond as a group by pointing their thumbs. The teacher notes where most of the participants are (e.g., more thumbs up than down) so as to facilitate activities toward the higher levels (Levels III through V). As Don notes in his work, it is important to acknowledge that kids have bad days, too, which means we should support them and encourage honest self-evaluation. We also want to underscore not blaming others for our behavior.
Lastly, the reflection time is when we can begin to encourage students to think about how they can demonstrate the levels outside of the class or program. Asking students where in their out-of-class or out-of-program lives they could demonstrate a given level of responsibility allows them to begin to conceptualize this transition. For some students, reaching a particular level outside of class but still within the school (which is a nice scaffold) might be all that is possible. In any case, we should begin to encourage students to think about responsibility concepts outside the class.
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Transitioning to Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage.
Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage. This means providing opportunities for students to work collaboratively with their peers with little teacher guidance (Level III, self-direction). During the second stage you begin to call upon students to take a role in the learning process. As you will see in this section, you begin to relinquish some of the control of the class to students during awareness talks and group meetings. As this occurs, some students may begin to demonstrate a desire to take leadership roles (Level IV), but most will continue to need some guidance in keeping self-directed without individual supervision.
Relationship Time
Juggler's Carry (Model in Action 8.1) gives students the opportunity to continue to demonstrate respect (Level I) and participate with effort (Level II) while working collaboratively with their classmates without direct supervision from the teacher (Level III). Following the same format (“What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?”) but now inviting more student leadership during the process, we can begin to navigate TPSR Level III and to transition to Level IV concepts.
Awareness Talk
During the second developmental stage, the teacher begins to share the responsibility for the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, asks one or more students to guide the questioning, and draws the connection to the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 2 include self-control, self-direction, goal setting, and problem solving.
Using students to help guide the awareness talk is key in the development of youth leaders (Level IV). Following the activity, you can use student leaders to “debrief” so as to draw the attention of the learners to the cognitive and affective attributes of an activity. These are examples of questions you might provide the student leader following Juggler's Carry:
“What?” Questions
- “What helped you when talking with your group members to be successful at the activity?”
- “What were your feelings when you failed to keep balls from hitting the ground? How did you feel when you were successful in keeping balls from hitting the ground?”
“So What?” Questions
- “How might your feelings when you failed and succeeded help as you work in groups?”
- “How might you do things differently in this activity to find more success individually and as a member of the group?”
“Now What?” Questions
- “Thinking about the activity and how you felt as you succeeded or failed, how can those feelings help you as you engage in other activities during basketball?”
- “What might you do to help regain focus when you are not succeeding at something?”
By providing the students with a selection of questions, you maintain the direction of the conversation while giving students a chance to comfortably explore what it is like to take a leadership role in class.
Lesson Focus
The opportunities for self-direction take center stage during developmental stage 2. Again, activities should transition from individuals performing within the context of the group to individuals positively interacting with partners and small groups in self-guided learning experiences.
Table 8.2 presents considerations for teaching the Pass and Shoot activity (Model in Action 8.3) through two teaching styles and shows how they connect to the TPSR model. You can alter both styles so as to create challenge and, most importantly, provide students with the opportunity to work individually and in groups as well as pace themselves.
Being mindful of the activities used during this stage provides you with opportunities to alter the teaching style and encourage greater student responsibility. This allows for students to begin leading the group meeting segment of the lesson and speaking as to how the lesson activities address the theme or themes identified during the awareness talk.
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Inclusion Style
To use the inclusion style, you demonstrate the cues for Pass and Shoot and present task sheets that provide a diagram and performance cues. Identify the options available for students in deciding how and where to enter the drill. For example, students can vary distances to the basket and use different types of balls to make the task more difficult. Students can also count missed or made shots, or they can time themselves and see how many shots they can make. These options, chosen by the students for themselves, create additional challenges. Students are placed in pairs and dispersed throughout the teaching area. Allow time for the learners to assess their level though trial and error and begin the drill. After each drill, the learners reassess and set new challenges based on the levels available and the achievement of performance criteria.
Your role is to circulate throughout the learning space and provide feedback only on the decisions of the students. You can ask, for example, “How are you doing at the level you have selected?” On the basis of the students' response, inquire about the decisions made and how successful the students feel they are. With this style it is important not to start out by overtly challenging the decision made initially but to help students in their self-assessments.
Reciprocal Style
To use the reciprocal style for this activity, arrange students in groups of three; the third person becomes the observer. Provide task sheets that briefly describe the activity, the cues, and the participants' roles. We also suggest including a list of possible motivation-type feedback for students to use. Clear role expectations for students on the task sheet will help them keep focus. For example, spell out what the observer ought to be observing (performance cues) and what the doers are doing (practicing). Provide a time or a number of passes for each facet of the activity. Once they are finished, the students rotate their roles. This process is repeated for each drill variation.
Your role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. You must step in to provide feedback if there is a safety issue. Otherwise, you encourage or suggest feedback to the observer only if feedback is not occurring.
Group Meeting
The group meeting during the second developmental stage should continue to provide students with an opportunity to have a voice in the learning process but facilitate their leading more of the discussion. Because you have modeled leading the discussion in developmental stage 1, you can help students assume more responsibility by asking questions such as “What sorts of questions did I ask you about the lesson?” and “What questions do you have of your peers from the lesson?” Another strategy is to have students write their questions or comments on a slip of paper and then exchange with partners and engage in small-group discussions. You can then bring them back to the large group and ask for culminating thoughts from the day's lesson. Don't be disappointed if it takes a bit more effort during this developmental stage to get things going. Be consistent, be caring, and be a good model, and your students will begin to assume more responsibility.
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Reflection
Key to this stage is that students begin to lead more of the discussion. Students can be cued on questions that address the particular levels they are working at during this stage (Level III) and begin to scaffold to goals for the next levels (IV and V). These are examples of helpful questions:
- “How did you feel you and your partner worked independent of teacher direction?”
- “What might you improve on?”
- “As we move toward more independence, what goals can you set to show more leadership in class?”
Students can begin to generate these types of questions once you have modeled them. We encourage you to note the many examples in Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Through Physical Activity, Third Edition, of different ways to engage students in reflection time. Methods such as exit slips, journaling, and tapping in (students tap on a poster listing the levels to indicate where they are) can be quite effective and keep this part of the lesson fresh.
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Seeking leadership opportunities in Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult.
Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult. At this stage students should routinely demonstrate behaviors consistent with Levels I to III and actively seek out leadership opportunities. These opportunities for caring and leadership take center stage during developmental stage 3. Caring and leadership can manifest themselves during all aspects of the lesson as students explore ways to engage in the learning process.
Relationship Time
Relationship time during the third developmental stage should be almost entirely run by students. Student leaders can be responsible for setup, instruction, and facilitation of the relationship time tasks. For example, many teachers use a warm-up routine that is performed throughout the year. Consider allowing students to lead, or even better create, the warm-up or other relationship time activities.
The Create-a-Game activity meets the objectives of relationship time by providing opportunities for students to interact with each other constructively; it also meets the developmental stage 3 needs by providing opportunities for students to be self-directed and to develop leadership skills.
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Awareness Talk
Student leaders should be comfortable with identifying the theme, guiding the questioning, and drawing connections to the lesson by the time they reach the third developmental stage. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 3 include self-direction, leadership, and transfer. To illustrate a developmental stage 3 awareness talk, let's consider Create-a-Game (Model in Action 11.6).
In speaking for the Create-a-Game activity, the student leaders would generalize the lessons learned from the activity to the theme and subsequent activities. These are examples of statements and questions they might offer:
- “I liked how my group talked through each step and offered game ideas. How did your group decide on the game you would create?”
- “In our group we selected our five pieces of equipment first and then tried to come up with a unique game that used the equipment. How did other groups decide where to begin?”
In speaking for the experience, the student leaders can generalize what occurred in the activity. Nonverbal behavior on the part of the teacher can be really be important here. Remain involved by demonstrating active listening, nodding your head, and making eye contact with whoever is speaking. This models to the students behaviors that they too can maintain in the process.
Lesson Focus
Developmental stage 3 activities should provide students with the opportunity for leadership experiences and encourage transfer to other aspects of the curriculum. The Two Up, Two Back activity (Model in Action 11.7), a volley drill, offers students opportunities to exhibit behaviors consistent with responsibility Levels I through IV.
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Teaching strategies for developmental stage 3 include providing students with opportunities to emphasize previous levels but, more importantly, focus on Levels IV (caring and leadership) and V (outside the gymnasium). We can elicit these behaviors by modifying the way we present the task.
Table 11.3 presents considerations for teaching Two Up, Two Back through two different styles. You can use a command style, but this minimizes the opportunity for students to demonstrate developmental stage 3 behaviors. Instead, presenting the task through a divergent discovery style or a self-check style provides opportunities for self-directed learning and leadership.
Two Up, Two Back (Model in Action 11.7) provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate responsibility Levels I through IV. Using a guided discovery approach gives students a chance to collaboratively develop tactical awareness for the volley and passing shots. Self-checking enables them to self-assess in the context of group play. At this developmental stage, students have demonstrated the ability to work independently while putting forth effort and showing respect to their peers. At this point we hope you can begin to think of ways to modify the learning environment to promote leadership skills in your students. These skills can be carried over to the group meeting segment of the lesson, increasing the contribution of students to the learning process.
Divergent Discovery Style
Presenting Two Up, Two Back using a divergent discovery approach allows you to engage students in both the cognitive and psychomotor domains. Through questioning or the presentation of a problem, you can have students diverge on solutions for successfully completing the task. With this task you can allow groups of students to diverge on a solution that meets the task requirements.
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Teacher: “Each group will play a modified doubles game. One team starts at the net and the other at the baseline. The team at the baseline begins play, and team locations switch after each point. The first two hits of each round should be easily returnable by the other team. Points can be scored only after two successful hits have been completed. Rotate service each point and play to 10 points.”
After each round of 10 points, have students reflect on the following questions:
- How can you support your partner during a point (think about your movement and positioning on the court)?
- What strategies did the volleying team use to score points?
- What strategies did the baseline team use to score points?
- How can we use one hit to set up our next shot?
Self-Check Style
Shifting to a self-check style provides additional opportunities for students to demonstrate self-direction and leadership behaviors. Create a task sheet that briefly describes the activity and provides learning cues. You can ask a group to demonstrate the activity drills and focus students on their task sheet. Once groups have read their sheets, they can begin the activity at their own pace.
Following each game (to 10 points), students recheck the criteria noted on the task sheet relative to their execution of the volley. Students are responsible for their own feedback based on the criteria for the given skill. The teacher's role is to ask questions related to the student's process of self-checking or self-assessing.
Group Meeting
As with the awareness talk, this portion of the lesson is mostly student led. You can assist by cueing students regarding the levels they are working on, as well as reminding them of what sorts of questions have been asked in previous classes. Questions about how the lesson was conducted, how the activity met the students' needs or provided challenge, and how the style of teaching engaged them are all examples of program-related discussion questions.
During the Two Up, Two Back activity, a student leader can initiate a group reflection on the lesson activities by asking questions like these:
- “How did you support your partner during this drill?”
- “What are other ways we support our doubles partner during tennis?”
- “How can we use a shot to set up our partner for the next shot?”
Reflection
We should expect students at this developmental stage to be able to pose higher-order questions during their reflections. Reflections should continue to serve as an opportunity for students to self-reflect on their actions and what they observed in others throughout the lesson while exploring ways they can transfer the responsibility attributes they are developing in physical education to life beyond the gym. This can be accomplished through a variety of formats in class or outside of class time. Students can read each other's journals and provide feedback, assist each other in goal setting, or create strategies to transfer the levels to environments outside of the program. Again, the teacher remains connected to the process as an active listener and support.
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An extension of TPSR—The Kinesiology Career Club
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.”
The Kinesiology Career Club
David Walsh
Program Description
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.” The more specific goals of KCC for the youth are as follows:
- To maximize motivation to improve in, stay in, and find relevance in school
- To enhance connection between the TPSR goals of respect, effort, goal setting, and leadership skills and the importance they play in youths' futures
- To chart the necessary steps to first become a professional in kinesiology, which provides practical experience in a specific career
- To chart the necessary steps for their own careers of choice and developing strategies for matriculating and graduating from college
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The program takes place in San Francisco at Mission High School, a low-performing inner-city school. It began in spring 2011 and will be ongoing every spring and fall semester. The program runs for 80 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday over the entire semester during second-period physical education. Current KCC students include five girls and nine boys who are all ninth graders. The high school has a diverse population with the following ethnicity breakdown: 14 percent African American, 23 percent Asian, 46 percent Latino, 9 percent Caucasian, and 8 percent other. The KCC students closely reflect this diversity.
As a university-community collaboration, KCC is also part of a course offered at San Francisco State University (SFSU) to graduating kinesiology seniors. Called “SFSU Mentors,” six to eight seniors are selected to conduct their capstone kinesiology course in the community by helping me run this program. I am the lead instructor of KCC, and the SFSU Mentors help lead various physical activities—a combination of martial arts, weight training, dance, and fitness activities—and mentor the students on positive “possible futures” in either a 1-to-1 or 2-to-1 ratio for the final 15 minutes of every session.
Use of TPSR Model
The KCC goals progress through four phases. Each phase allows for the systematic application of TPSR within the program, as well as providing opportunities for students to engage the model as they move through the program.
Phase One Goals
In phase one we use TPSR daily format and strategies to introduce the program, including the various physical activities. This phase focuses on Level I, respect, and Level II, effort. We aim to begin building relationships with the students, have them voice their opinions about the program content and structure, and introduce the field of kinesiology. We also introduce the combined TPSR reflection time and mentoring time, a significant component of the positive “possible futures” emphasis that takes place throughout the program. We talk about our own choice to study kinesiology, connect the physical activities in KCC to the basis and foundation of the field of kinesiology, bridge Levels I and II to the idea of being successful in kinesiology, encourage the students to talk about their own career interests, and begin to get to know and develop relationships with them.
Phase Two Goals
Once phase one goals are mostly achieved, phase two begins to empower the students to take on the advanced TPSR responsibilities (Level III, goal setting; Level IV, leadership). Students are asked to set goals for martial arts, weight training, dance, or fitness skills. They are also encouraged to take on small leadership experiences by way of teaching the activities they worked on during goal-setting time. We encourage the students to consider a career in at least one of the many subdisciplines of kinesiology, connect the physical activities and goal setting and leadership in the program to being successful in the field of kinesiology, and begin to chart the steps to earning a college degree in kinesiology. Phase two also aims at having students reflect on what they are currently doing in school and out of school that could either help or hinder their futures.
Phase Three Goals
Once phase two goals are mostly achieved, phase three continues to empower the students to work on TPSR Levels I through IV. Goal-setting time and leadership roles are extended so that students take on more responsibility. We introduce the potential transference of the steps to a career in kinesiology to the development of responsibility traits necessary for the students' future careers of choice. The idea is to link phase two experiences of understanding how to be successful in kinesiology to understanding what success would mean in the students' own careers of choice. Students actively reflect on what they would like to pursue as a career and effectively discover ways to link what they learned about kinesiology to their own future career interests. We also introduce the importance of having both potential hopes and potential fears—as suggested by the theory of possible selves (Oyserman, Terry, & Bybee 2002)—and doing the hard work as well as having the positive attitude and preparation needed for success.
Phase Four Goals
After students have mostly achieved phase three goals, phase four continues to empower them to work on responsibility Levels I through IV. We introduce Level V, outside the gym, and address how what the students do in school, at home, and in the streets affects their futures. Phase four discussions focus solely on the students' careers of choice. We further reinforce the connection between the TPSR levels and what might prove necessary for the practical realization of their possible futures, including both potential hopes and fears. We provide additional insight into the degree of hard work, positive attitude, and preparation needed for the realization of their possible futures.
Additional Program Elements
Since KCC is run through in-school physical education, we have to integrate traditional physical education elements such as uniform requirements and fitness testing into the program. Unlike after-school programs that students may choose to attend, attending KCC is mandatory. Mission High School has been very supportive of the program and has given us complete autonomy with respect to fulfilling the goals of KCC. It is a collaboration we plan to continue for several years.
Even though KCC has some goals that differ from those of a regular TPSR program, we are able to keep a TPSR focus by systematically implementing the components of a regular TPSR daily format. Each session has relationship time, an awareness talk, physical activities designed as a way for the students to experience the responsibility levels, a group meeting, and a reflection time. Some of the KCC goals require alteration of the TPSR components. For example, a KCC awareness talk includes how the levels relate to the students' futures, and discussions focus on the field of kinesiology. Reflection time takes place with the guidance of SFSU Mentors, which students document in a journal. Students are asked to reflect not only on the levels but also on how they are performing in school and are exploring a “possible future,” first in kinesiology and then in their own careers of choice. An effective strategy has been providing information on the various subdisciplines of kinesiology to give the students the opportunity to find relevance in at least one of them. Some students easily identify with kinesiology as a “possible future” while others connect only with being physically active as an important issue in their lives. As the program progresses, discussions about their own career interests seem to get more detailed and authentic.
Keeping SITE
Though KCC has different goals and purposes, it is still an extension of TPSR. It is crucial for us to keep SITE of the four TPSR themes. KCC includes TPSR's prioritization of the instructor-student relationship through the concern for each student's emotional, social, and physical well-being. KCC is also empowerment based, giving students various leadership roles, providing goal-setting time, giving them a voice in the program's direction, and enabling them to evaluate both themselves and the program. The difference is in how the TPSR levels are integrated into the physical activities as a way to explore a career in kinesiology. Once this is established, then transference of the levels to enhance the students' understanding and exploration of their own careers of interest can occur. KCC is still in its early phases of development and will change as the program evolves, but TPSR will continue to be the foundation and core of the program.
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Relinquish control and enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student–teacher and student–student relationships.
Student-Centered Learning
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student-teacher and student-student relationships. An easy way to think about this is to ask ourselves as teachers, How do I invite the views, thoughts, or input of my students into my teaching? Given how we invite our students to share in the methods we use to teach, we are creating a situation through which we relinquish control and thus enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships.
A way to think about how we invite students into our teaching is to use the spectrum of teaching styles by Mosston and Ashworth (2002). The spectrum places the teaching context on a continuum (figure 3.3). The continuum is anchored on one end by teaching styles that are convergent or that come to a common goal. The opposite end of the continuum is anchored by teaching styles that are divergent or that have many goals or possible answers.
Mosston conceptualized the teaching spectrum on the basis of the decisions the teachers made; as he states, “Teaching behavior is a chain of decision making” (Mosston & Ashworth 2002, p. 4). For Mosston, the spectrum identified teaching and learning options. Thus, the goal of the spectrum was for teachers to become proficient in generating a variety of teaching contexts based on the content focus, objectives, and learner needs. Movement along the teaching continuum is based on manipulation of the three phases of teaching: preimpact, impact, and postimpact.
- The preimpact phase entails establishing the lesson objectives and focus. It is often the teacher who is primarily in charge of this aspect of teaching.
- The impact phase is the actual execution of the teaching. This includes elements such as the pace of the lesson and the types of learning activities. Obviously, these aspects can also be primarily teacher centered; but within the spectrum, it is when we step away from the center in the impact phase that we begin to elicit a more student-centered approach.
- The postimpact phase includes evaluation of the student's performance both during and after completion of the task.
As the teacher begins to release control of the various phases to the student, the style of teaching changes and typically moves from the convergent end of the continuum toward the divergent end.
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Mosston identified 11 styles of teaching, labeled styles A through K. The first five styles (A through E) represent teaching decisions that foster and support reproduction of past knowledge; these styles are called command, practice/task, reciprocal, inclusion, and self-check. The rest of the styles (F through K) represent options that foster production of new knowledge; these styles are called guided discovery, convergent discovery, divergent discovery, learner-designed individual program, learner-initiated, and self-teaching.
Here we briefly discuss the styles incorporated into part II of this book. For a more detailed discussion of all the styles (A through K), the reader is directed to Mosston and Ashworth (2002).
Command
Response is influenced by telling students what to do, telling them how to practice, and directing practice.
Most effective approach when:
- Goal is to learn and perform specific skill
- Teacher is looking for a specific response
- Teacher has limited experience working with a group
- Time for organization is limited
Practice/Task
The teacher presents information through tasks, often organized into stations, that provide the teacher with the flexibility to maintain control over the teaching phases (teacher-centered) or begin to release some control to the students.
- Involves different students (often individually or in pairs) practicing different tasks at the same time
- Involves stations and task cards
- Works well when students need to practice skills they have already been taught
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher explains stations or tasks well beforehand
- Teacher makes managerial aspects clear
- Teacher frequently checks with students
- Students start with only a few stations or tasks
- Students work well independently
- Students are able to function without close supervision
Reciprocal
Teacher designs and communicates tasks, and students assume roles of providing feedback and assessment to peers.
Most effective approach when:
- Skill to be taught is simple
- Cues for observation are clear
- Performance is easily measured
Inclusion
The teacher designs tasks; students are allowed to choose the level at which they begin the tasks that best meets their needs or ability levels. Learners make a decision based on self-assessment of their entry point (e.g., size of ball, distance to goal). When the learner meets that goal, she can challenge herself again at a new level.
- Accommodates individual learning differences
- Individualizes further because choices are presented
- Is really a developmentally appropriate approach
Most effective approach when:
- Criteria for self-evaluation and assessment of success are clear
- Performance is easily measured
- Students work well independently
Self-Check
Similar to the reciprocal style, the teacher designs and communicates the task; however, in this style students assume a self-teaching role as they perform the task and then self-assess and reflect upon their performance.
- Carryover from task and reciprocal styles
- Decisions shifted to the learner in the impact and postimpact phases
- Learners weaned away from external feedback; they provide their own feedback as they self-monitor their progress on task
- Learner decides the context based on feedback from self-evaluation
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher values the learner's ability to develop self-monitoring capacity
- Teacher trusts the student to be honest
- Learner can identify own limits, successes, and failures
- Learner can use self-check as feedback
- Learner can work independently
Guided Discovery
Teaching is through questioning, designed to let students think and solve problems. Two versions:
- Convergent inquiry: Students discover the same answer to a series of questions.
- Divergent inquiry: Students find multiple answers to a problem.
Most effective approach when:
- Students are encouraged to think independently to discover new and different approaches to performing skill
- Students are encouraged to solve questions related to teamwork and strategy as they relate to skill performance
- Students are encouraged to explore a movement when they are not yet ready to learn a mature version of the skill
Once we make the decision to alter the style of teaching, we are also making the decision to give the student a greater role in the lesson and thus are facilitating development of personal and social responsibility. As noted in table 1.1 (chapter 1), each teaching style connects the student to a different TPSR level focus and underscores the student's awareness and recognition of his personal and eventually social responsibility. Thus, as noted in this book and by Don, it is critical that TPSR be integrated within all aspects of your lessons and content. Incorporating divergent teaching styles allows students to make decisions within the learning context. This approach is unique in that it engages the learner in the discovery and production of options within the subject matter (Mosston & Ashworth 2002).
For example, when youth are afforded the opportunity to set their own learning pace during lesson practice, select the type(s) of equipment that best match their ability level, and work in small collaborative groups, this allows them to work on skills of self-direction, participation, cooperation, and goal setting (TPSR Levels II and III). Divergent teaching styles also create opportunities for students to learn how to assess their own performance as well as to assess and provide feedback to each other through peer or reciprocal learning (Levels III and IV).
Alteration of one's teaching style is crucial by its very nature to creating a caring environment. Therefore incorporation of the styles of teaching serves to create an environment ripe with teachable moments that enhance and connect to the TPSR model. Whether students are learning sport skills or life skills, infusion of the strategies presented here will help teachers develop youth who are responsible and caring members of their school and community.
The choice of teaching style depends on a number of factors, including the following:
- Teacher beliefs: It is difficult to loosen control; is the teacher comfortable doing so?
- Goals of lessons: Are the skills or tasks familiar to the students or are they completely new?
- Teacher skill and preference: Is the teacher confident about her teaching skills?
- Student characteristics: Do students work well independently without supervision?
- Nature of content: Are students familiar with the content? How complex is it?
- Context of teaching: How much equipment and space are available?
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Starting out with Developmental Stage 1
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students.
Developmental Stage 1
As we discussed in the beginning of this book, students in the first developmental stage are often working on exhibiting Level I (respect) and II (participating with effort) behaviors consistently. During this stage the teacher takes the predominant role in leading the awareness talk, choosing developmentally appropriate tasks and challenges, structuring the group meeting, and providing reflection opportunities. As the lessons progress, the teacher is mindful to provide students with opportunities to begin to transition to developmental stage 2 (TPSR Level III, self-direction).
Relationship Time
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students. Icebreaker games provide an opportunity for students and teachers to interact, develop relationships, and have fun. Icebreakers can vary in length but all serve the purpose of creating an environment that fosters acceptance and interaction. A number of resources for icebreaker activities for all ages appear on the list at the end of the resources section in the back of the book. When working with developmental stage 1 learners, consider selecting activities that focus on individual traits (communication, cooperation, self-control, respect, and effort) within the context of group interactions.
The Mystery Move activity (Model in Action 5.1) gives students the opportunity to demonstrate self-control and cooperation (Level I) as well as to participate with effort (Level II). There is often a point in the game when a student is unable to identify who is leading the activity and begins to point madly at everyone. This bit of conflict can allow for the group to reset and to establish limits on the number of times a person can guess the leader before he switches places. It also gives the teacher and students the opportunity to compliment the student leading the activity, as well as the whole group on their cooperation, which provides a nice transition to the awareness talk.
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Awareness Talk
During the first developmental stage, the teacher takes the primary role during the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, guides the questioning, and makes the connection to teachable moments in the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 1 include respect, self-control, participation, effort, and effective communication. We like to use icebreakers during the relationship time, because they provide a leaping-off point from the activity to the remainder of the lesson. We also use the “What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?” method of structuring the awareness talk. This technique helps us draw meaning from the activity during the relationship time; it also models for students how they may direct the awareness talk as we eventually move to the side and allow them to lead this portion of the lesson (developmental stages 2 and 3). For example, in developmental stage 1, we might ask these questions:
- “What were some of the things we needed to do in Mystery Move to be successful as a group?”
- “What did you need to do to support the group?”
On the basis of responses from the students, we then lead them to extend their thinking by asking questions such as the following:
- “So what might be some things from the activity you might want to work on personally?”
- “What might be a couple things you know about yourself that you want to try to stop doing?”
- “Today we are starting our volleyball unit. What can you do in this unit to demonstrate some of those characteristics or behaviors?”
- “As you consider where you are, what are some goals you can take forward during today's lesson? Challenge yourself a bit!”
Lesson Focus
The theme identified during the awareness talk can set the stage for teachable moments throughout the lesson focus. You can select tasks or use pedagogical strategies that provide opportunities for students to make a cognitive or affective connection between the tasks and the theme. The teaching style you use can help to create a space for those teachable moments to occur. Although in developmental stage 1 it is often beneficial to maintain a somewhat teacher-centered approach (command style), we must also give students opportunities to work toward skill development in developmental stage 2. The style you choose will be influenced by your teaching philosophy, the learning styles of your students, and the context in which the lesson is presented. Here we provide an example of a lesson focus on a volleyball skill using two different styles of teaching.
Table 5.1 presents considerations for teaching the Dot Drills (Model in Action 5.2) activity using two teaching styles and shows how these connect to the TPSR model. The command style is more teacher centered, and the reciprocal style progresses a bit toward the divergent end of the teaching spectrum.
Command (Direct) Style
Presenting the Dot Drills activity through a command style allows you to direct the students through the progression of tasks. This encourages students to perform the task in the same way at the same time and allows you to check student performance. For each separate drill, provide a demonstration of the drill and identify cues:
- Keep knees bent.
- Move feet quickly from dot to dot.
- Keep body in a ready position with hands and arms out.
The teacher starts and stops the students for each drill, demonstrating the new variation and establishing cues. Throughout the activity the teacher moves about the space providing feedback.
Reciprocal Style
To present the same drill in reciprocal style, organize students into pairs. Each pair has a Dot Drill diagram on the floor. Students also have task sheets that briefly describe each drill and provide cues. In addition, we suggest providing a list of possible motivation-type feedback phrases students can use, such as “Way to keep your feet moving” or “Great job! Keep with it!”
Each pair of partners begins when ready. One student completes one rotation of the drill while the partner observes and provides feedback. The feedback should relate to the cues identified on the task sheet. After one rotation of the drill, students switch roles; the observer becomes the doer, and the doer becomes the observer. This process is repeated for each drill variation. The teacher's role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. The teacher must step in to provide feedback if a safety issue arises. Otherwise, the teacher encourages or suggests feedback to the observer only if the observer is not providing feedback. Key to this style is getting the students to interact with minimal or no input from the teacher.
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Group Meeting
Group meetings during the first developmental stage are facilitated by the teacher but provide an opportunity for students to have a voice in the learning process. This is the time for students to give input on how the lesson went, how their peers did, and even how the teacher did, all in relation to working on goals of developmental stage 1. Questions about how the activities challenged the students and how they felt participating in the lesson when the teacher used a given teaching style are good beginning points. Students can also be asked how they felt the class as a whole or just they and their partner or small group did. Lastly, you can ask how you as the teacher did and what you might work on for next session. As Don Hellison notes, this facet of the lesson tends to be foreign to students initially, as young people are not often asked to provide feedback to each other, much less to and about the teacher. Over time, students will feel more comfortable verbalizing their thoughts as this becomes a consistent part of the class.
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Don suggests that teachers initially lay down some ground rules; they can do this in collaboration with the students. These are examples of group meeting ground rules:
- No blaming others—accept responsibility for yourself.
- Include everyone in the discussion.
- Be respectful of yourself and others (full-value contract).
- Use each other's names.
- Do not talk over each other.
- Wait for classmates to finish their comments.
These are only a few examples; again, we encourage teachers to solicit input from their classes about what the ground rules should include.
Another especially relevant issue concerning group meetings is time. If you do not have sufficient time to check in with all students, ask for responses on how things went from a few students. A common practice in many TPSR-based programs is to have the students keep a journal. They can do this as homework and turn in their comments the next day. This way you keep track of how things are going and get timely input from the class.
Reflection
Reflection time should flow fairly seamlessly from the group meeting time. Group meeting time focuses on student evaluation of the lesson, and reflection time focuses on evaluation of the students' roles as learners and support. Thus, questions can move from how the activities or style of teaching challenged or engaged the students to a focus on how they participated as independent learners, demonstrated respect, showed self-direction, and cooperated during the lesson. During developmental stage 1, the teacher directs the discussion. The thumbometer is a technique often used for reflection time. In response to questions from the teacher, students point their thumbs up, sideways, or down to indicate how well they did on a particular aspect of the lesson. These are examples of questions the teacher might ask:
- “During Dot Drill today, did you demonstrate cooperation with your partner by giving feedback?”
- “Did you show stick-to-itiveness during Dot Drill as it got harder?”
- “Did you show self-direction by challenging yourself during the drill?”
Students respond as a group by pointing their thumbs. The teacher notes where most of the participants are (e.g., more thumbs up than down) so as to facilitate activities toward the higher levels (Levels III through V). As Don notes in his work, it is important to acknowledge that kids have bad days, too, which means we should support them and encourage honest self-evaluation. We also want to underscore not blaming others for our behavior.
Lastly, the reflection time is when we can begin to encourage students to think about how they can demonstrate the levels outside of the class or program. Asking students where in their out-of-class or out-of-program lives they could demonstrate a given level of responsibility allows them to begin to conceptualize this transition. For some students, reaching a particular level outside of class but still within the school (which is a nice scaffold) might be all that is possible. In any case, we should begin to encourage students to think about responsibility concepts outside the class.
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Transitioning to Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage.
Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage. This means providing opportunities for students to work collaboratively with their peers with little teacher guidance (Level III, self-direction). During the second stage you begin to call upon students to take a role in the learning process. As you will see in this section, you begin to relinquish some of the control of the class to students during awareness talks and group meetings. As this occurs, some students may begin to demonstrate a desire to take leadership roles (Level IV), but most will continue to need some guidance in keeping self-directed without individual supervision.
Relationship Time
Juggler's Carry (Model in Action 8.1) gives students the opportunity to continue to demonstrate respect (Level I) and participate with effort (Level II) while working collaboratively with their classmates without direct supervision from the teacher (Level III). Following the same format (“What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?”) but now inviting more student leadership during the process, we can begin to navigate TPSR Level III and to transition to Level IV concepts.
Awareness Talk
During the second developmental stage, the teacher begins to share the responsibility for the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, asks one or more students to guide the questioning, and draws the connection to the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 2 include self-control, self-direction, goal setting, and problem solving.
Using students to help guide the awareness talk is key in the development of youth leaders (Level IV). Following the activity, you can use student leaders to “debrief” so as to draw the attention of the learners to the cognitive and affective attributes of an activity. These are examples of questions you might provide the student leader following Juggler's Carry:
“What?” Questions
- “What helped you when talking with your group members to be successful at the activity?”
- “What were your feelings when you failed to keep balls from hitting the ground? How did you feel when you were successful in keeping balls from hitting the ground?”
“So What?” Questions
- “How might your feelings when you failed and succeeded help as you work in groups?”
- “How might you do things differently in this activity to find more success individually and as a member of the group?”
“Now What?” Questions
- “Thinking about the activity and how you felt as you succeeded or failed, how can those feelings help you as you engage in other activities during basketball?”
- “What might you do to help regain focus when you are not succeeding at something?”
By providing the students with a selection of questions, you maintain the direction of the conversation while giving students a chance to comfortably explore what it is like to take a leadership role in class.
Lesson Focus
The opportunities for self-direction take center stage during developmental stage 2. Again, activities should transition from individuals performing within the context of the group to individuals positively interacting with partners and small groups in self-guided learning experiences.
Table 8.2 presents considerations for teaching the Pass and Shoot activity (Model in Action 8.3) through two teaching styles and shows how they connect to the TPSR model. You can alter both styles so as to create challenge and, most importantly, provide students with the opportunity to work individually and in groups as well as pace themselves.
Being mindful of the activities used during this stage provides you with opportunities to alter the teaching style and encourage greater student responsibility. This allows for students to begin leading the group meeting segment of the lesson and speaking as to how the lesson activities address the theme or themes identified during the awareness talk.
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Inclusion Style
To use the inclusion style, you demonstrate the cues for Pass and Shoot and present task sheets that provide a diagram and performance cues. Identify the options available for students in deciding how and where to enter the drill. For example, students can vary distances to the basket and use different types of balls to make the task more difficult. Students can also count missed or made shots, or they can time themselves and see how many shots they can make. These options, chosen by the students for themselves, create additional challenges. Students are placed in pairs and dispersed throughout the teaching area. Allow time for the learners to assess their level though trial and error and begin the drill. After each drill, the learners reassess and set new challenges based on the levels available and the achievement of performance criteria.
Your role is to circulate throughout the learning space and provide feedback only on the decisions of the students. You can ask, for example, “How are you doing at the level you have selected?” On the basis of the students' response, inquire about the decisions made and how successful the students feel they are. With this style it is important not to start out by overtly challenging the decision made initially but to help students in their self-assessments.
Reciprocal Style
To use the reciprocal style for this activity, arrange students in groups of three; the third person becomes the observer. Provide task sheets that briefly describe the activity, the cues, and the participants' roles. We also suggest including a list of possible motivation-type feedback for students to use. Clear role expectations for students on the task sheet will help them keep focus. For example, spell out what the observer ought to be observing (performance cues) and what the doers are doing (practicing). Provide a time or a number of passes for each facet of the activity. Once they are finished, the students rotate their roles. This process is repeated for each drill variation.
Your role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. You must step in to provide feedback if there is a safety issue. Otherwise, you encourage or suggest feedback to the observer only if feedback is not occurring.
Group Meeting
The group meeting during the second developmental stage should continue to provide students with an opportunity to have a voice in the learning process but facilitate their leading more of the discussion. Because you have modeled leading the discussion in developmental stage 1, you can help students assume more responsibility by asking questions such as “What sorts of questions did I ask you about the lesson?” and “What questions do you have of your peers from the lesson?” Another strategy is to have students write their questions or comments on a slip of paper and then exchange with partners and engage in small-group discussions. You can then bring them back to the large group and ask for culminating thoughts from the day's lesson. Don't be disappointed if it takes a bit more effort during this developmental stage to get things going. Be consistent, be caring, and be a good model, and your students will begin to assume more responsibility.
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Reflection
Key to this stage is that students begin to lead more of the discussion. Students can be cued on questions that address the particular levels they are working at during this stage (Level III) and begin to scaffold to goals for the next levels (IV and V). These are examples of helpful questions:
- “How did you feel you and your partner worked independent of teacher direction?”
- “What might you improve on?”
- “As we move toward more independence, what goals can you set to show more leadership in class?”
Students can begin to generate these types of questions once you have modeled them. We encourage you to note the many examples in Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Through Physical Activity, Third Edition, of different ways to engage students in reflection time. Methods such as exit slips, journaling, and tapping in (students tap on a poster listing the levels to indicate where they are) can be quite effective and keep this part of the lesson fresh.
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Seeking leadership opportunities in Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult.
Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult. At this stage students should routinely demonstrate behaviors consistent with Levels I to III and actively seek out leadership opportunities. These opportunities for caring and leadership take center stage during developmental stage 3. Caring and leadership can manifest themselves during all aspects of the lesson as students explore ways to engage in the learning process.
Relationship Time
Relationship time during the third developmental stage should be almost entirely run by students. Student leaders can be responsible for setup, instruction, and facilitation of the relationship time tasks. For example, many teachers use a warm-up routine that is performed throughout the year. Consider allowing students to lead, or even better create, the warm-up or other relationship time activities.
The Create-a-Game activity meets the objectives of relationship time by providing opportunities for students to interact with each other constructively; it also meets the developmental stage 3 needs by providing opportunities for students to be self-directed and to develop leadership skills.
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Awareness Talk
Student leaders should be comfortable with identifying the theme, guiding the questioning, and drawing connections to the lesson by the time they reach the third developmental stage. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 3 include self-direction, leadership, and transfer. To illustrate a developmental stage 3 awareness talk, let's consider Create-a-Game (Model in Action 11.6).
In speaking for the Create-a-Game activity, the student leaders would generalize the lessons learned from the activity to the theme and subsequent activities. These are examples of statements and questions they might offer:
- “I liked how my group talked through each step and offered game ideas. How did your group decide on the game you would create?”
- “In our group we selected our five pieces of equipment first and then tried to come up with a unique game that used the equipment. How did other groups decide where to begin?”
In speaking for the experience, the student leaders can generalize what occurred in the activity. Nonverbal behavior on the part of the teacher can be really be important here. Remain involved by demonstrating active listening, nodding your head, and making eye contact with whoever is speaking. This models to the students behaviors that they too can maintain in the process.
Lesson Focus
Developmental stage 3 activities should provide students with the opportunity for leadership experiences and encourage transfer to other aspects of the curriculum. The Two Up, Two Back activity (Model in Action 11.7), a volley drill, offers students opportunities to exhibit behaviors consistent with responsibility Levels I through IV.
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Teaching strategies for developmental stage 3 include providing students with opportunities to emphasize previous levels but, more importantly, focus on Levels IV (caring and leadership) and V (outside the gymnasium). We can elicit these behaviors by modifying the way we present the task.
Table 11.3 presents considerations for teaching Two Up, Two Back through two different styles. You can use a command style, but this minimizes the opportunity for students to demonstrate developmental stage 3 behaviors. Instead, presenting the task through a divergent discovery style or a self-check style provides opportunities for self-directed learning and leadership.
Two Up, Two Back (Model in Action 11.7) provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate responsibility Levels I through IV. Using a guided discovery approach gives students a chance to collaboratively develop tactical awareness for the volley and passing shots. Self-checking enables them to self-assess in the context of group play. At this developmental stage, students have demonstrated the ability to work independently while putting forth effort and showing respect to their peers. At this point we hope you can begin to think of ways to modify the learning environment to promote leadership skills in your students. These skills can be carried over to the group meeting segment of the lesson, increasing the contribution of students to the learning process.
Divergent Discovery Style
Presenting Two Up, Two Back using a divergent discovery approach allows you to engage students in both the cognitive and psychomotor domains. Through questioning or the presentation of a problem, you can have students diverge on solutions for successfully completing the task. With this task you can allow groups of students to diverge on a solution that meets the task requirements.
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Teacher: “Each group will play a modified doubles game. One team starts at the net and the other at the baseline. The team at the baseline begins play, and team locations switch after each point. The first two hits of each round should be easily returnable by the other team. Points can be scored only after two successful hits have been completed. Rotate service each point and play to 10 points.”
After each round of 10 points, have students reflect on the following questions:
- How can you support your partner during a point (think about your movement and positioning on the court)?
- What strategies did the volleying team use to score points?
- What strategies did the baseline team use to score points?
- How can we use one hit to set up our next shot?
Self-Check Style
Shifting to a self-check style provides additional opportunities for students to demonstrate self-direction and leadership behaviors. Create a task sheet that briefly describes the activity and provides learning cues. You can ask a group to demonstrate the activity drills and focus students on their task sheet. Once groups have read their sheets, they can begin the activity at their own pace.
Following each game (to 10 points), students recheck the criteria noted on the task sheet relative to their execution of the volley. Students are responsible for their own feedback based on the criteria for the given skill. The teacher's role is to ask questions related to the student's process of self-checking or self-assessing.
Group Meeting
As with the awareness talk, this portion of the lesson is mostly student led. You can assist by cueing students regarding the levels they are working on, as well as reminding them of what sorts of questions have been asked in previous classes. Questions about how the lesson was conducted, how the activity met the students' needs or provided challenge, and how the style of teaching engaged them are all examples of program-related discussion questions.
During the Two Up, Two Back activity, a student leader can initiate a group reflection on the lesson activities by asking questions like these:
- “How did you support your partner during this drill?”
- “What are other ways we support our doubles partner during tennis?”
- “How can we use a shot to set up our partner for the next shot?”
Reflection
We should expect students at this developmental stage to be able to pose higher-order questions during their reflections. Reflections should continue to serve as an opportunity for students to self-reflect on their actions and what they observed in others throughout the lesson while exploring ways they can transfer the responsibility attributes they are developing in physical education to life beyond the gym. This can be accomplished through a variety of formats in class or outside of class time. Students can read each other's journals and provide feedback, assist each other in goal setting, or create strategies to transfer the levels to environments outside of the program. Again, the teacher remains connected to the process as an active listener and support.
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An extension of TPSR—The Kinesiology Career Club
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.”
The Kinesiology Career Club
David Walsh
Program Description
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.” The more specific goals of KCC for the youth are as follows:
- To maximize motivation to improve in, stay in, and find relevance in school
- To enhance connection between the TPSR goals of respect, effort, goal setting, and leadership skills and the importance they play in youths' futures
- To chart the necessary steps to first become a professional in kinesiology, which provides practical experience in a specific career
- To chart the necessary steps for their own careers of choice and developing strategies for matriculating and graduating from college
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The program takes place in San Francisco at Mission High School, a low-performing inner-city school. It began in spring 2011 and will be ongoing every spring and fall semester. The program runs for 80 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday over the entire semester during second-period physical education. Current KCC students include five girls and nine boys who are all ninth graders. The high school has a diverse population with the following ethnicity breakdown: 14 percent African American, 23 percent Asian, 46 percent Latino, 9 percent Caucasian, and 8 percent other. The KCC students closely reflect this diversity.
As a university-community collaboration, KCC is also part of a course offered at San Francisco State University (SFSU) to graduating kinesiology seniors. Called “SFSU Mentors,” six to eight seniors are selected to conduct their capstone kinesiology course in the community by helping me run this program. I am the lead instructor of KCC, and the SFSU Mentors help lead various physical activities—a combination of martial arts, weight training, dance, and fitness activities—and mentor the students on positive “possible futures” in either a 1-to-1 or 2-to-1 ratio for the final 15 minutes of every session.
Use of TPSR Model
The KCC goals progress through four phases. Each phase allows for the systematic application of TPSR within the program, as well as providing opportunities for students to engage the model as they move through the program.
Phase One Goals
In phase one we use TPSR daily format and strategies to introduce the program, including the various physical activities. This phase focuses on Level I, respect, and Level II, effort. We aim to begin building relationships with the students, have them voice their opinions about the program content and structure, and introduce the field of kinesiology. We also introduce the combined TPSR reflection time and mentoring time, a significant component of the positive “possible futures” emphasis that takes place throughout the program. We talk about our own choice to study kinesiology, connect the physical activities in KCC to the basis and foundation of the field of kinesiology, bridge Levels I and II to the idea of being successful in kinesiology, encourage the students to talk about their own career interests, and begin to get to know and develop relationships with them.
Phase Two Goals
Once phase one goals are mostly achieved, phase two begins to empower the students to take on the advanced TPSR responsibilities (Level III, goal setting; Level IV, leadership). Students are asked to set goals for martial arts, weight training, dance, or fitness skills. They are also encouraged to take on small leadership experiences by way of teaching the activities they worked on during goal-setting time. We encourage the students to consider a career in at least one of the many subdisciplines of kinesiology, connect the physical activities and goal setting and leadership in the program to being successful in the field of kinesiology, and begin to chart the steps to earning a college degree in kinesiology. Phase two also aims at having students reflect on what they are currently doing in school and out of school that could either help or hinder their futures.
Phase Three Goals
Once phase two goals are mostly achieved, phase three continues to empower the students to work on TPSR Levels I through IV. Goal-setting time and leadership roles are extended so that students take on more responsibility. We introduce the potential transference of the steps to a career in kinesiology to the development of responsibility traits necessary for the students' future careers of choice. The idea is to link phase two experiences of understanding how to be successful in kinesiology to understanding what success would mean in the students' own careers of choice. Students actively reflect on what they would like to pursue as a career and effectively discover ways to link what they learned about kinesiology to their own future career interests. We also introduce the importance of having both potential hopes and potential fears—as suggested by the theory of possible selves (Oyserman, Terry, & Bybee 2002)—and doing the hard work as well as having the positive attitude and preparation needed for success.
Phase Four Goals
After students have mostly achieved phase three goals, phase four continues to empower them to work on responsibility Levels I through IV. We introduce Level V, outside the gym, and address how what the students do in school, at home, and in the streets affects their futures. Phase four discussions focus solely on the students' careers of choice. We further reinforce the connection between the TPSR levels and what might prove necessary for the practical realization of their possible futures, including both potential hopes and fears. We provide additional insight into the degree of hard work, positive attitude, and preparation needed for the realization of their possible futures.
Additional Program Elements
Since KCC is run through in-school physical education, we have to integrate traditional physical education elements such as uniform requirements and fitness testing into the program. Unlike after-school programs that students may choose to attend, attending KCC is mandatory. Mission High School has been very supportive of the program and has given us complete autonomy with respect to fulfilling the goals of KCC. It is a collaboration we plan to continue for several years.
Even though KCC has some goals that differ from those of a regular TPSR program, we are able to keep a TPSR focus by systematically implementing the components of a regular TPSR daily format. Each session has relationship time, an awareness talk, physical activities designed as a way for the students to experience the responsibility levels, a group meeting, and a reflection time. Some of the KCC goals require alteration of the TPSR components. For example, a KCC awareness talk includes how the levels relate to the students' futures, and discussions focus on the field of kinesiology. Reflection time takes place with the guidance of SFSU Mentors, which students document in a journal. Students are asked to reflect not only on the levels but also on how they are performing in school and are exploring a “possible future,” first in kinesiology and then in their own careers of choice. An effective strategy has been providing information on the various subdisciplines of kinesiology to give the students the opportunity to find relevance in at least one of them. Some students easily identify with kinesiology as a “possible future” while others connect only with being physically active as an important issue in their lives. As the program progresses, discussions about their own career interests seem to get more detailed and authentic.
Keeping SITE
Though KCC has different goals and purposes, it is still an extension of TPSR. It is crucial for us to keep SITE of the four TPSR themes. KCC includes TPSR's prioritization of the instructor-student relationship through the concern for each student's emotional, social, and physical well-being. KCC is also empowerment based, giving students various leadership roles, providing goal-setting time, giving them a voice in the program's direction, and enabling them to evaluate both themselves and the program. The difference is in how the TPSR levels are integrated into the physical activities as a way to explore a career in kinesiology. Once this is established, then transference of the levels to enhance the students' understanding and exploration of their own careers of interest can occur. KCC is still in its early phases of development and will change as the program evolves, but TPSR will continue to be the foundation and core of the program.
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Relinquish control and enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student–teacher and student–student relationships.
Student-Centered Learning
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student-teacher and student-student relationships. An easy way to think about this is to ask ourselves as teachers, How do I invite the views, thoughts, or input of my students into my teaching? Given how we invite our students to share in the methods we use to teach, we are creating a situation through which we relinquish control and thus enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships.
A way to think about how we invite students into our teaching is to use the spectrum of teaching styles by Mosston and Ashworth (2002). The spectrum places the teaching context on a continuum (figure 3.3). The continuum is anchored on one end by teaching styles that are convergent or that come to a common goal. The opposite end of the continuum is anchored by teaching styles that are divergent or that have many goals or possible answers.
Mosston conceptualized the teaching spectrum on the basis of the decisions the teachers made; as he states, “Teaching behavior is a chain of decision making” (Mosston & Ashworth 2002, p. 4). For Mosston, the spectrum identified teaching and learning options. Thus, the goal of the spectrum was for teachers to become proficient in generating a variety of teaching contexts based on the content focus, objectives, and learner needs. Movement along the teaching continuum is based on manipulation of the three phases of teaching: preimpact, impact, and postimpact.
- The preimpact phase entails establishing the lesson objectives and focus. It is often the teacher who is primarily in charge of this aspect of teaching.
- The impact phase is the actual execution of the teaching. This includes elements such as the pace of the lesson and the types of learning activities. Obviously, these aspects can also be primarily teacher centered; but within the spectrum, it is when we step away from the center in the impact phase that we begin to elicit a more student-centered approach.
- The postimpact phase includes evaluation of the student's performance both during and after completion of the task.
As the teacher begins to release control of the various phases to the student, the style of teaching changes and typically moves from the convergent end of the continuum toward the divergent end.
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Mosston identified 11 styles of teaching, labeled styles A through K. The first five styles (A through E) represent teaching decisions that foster and support reproduction of past knowledge; these styles are called command, practice/task, reciprocal, inclusion, and self-check. The rest of the styles (F through K) represent options that foster production of new knowledge; these styles are called guided discovery, convergent discovery, divergent discovery, learner-designed individual program, learner-initiated, and self-teaching.
Here we briefly discuss the styles incorporated into part II of this book. For a more detailed discussion of all the styles (A through K), the reader is directed to Mosston and Ashworth (2002).
Command
Response is influenced by telling students what to do, telling them how to practice, and directing practice.
Most effective approach when:
- Goal is to learn and perform specific skill
- Teacher is looking for a specific response
- Teacher has limited experience working with a group
- Time for organization is limited
Practice/Task
The teacher presents information through tasks, often organized into stations, that provide the teacher with the flexibility to maintain control over the teaching phases (teacher-centered) or begin to release some control to the students.
- Involves different students (often individually or in pairs) practicing different tasks at the same time
- Involves stations and task cards
- Works well when students need to practice skills they have already been taught
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher explains stations or tasks well beforehand
- Teacher makes managerial aspects clear
- Teacher frequently checks with students
- Students start with only a few stations or tasks
- Students work well independently
- Students are able to function without close supervision
Reciprocal
Teacher designs and communicates tasks, and students assume roles of providing feedback and assessment to peers.
Most effective approach when:
- Skill to be taught is simple
- Cues for observation are clear
- Performance is easily measured
Inclusion
The teacher designs tasks; students are allowed to choose the level at which they begin the tasks that best meets their needs or ability levels. Learners make a decision based on self-assessment of their entry point (e.g., size of ball, distance to goal). When the learner meets that goal, she can challenge herself again at a new level.
- Accommodates individual learning differences
- Individualizes further because choices are presented
- Is really a developmentally appropriate approach
Most effective approach when:
- Criteria for self-evaluation and assessment of success are clear
- Performance is easily measured
- Students work well independently
Self-Check
Similar to the reciprocal style, the teacher designs and communicates the task; however, in this style students assume a self-teaching role as they perform the task and then self-assess and reflect upon their performance.
- Carryover from task and reciprocal styles
- Decisions shifted to the learner in the impact and postimpact phases
- Learners weaned away from external feedback; they provide their own feedback as they self-monitor their progress on task
- Learner decides the context based on feedback from self-evaluation
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher values the learner's ability to develop self-monitoring capacity
- Teacher trusts the student to be honest
- Learner can identify own limits, successes, and failures
- Learner can use self-check as feedback
- Learner can work independently
Guided Discovery
Teaching is through questioning, designed to let students think and solve problems. Two versions:
- Convergent inquiry: Students discover the same answer to a series of questions.
- Divergent inquiry: Students find multiple answers to a problem.
Most effective approach when:
- Students are encouraged to think independently to discover new and different approaches to performing skill
- Students are encouraged to solve questions related to teamwork and strategy as they relate to skill performance
- Students are encouraged to explore a movement when they are not yet ready to learn a mature version of the skill
Once we make the decision to alter the style of teaching, we are also making the decision to give the student a greater role in the lesson and thus are facilitating development of personal and social responsibility. As noted in table 1.1 (chapter 1), each teaching style connects the student to a different TPSR level focus and underscores the student's awareness and recognition of his personal and eventually social responsibility. Thus, as noted in this book and by Don, it is critical that TPSR be integrated within all aspects of your lessons and content. Incorporating divergent teaching styles allows students to make decisions within the learning context. This approach is unique in that it engages the learner in the discovery and production of options within the subject matter (Mosston & Ashworth 2002).
For example, when youth are afforded the opportunity to set their own learning pace during lesson practice, select the type(s) of equipment that best match their ability level, and work in small collaborative groups, this allows them to work on skills of self-direction, participation, cooperation, and goal setting (TPSR Levels II and III). Divergent teaching styles also create opportunities for students to learn how to assess their own performance as well as to assess and provide feedback to each other through peer or reciprocal learning (Levels III and IV).
Alteration of one's teaching style is crucial by its very nature to creating a caring environment. Therefore incorporation of the styles of teaching serves to create an environment ripe with teachable moments that enhance and connect to the TPSR model. Whether students are learning sport skills or life skills, infusion of the strategies presented here will help teachers develop youth who are responsible and caring members of their school and community.
The choice of teaching style depends on a number of factors, including the following:
- Teacher beliefs: It is difficult to loosen control; is the teacher comfortable doing so?
- Goals of lessons: Are the skills or tasks familiar to the students or are they completely new?
- Teacher skill and preference: Is the teacher confident about her teaching skills?
- Student characteristics: Do students work well independently without supervision?
- Nature of content: Are students familiar with the content? How complex is it?
- Context of teaching: How much equipment and space are available?
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Starting out with Developmental Stage 1
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students.
Developmental Stage 1
As we discussed in the beginning of this book, students in the first developmental stage are often working on exhibiting Level I (respect) and II (participating with effort) behaviors consistently. During this stage the teacher takes the predominant role in leading the awareness talk, choosing developmentally appropriate tasks and challenges, structuring the group meeting, and providing reflection opportunities. As the lessons progress, the teacher is mindful to provide students with opportunities to begin to transition to developmental stage 2 (TPSR Level III, self-direction).
Relationship Time
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students. Icebreaker games provide an opportunity for students and teachers to interact, develop relationships, and have fun. Icebreakers can vary in length but all serve the purpose of creating an environment that fosters acceptance and interaction. A number of resources for icebreaker activities for all ages appear on the list at the end of the resources section in the back of the book. When working with developmental stage 1 learners, consider selecting activities that focus on individual traits (communication, cooperation, self-control, respect, and effort) within the context of group interactions.
The Mystery Move activity (Model in Action 5.1) gives students the opportunity to demonstrate self-control and cooperation (Level I) as well as to participate with effort (Level II). There is often a point in the game when a student is unable to identify who is leading the activity and begins to point madly at everyone. This bit of conflict can allow for the group to reset and to establish limits on the number of times a person can guess the leader before he switches places. It also gives the teacher and students the opportunity to compliment the student leading the activity, as well as the whole group on their cooperation, which provides a nice transition to the awareness talk.
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Awareness Talk
During the first developmental stage, the teacher takes the primary role during the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, guides the questioning, and makes the connection to teachable moments in the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 1 include respect, self-control, participation, effort, and effective communication. We like to use icebreakers during the relationship time, because they provide a leaping-off point from the activity to the remainder of the lesson. We also use the “What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?” method of structuring the awareness talk. This technique helps us draw meaning from the activity during the relationship time; it also models for students how they may direct the awareness talk as we eventually move to the side and allow them to lead this portion of the lesson (developmental stages 2 and 3). For example, in developmental stage 1, we might ask these questions:
- “What were some of the things we needed to do in Mystery Move to be successful as a group?”
- “What did you need to do to support the group?”
On the basis of responses from the students, we then lead them to extend their thinking by asking questions such as the following:
- “So what might be some things from the activity you might want to work on personally?”
- “What might be a couple things you know about yourself that you want to try to stop doing?”
- “Today we are starting our volleyball unit. What can you do in this unit to demonstrate some of those characteristics or behaviors?”
- “As you consider where you are, what are some goals you can take forward during today's lesson? Challenge yourself a bit!”
Lesson Focus
The theme identified during the awareness talk can set the stage for teachable moments throughout the lesson focus. You can select tasks or use pedagogical strategies that provide opportunities for students to make a cognitive or affective connection between the tasks and the theme. The teaching style you use can help to create a space for those teachable moments to occur. Although in developmental stage 1 it is often beneficial to maintain a somewhat teacher-centered approach (command style), we must also give students opportunities to work toward skill development in developmental stage 2. The style you choose will be influenced by your teaching philosophy, the learning styles of your students, and the context in which the lesson is presented. Here we provide an example of a lesson focus on a volleyball skill using two different styles of teaching.
Table 5.1 presents considerations for teaching the Dot Drills (Model in Action 5.2) activity using two teaching styles and shows how these connect to the TPSR model. The command style is more teacher centered, and the reciprocal style progresses a bit toward the divergent end of the teaching spectrum.
Command (Direct) Style
Presenting the Dot Drills activity through a command style allows you to direct the students through the progression of tasks. This encourages students to perform the task in the same way at the same time and allows you to check student performance. For each separate drill, provide a demonstration of the drill and identify cues:
- Keep knees bent.
- Move feet quickly from dot to dot.
- Keep body in a ready position with hands and arms out.
The teacher starts and stops the students for each drill, demonstrating the new variation and establishing cues. Throughout the activity the teacher moves about the space providing feedback.
Reciprocal Style
To present the same drill in reciprocal style, organize students into pairs. Each pair has a Dot Drill diagram on the floor. Students also have task sheets that briefly describe each drill and provide cues. In addition, we suggest providing a list of possible motivation-type feedback phrases students can use, such as “Way to keep your feet moving” or “Great job! Keep with it!”
Each pair of partners begins when ready. One student completes one rotation of the drill while the partner observes and provides feedback. The feedback should relate to the cues identified on the task sheet. After one rotation of the drill, students switch roles; the observer becomes the doer, and the doer becomes the observer. This process is repeated for each drill variation. The teacher's role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. The teacher must step in to provide feedback if a safety issue arises. Otherwise, the teacher encourages or suggests feedback to the observer only if the observer is not providing feedback. Key to this style is getting the students to interact with minimal or no input from the teacher.
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Group Meeting
Group meetings during the first developmental stage are facilitated by the teacher but provide an opportunity for students to have a voice in the learning process. This is the time for students to give input on how the lesson went, how their peers did, and even how the teacher did, all in relation to working on goals of developmental stage 1. Questions about how the activities challenged the students and how they felt participating in the lesson when the teacher used a given teaching style are good beginning points. Students can also be asked how they felt the class as a whole or just they and their partner or small group did. Lastly, you can ask how you as the teacher did and what you might work on for next session. As Don Hellison notes, this facet of the lesson tends to be foreign to students initially, as young people are not often asked to provide feedback to each other, much less to and about the teacher. Over time, students will feel more comfortable verbalizing their thoughts as this becomes a consistent part of the class.
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Don suggests that teachers initially lay down some ground rules; they can do this in collaboration with the students. These are examples of group meeting ground rules:
- No blaming others—accept responsibility for yourself.
- Include everyone in the discussion.
- Be respectful of yourself and others (full-value contract).
- Use each other's names.
- Do not talk over each other.
- Wait for classmates to finish their comments.
These are only a few examples; again, we encourage teachers to solicit input from their classes about what the ground rules should include.
Another especially relevant issue concerning group meetings is time. If you do not have sufficient time to check in with all students, ask for responses on how things went from a few students. A common practice in many TPSR-based programs is to have the students keep a journal. They can do this as homework and turn in their comments the next day. This way you keep track of how things are going and get timely input from the class.
Reflection
Reflection time should flow fairly seamlessly from the group meeting time. Group meeting time focuses on student evaluation of the lesson, and reflection time focuses on evaluation of the students' roles as learners and support. Thus, questions can move from how the activities or style of teaching challenged or engaged the students to a focus on how they participated as independent learners, demonstrated respect, showed self-direction, and cooperated during the lesson. During developmental stage 1, the teacher directs the discussion. The thumbometer is a technique often used for reflection time. In response to questions from the teacher, students point their thumbs up, sideways, or down to indicate how well they did on a particular aspect of the lesson. These are examples of questions the teacher might ask:
- “During Dot Drill today, did you demonstrate cooperation with your partner by giving feedback?”
- “Did you show stick-to-itiveness during Dot Drill as it got harder?”
- “Did you show self-direction by challenging yourself during the drill?”
Students respond as a group by pointing their thumbs. The teacher notes where most of the participants are (e.g., more thumbs up than down) so as to facilitate activities toward the higher levels (Levels III through V). As Don notes in his work, it is important to acknowledge that kids have bad days, too, which means we should support them and encourage honest self-evaluation. We also want to underscore not blaming others for our behavior.
Lastly, the reflection time is when we can begin to encourage students to think about how they can demonstrate the levels outside of the class or program. Asking students where in their out-of-class or out-of-program lives they could demonstrate a given level of responsibility allows them to begin to conceptualize this transition. For some students, reaching a particular level outside of class but still within the school (which is a nice scaffold) might be all that is possible. In any case, we should begin to encourage students to think about responsibility concepts outside the class.
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Transitioning to Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage.
Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage. This means providing opportunities for students to work collaboratively with their peers with little teacher guidance (Level III, self-direction). During the second stage you begin to call upon students to take a role in the learning process. As you will see in this section, you begin to relinquish some of the control of the class to students during awareness talks and group meetings. As this occurs, some students may begin to demonstrate a desire to take leadership roles (Level IV), but most will continue to need some guidance in keeping self-directed without individual supervision.
Relationship Time
Juggler's Carry (Model in Action 8.1) gives students the opportunity to continue to demonstrate respect (Level I) and participate with effort (Level II) while working collaboratively with their classmates without direct supervision from the teacher (Level III). Following the same format (“What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?”) but now inviting more student leadership during the process, we can begin to navigate TPSR Level III and to transition to Level IV concepts.
Awareness Talk
During the second developmental stage, the teacher begins to share the responsibility for the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, asks one or more students to guide the questioning, and draws the connection to the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 2 include self-control, self-direction, goal setting, and problem solving.
Using students to help guide the awareness talk is key in the development of youth leaders (Level IV). Following the activity, you can use student leaders to “debrief” so as to draw the attention of the learners to the cognitive and affective attributes of an activity. These are examples of questions you might provide the student leader following Juggler's Carry:
“What?” Questions
- “What helped you when talking with your group members to be successful at the activity?”
- “What were your feelings when you failed to keep balls from hitting the ground? How did you feel when you were successful in keeping balls from hitting the ground?”
“So What?” Questions
- “How might your feelings when you failed and succeeded help as you work in groups?”
- “How might you do things differently in this activity to find more success individually and as a member of the group?”
“Now What?” Questions
- “Thinking about the activity and how you felt as you succeeded or failed, how can those feelings help you as you engage in other activities during basketball?”
- “What might you do to help regain focus when you are not succeeding at something?”
By providing the students with a selection of questions, you maintain the direction of the conversation while giving students a chance to comfortably explore what it is like to take a leadership role in class.
Lesson Focus
The opportunities for self-direction take center stage during developmental stage 2. Again, activities should transition from individuals performing within the context of the group to individuals positively interacting with partners and small groups in self-guided learning experiences.
Table 8.2 presents considerations for teaching the Pass and Shoot activity (Model in Action 8.3) through two teaching styles and shows how they connect to the TPSR model. You can alter both styles so as to create challenge and, most importantly, provide students with the opportunity to work individually and in groups as well as pace themselves.
Being mindful of the activities used during this stage provides you with opportunities to alter the teaching style and encourage greater student responsibility. This allows for students to begin leading the group meeting segment of the lesson and speaking as to how the lesson activities address the theme or themes identified during the awareness talk.
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Inclusion Style
To use the inclusion style, you demonstrate the cues for Pass and Shoot and present task sheets that provide a diagram and performance cues. Identify the options available for students in deciding how and where to enter the drill. For example, students can vary distances to the basket and use different types of balls to make the task more difficult. Students can also count missed or made shots, or they can time themselves and see how many shots they can make. These options, chosen by the students for themselves, create additional challenges. Students are placed in pairs and dispersed throughout the teaching area. Allow time for the learners to assess their level though trial and error and begin the drill. After each drill, the learners reassess and set new challenges based on the levels available and the achievement of performance criteria.
Your role is to circulate throughout the learning space and provide feedback only on the decisions of the students. You can ask, for example, “How are you doing at the level you have selected?” On the basis of the students' response, inquire about the decisions made and how successful the students feel they are. With this style it is important not to start out by overtly challenging the decision made initially but to help students in their self-assessments.
Reciprocal Style
To use the reciprocal style for this activity, arrange students in groups of three; the third person becomes the observer. Provide task sheets that briefly describe the activity, the cues, and the participants' roles. We also suggest including a list of possible motivation-type feedback for students to use. Clear role expectations for students on the task sheet will help them keep focus. For example, spell out what the observer ought to be observing (performance cues) and what the doers are doing (practicing). Provide a time or a number of passes for each facet of the activity. Once they are finished, the students rotate their roles. This process is repeated for each drill variation.
Your role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. You must step in to provide feedback if there is a safety issue. Otherwise, you encourage or suggest feedback to the observer only if feedback is not occurring.
Group Meeting
The group meeting during the second developmental stage should continue to provide students with an opportunity to have a voice in the learning process but facilitate their leading more of the discussion. Because you have modeled leading the discussion in developmental stage 1, you can help students assume more responsibility by asking questions such as “What sorts of questions did I ask you about the lesson?” and “What questions do you have of your peers from the lesson?” Another strategy is to have students write their questions or comments on a slip of paper and then exchange with partners and engage in small-group discussions. You can then bring them back to the large group and ask for culminating thoughts from the day's lesson. Don't be disappointed if it takes a bit more effort during this developmental stage to get things going. Be consistent, be caring, and be a good model, and your students will begin to assume more responsibility.
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Reflection
Key to this stage is that students begin to lead more of the discussion. Students can be cued on questions that address the particular levels they are working at during this stage (Level III) and begin to scaffold to goals for the next levels (IV and V). These are examples of helpful questions:
- “How did you feel you and your partner worked independent of teacher direction?”
- “What might you improve on?”
- “As we move toward more independence, what goals can you set to show more leadership in class?”
Students can begin to generate these types of questions once you have modeled them. We encourage you to note the many examples in Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Through Physical Activity, Third Edition, of different ways to engage students in reflection time. Methods such as exit slips, journaling, and tapping in (students tap on a poster listing the levels to indicate where they are) can be quite effective and keep this part of the lesson fresh.
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Seeking leadership opportunities in Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult.
Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult. At this stage students should routinely demonstrate behaviors consistent with Levels I to III and actively seek out leadership opportunities. These opportunities for caring and leadership take center stage during developmental stage 3. Caring and leadership can manifest themselves during all aspects of the lesson as students explore ways to engage in the learning process.
Relationship Time
Relationship time during the third developmental stage should be almost entirely run by students. Student leaders can be responsible for setup, instruction, and facilitation of the relationship time tasks. For example, many teachers use a warm-up routine that is performed throughout the year. Consider allowing students to lead, or even better create, the warm-up or other relationship time activities.
The Create-a-Game activity meets the objectives of relationship time by providing opportunities for students to interact with each other constructively; it also meets the developmental stage 3 needs by providing opportunities for students to be self-directed and to develop leadership skills.
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Awareness Talk
Student leaders should be comfortable with identifying the theme, guiding the questioning, and drawing connections to the lesson by the time they reach the third developmental stage. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 3 include self-direction, leadership, and transfer. To illustrate a developmental stage 3 awareness talk, let's consider Create-a-Game (Model in Action 11.6).
In speaking for the Create-a-Game activity, the student leaders would generalize the lessons learned from the activity to the theme and subsequent activities. These are examples of statements and questions they might offer:
- “I liked how my group talked through each step and offered game ideas. How did your group decide on the game you would create?”
- “In our group we selected our five pieces of equipment first and then tried to come up with a unique game that used the equipment. How did other groups decide where to begin?”
In speaking for the experience, the student leaders can generalize what occurred in the activity. Nonverbal behavior on the part of the teacher can be really be important here. Remain involved by demonstrating active listening, nodding your head, and making eye contact with whoever is speaking. This models to the students behaviors that they too can maintain in the process.
Lesson Focus
Developmental stage 3 activities should provide students with the opportunity for leadership experiences and encourage transfer to other aspects of the curriculum. The Two Up, Two Back activity (Model in Action 11.7), a volley drill, offers students opportunities to exhibit behaviors consistent with responsibility Levels I through IV.
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Teaching strategies for developmental stage 3 include providing students with opportunities to emphasize previous levels but, more importantly, focus on Levels IV (caring and leadership) and V (outside the gymnasium). We can elicit these behaviors by modifying the way we present the task.
Table 11.3 presents considerations for teaching Two Up, Two Back through two different styles. You can use a command style, but this minimizes the opportunity for students to demonstrate developmental stage 3 behaviors. Instead, presenting the task through a divergent discovery style or a self-check style provides opportunities for self-directed learning and leadership.
Two Up, Two Back (Model in Action 11.7) provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate responsibility Levels I through IV. Using a guided discovery approach gives students a chance to collaboratively develop tactical awareness for the volley and passing shots. Self-checking enables them to self-assess in the context of group play. At this developmental stage, students have demonstrated the ability to work independently while putting forth effort and showing respect to their peers. At this point we hope you can begin to think of ways to modify the learning environment to promote leadership skills in your students. These skills can be carried over to the group meeting segment of the lesson, increasing the contribution of students to the learning process.
Divergent Discovery Style
Presenting Two Up, Two Back using a divergent discovery approach allows you to engage students in both the cognitive and psychomotor domains. Through questioning or the presentation of a problem, you can have students diverge on solutions for successfully completing the task. With this task you can allow groups of students to diverge on a solution that meets the task requirements.
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Teacher: “Each group will play a modified doubles game. One team starts at the net and the other at the baseline. The team at the baseline begins play, and team locations switch after each point. The first two hits of each round should be easily returnable by the other team. Points can be scored only after two successful hits have been completed. Rotate service each point and play to 10 points.”
After each round of 10 points, have students reflect on the following questions:
- How can you support your partner during a point (think about your movement and positioning on the court)?
- What strategies did the volleying team use to score points?
- What strategies did the baseline team use to score points?
- How can we use one hit to set up our next shot?
Self-Check Style
Shifting to a self-check style provides additional opportunities for students to demonstrate self-direction and leadership behaviors. Create a task sheet that briefly describes the activity and provides learning cues. You can ask a group to demonstrate the activity drills and focus students on their task sheet. Once groups have read their sheets, they can begin the activity at their own pace.
Following each game (to 10 points), students recheck the criteria noted on the task sheet relative to their execution of the volley. Students are responsible for their own feedback based on the criteria for the given skill. The teacher's role is to ask questions related to the student's process of self-checking or self-assessing.
Group Meeting
As with the awareness talk, this portion of the lesson is mostly student led. You can assist by cueing students regarding the levels they are working on, as well as reminding them of what sorts of questions have been asked in previous classes. Questions about how the lesson was conducted, how the activity met the students' needs or provided challenge, and how the style of teaching engaged them are all examples of program-related discussion questions.
During the Two Up, Two Back activity, a student leader can initiate a group reflection on the lesson activities by asking questions like these:
- “How did you support your partner during this drill?”
- “What are other ways we support our doubles partner during tennis?”
- “How can we use a shot to set up our partner for the next shot?”
Reflection
We should expect students at this developmental stage to be able to pose higher-order questions during their reflections. Reflections should continue to serve as an opportunity for students to self-reflect on their actions and what they observed in others throughout the lesson while exploring ways they can transfer the responsibility attributes they are developing in physical education to life beyond the gym. This can be accomplished through a variety of formats in class or outside of class time. Students can read each other's journals and provide feedback, assist each other in goal setting, or create strategies to transfer the levels to environments outside of the program. Again, the teacher remains connected to the process as an active listener and support.
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An extension of TPSR—The Kinesiology Career Club
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.”
The Kinesiology Career Club
David Walsh
Program Description
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.” The more specific goals of KCC for the youth are as follows:
- To maximize motivation to improve in, stay in, and find relevance in school
- To enhance connection between the TPSR goals of respect, effort, goal setting, and leadership skills and the importance they play in youths' futures
- To chart the necessary steps to first become a professional in kinesiology, which provides practical experience in a specific career
- To chart the necessary steps for their own careers of choice and developing strategies for matriculating and graduating from college
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The program takes place in San Francisco at Mission High School, a low-performing inner-city school. It began in spring 2011 and will be ongoing every spring and fall semester. The program runs for 80 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday over the entire semester during second-period physical education. Current KCC students include five girls and nine boys who are all ninth graders. The high school has a diverse population with the following ethnicity breakdown: 14 percent African American, 23 percent Asian, 46 percent Latino, 9 percent Caucasian, and 8 percent other. The KCC students closely reflect this diversity.
As a university-community collaboration, KCC is also part of a course offered at San Francisco State University (SFSU) to graduating kinesiology seniors. Called “SFSU Mentors,” six to eight seniors are selected to conduct their capstone kinesiology course in the community by helping me run this program. I am the lead instructor of KCC, and the SFSU Mentors help lead various physical activities—a combination of martial arts, weight training, dance, and fitness activities—and mentor the students on positive “possible futures” in either a 1-to-1 or 2-to-1 ratio for the final 15 minutes of every session.
Use of TPSR Model
The KCC goals progress through four phases. Each phase allows for the systematic application of TPSR within the program, as well as providing opportunities for students to engage the model as they move through the program.
Phase One Goals
In phase one we use TPSR daily format and strategies to introduce the program, including the various physical activities. This phase focuses on Level I, respect, and Level II, effort. We aim to begin building relationships with the students, have them voice their opinions about the program content and structure, and introduce the field of kinesiology. We also introduce the combined TPSR reflection time and mentoring time, a significant component of the positive “possible futures” emphasis that takes place throughout the program. We talk about our own choice to study kinesiology, connect the physical activities in KCC to the basis and foundation of the field of kinesiology, bridge Levels I and II to the idea of being successful in kinesiology, encourage the students to talk about their own career interests, and begin to get to know and develop relationships with them.
Phase Two Goals
Once phase one goals are mostly achieved, phase two begins to empower the students to take on the advanced TPSR responsibilities (Level III, goal setting; Level IV, leadership). Students are asked to set goals for martial arts, weight training, dance, or fitness skills. They are also encouraged to take on small leadership experiences by way of teaching the activities they worked on during goal-setting time. We encourage the students to consider a career in at least one of the many subdisciplines of kinesiology, connect the physical activities and goal setting and leadership in the program to being successful in the field of kinesiology, and begin to chart the steps to earning a college degree in kinesiology. Phase two also aims at having students reflect on what they are currently doing in school and out of school that could either help or hinder their futures.
Phase Three Goals
Once phase two goals are mostly achieved, phase three continues to empower the students to work on TPSR Levels I through IV. Goal-setting time and leadership roles are extended so that students take on more responsibility. We introduce the potential transference of the steps to a career in kinesiology to the development of responsibility traits necessary for the students' future careers of choice. The idea is to link phase two experiences of understanding how to be successful in kinesiology to understanding what success would mean in the students' own careers of choice. Students actively reflect on what they would like to pursue as a career and effectively discover ways to link what they learned about kinesiology to their own future career interests. We also introduce the importance of having both potential hopes and potential fears—as suggested by the theory of possible selves (Oyserman, Terry, & Bybee 2002)—and doing the hard work as well as having the positive attitude and preparation needed for success.
Phase Four Goals
After students have mostly achieved phase three goals, phase four continues to empower them to work on responsibility Levels I through IV. We introduce Level V, outside the gym, and address how what the students do in school, at home, and in the streets affects their futures. Phase four discussions focus solely on the students' careers of choice. We further reinforce the connection between the TPSR levels and what might prove necessary for the practical realization of their possible futures, including both potential hopes and fears. We provide additional insight into the degree of hard work, positive attitude, and preparation needed for the realization of their possible futures.
Additional Program Elements
Since KCC is run through in-school physical education, we have to integrate traditional physical education elements such as uniform requirements and fitness testing into the program. Unlike after-school programs that students may choose to attend, attending KCC is mandatory. Mission High School has been very supportive of the program and has given us complete autonomy with respect to fulfilling the goals of KCC. It is a collaboration we plan to continue for several years.
Even though KCC has some goals that differ from those of a regular TPSR program, we are able to keep a TPSR focus by systematically implementing the components of a regular TPSR daily format. Each session has relationship time, an awareness talk, physical activities designed as a way for the students to experience the responsibility levels, a group meeting, and a reflection time. Some of the KCC goals require alteration of the TPSR components. For example, a KCC awareness talk includes how the levels relate to the students' futures, and discussions focus on the field of kinesiology. Reflection time takes place with the guidance of SFSU Mentors, which students document in a journal. Students are asked to reflect not only on the levels but also on how they are performing in school and are exploring a “possible future,” first in kinesiology and then in their own careers of choice. An effective strategy has been providing information on the various subdisciplines of kinesiology to give the students the opportunity to find relevance in at least one of them. Some students easily identify with kinesiology as a “possible future” while others connect only with being physically active as an important issue in their lives. As the program progresses, discussions about their own career interests seem to get more detailed and authentic.
Keeping SITE
Though KCC has different goals and purposes, it is still an extension of TPSR. It is crucial for us to keep SITE of the four TPSR themes. KCC includes TPSR's prioritization of the instructor-student relationship through the concern for each student's emotional, social, and physical well-being. KCC is also empowerment based, giving students various leadership roles, providing goal-setting time, giving them a voice in the program's direction, and enabling them to evaluate both themselves and the program. The difference is in how the TPSR levels are integrated into the physical activities as a way to explore a career in kinesiology. Once this is established, then transference of the levels to enhance the students' understanding and exploration of their own careers of interest can occur. KCC is still in its early phases of development and will change as the program evolves, but TPSR will continue to be the foundation and core of the program.
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Relinquish control and enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student–teacher and student–student relationships.
Student-Centered Learning
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student-teacher and student-student relationships. An easy way to think about this is to ask ourselves as teachers, How do I invite the views, thoughts, or input of my students into my teaching? Given how we invite our students to share in the methods we use to teach, we are creating a situation through which we relinquish control and thus enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships.
A way to think about how we invite students into our teaching is to use the spectrum of teaching styles by Mosston and Ashworth (2002). The spectrum places the teaching context on a continuum (figure 3.3). The continuum is anchored on one end by teaching styles that are convergent or that come to a common goal. The opposite end of the continuum is anchored by teaching styles that are divergent or that have many goals or possible answers.
Mosston conceptualized the teaching spectrum on the basis of the decisions the teachers made; as he states, “Teaching behavior is a chain of decision making” (Mosston & Ashworth 2002, p. 4). For Mosston, the spectrum identified teaching and learning options. Thus, the goal of the spectrum was for teachers to become proficient in generating a variety of teaching contexts based on the content focus, objectives, and learner needs. Movement along the teaching continuum is based on manipulation of the three phases of teaching: preimpact, impact, and postimpact.
- The preimpact phase entails establishing the lesson objectives and focus. It is often the teacher who is primarily in charge of this aspect of teaching.
- The impact phase is the actual execution of the teaching. This includes elements such as the pace of the lesson and the types of learning activities. Obviously, these aspects can also be primarily teacher centered; but within the spectrum, it is when we step away from the center in the impact phase that we begin to elicit a more student-centered approach.
- The postimpact phase includes evaluation of the student's performance both during and after completion of the task.
As the teacher begins to release control of the various phases to the student, the style of teaching changes and typically moves from the convergent end of the continuum toward the divergent end.
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Mosston identified 11 styles of teaching, labeled styles A through K. The first five styles (A through E) represent teaching decisions that foster and support reproduction of past knowledge; these styles are called command, practice/task, reciprocal, inclusion, and self-check. The rest of the styles (F through K) represent options that foster production of new knowledge; these styles are called guided discovery, convergent discovery, divergent discovery, learner-designed individual program, learner-initiated, and self-teaching.
Here we briefly discuss the styles incorporated into part II of this book. For a more detailed discussion of all the styles (A through K), the reader is directed to Mosston and Ashworth (2002).
Command
Response is influenced by telling students what to do, telling them how to practice, and directing practice.
Most effective approach when:
- Goal is to learn and perform specific skill
- Teacher is looking for a specific response
- Teacher has limited experience working with a group
- Time for organization is limited
Practice/Task
The teacher presents information through tasks, often organized into stations, that provide the teacher with the flexibility to maintain control over the teaching phases (teacher-centered) or begin to release some control to the students.
- Involves different students (often individually or in pairs) practicing different tasks at the same time
- Involves stations and task cards
- Works well when students need to practice skills they have already been taught
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher explains stations or tasks well beforehand
- Teacher makes managerial aspects clear
- Teacher frequently checks with students
- Students start with only a few stations or tasks
- Students work well independently
- Students are able to function without close supervision
Reciprocal
Teacher designs and communicates tasks, and students assume roles of providing feedback and assessment to peers.
Most effective approach when:
- Skill to be taught is simple
- Cues for observation are clear
- Performance is easily measured
Inclusion
The teacher designs tasks; students are allowed to choose the level at which they begin the tasks that best meets their needs or ability levels. Learners make a decision based on self-assessment of their entry point (e.g., size of ball, distance to goal). When the learner meets that goal, she can challenge herself again at a new level.
- Accommodates individual learning differences
- Individualizes further because choices are presented
- Is really a developmentally appropriate approach
Most effective approach when:
- Criteria for self-evaluation and assessment of success are clear
- Performance is easily measured
- Students work well independently
Self-Check
Similar to the reciprocal style, the teacher designs and communicates the task; however, in this style students assume a self-teaching role as they perform the task and then self-assess and reflect upon their performance.
- Carryover from task and reciprocal styles
- Decisions shifted to the learner in the impact and postimpact phases
- Learners weaned away from external feedback; they provide their own feedback as they self-monitor their progress on task
- Learner decides the context based on feedback from self-evaluation
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher values the learner's ability to develop self-monitoring capacity
- Teacher trusts the student to be honest
- Learner can identify own limits, successes, and failures
- Learner can use self-check as feedback
- Learner can work independently
Guided Discovery
Teaching is through questioning, designed to let students think and solve problems. Two versions:
- Convergent inquiry: Students discover the same answer to a series of questions.
- Divergent inquiry: Students find multiple answers to a problem.
Most effective approach when:
- Students are encouraged to think independently to discover new and different approaches to performing skill
- Students are encouraged to solve questions related to teamwork and strategy as they relate to skill performance
- Students are encouraged to explore a movement when they are not yet ready to learn a mature version of the skill
Once we make the decision to alter the style of teaching, we are also making the decision to give the student a greater role in the lesson and thus are facilitating development of personal and social responsibility. As noted in table 1.1 (chapter 1), each teaching style connects the student to a different TPSR level focus and underscores the student's awareness and recognition of his personal and eventually social responsibility. Thus, as noted in this book and by Don, it is critical that TPSR be integrated within all aspects of your lessons and content. Incorporating divergent teaching styles allows students to make decisions within the learning context. This approach is unique in that it engages the learner in the discovery and production of options within the subject matter (Mosston & Ashworth 2002).
For example, when youth are afforded the opportunity to set their own learning pace during lesson practice, select the type(s) of equipment that best match their ability level, and work in small collaborative groups, this allows them to work on skills of self-direction, participation, cooperation, and goal setting (TPSR Levels II and III). Divergent teaching styles also create opportunities for students to learn how to assess their own performance as well as to assess and provide feedback to each other through peer or reciprocal learning (Levels III and IV).
Alteration of one's teaching style is crucial by its very nature to creating a caring environment. Therefore incorporation of the styles of teaching serves to create an environment ripe with teachable moments that enhance and connect to the TPSR model. Whether students are learning sport skills or life skills, infusion of the strategies presented here will help teachers develop youth who are responsible and caring members of their school and community.
The choice of teaching style depends on a number of factors, including the following:
- Teacher beliefs: It is difficult to loosen control; is the teacher comfortable doing so?
- Goals of lessons: Are the skills or tasks familiar to the students or are they completely new?
- Teacher skill and preference: Is the teacher confident about her teaching skills?
- Student characteristics: Do students work well independently without supervision?
- Nature of content: Are students familiar with the content? How complex is it?
- Context of teaching: How much equipment and space are available?
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Starting out with Developmental Stage 1
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students.
Developmental Stage 1
As we discussed in the beginning of this book, students in the first developmental stage are often working on exhibiting Level I (respect) and II (participating with effort) behaviors consistently. During this stage the teacher takes the predominant role in leading the awareness talk, choosing developmentally appropriate tasks and challenges, structuring the group meeting, and providing reflection opportunities. As the lessons progress, the teacher is mindful to provide students with opportunities to begin to transition to developmental stage 2 (TPSR Level III, self-direction).
Relationship Time
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students. Icebreaker games provide an opportunity for students and teachers to interact, develop relationships, and have fun. Icebreakers can vary in length but all serve the purpose of creating an environment that fosters acceptance and interaction. A number of resources for icebreaker activities for all ages appear on the list at the end of the resources section in the back of the book. When working with developmental stage 1 learners, consider selecting activities that focus on individual traits (communication, cooperation, self-control, respect, and effort) within the context of group interactions.
The Mystery Move activity (Model in Action 5.1) gives students the opportunity to demonstrate self-control and cooperation (Level I) as well as to participate with effort (Level II). There is often a point in the game when a student is unable to identify who is leading the activity and begins to point madly at everyone. This bit of conflict can allow for the group to reset and to establish limits on the number of times a person can guess the leader before he switches places. It also gives the teacher and students the opportunity to compliment the student leading the activity, as well as the whole group on their cooperation, which provides a nice transition to the awareness talk.
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Awareness Talk
During the first developmental stage, the teacher takes the primary role during the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, guides the questioning, and makes the connection to teachable moments in the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 1 include respect, self-control, participation, effort, and effective communication. We like to use icebreakers during the relationship time, because they provide a leaping-off point from the activity to the remainder of the lesson. We also use the “What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?” method of structuring the awareness talk. This technique helps us draw meaning from the activity during the relationship time; it also models for students how they may direct the awareness talk as we eventually move to the side and allow them to lead this portion of the lesson (developmental stages 2 and 3). For example, in developmental stage 1, we might ask these questions:
- “What were some of the things we needed to do in Mystery Move to be successful as a group?”
- “What did you need to do to support the group?”
On the basis of responses from the students, we then lead them to extend their thinking by asking questions such as the following:
- “So what might be some things from the activity you might want to work on personally?”
- “What might be a couple things you know about yourself that you want to try to stop doing?”
- “Today we are starting our volleyball unit. What can you do in this unit to demonstrate some of those characteristics or behaviors?”
- “As you consider where you are, what are some goals you can take forward during today's lesson? Challenge yourself a bit!”
Lesson Focus
The theme identified during the awareness talk can set the stage for teachable moments throughout the lesson focus. You can select tasks or use pedagogical strategies that provide opportunities for students to make a cognitive or affective connection between the tasks and the theme. The teaching style you use can help to create a space for those teachable moments to occur. Although in developmental stage 1 it is often beneficial to maintain a somewhat teacher-centered approach (command style), we must also give students opportunities to work toward skill development in developmental stage 2. The style you choose will be influenced by your teaching philosophy, the learning styles of your students, and the context in which the lesson is presented. Here we provide an example of a lesson focus on a volleyball skill using two different styles of teaching.
Table 5.1 presents considerations for teaching the Dot Drills (Model in Action 5.2) activity using two teaching styles and shows how these connect to the TPSR model. The command style is more teacher centered, and the reciprocal style progresses a bit toward the divergent end of the teaching spectrum.
Command (Direct) Style
Presenting the Dot Drills activity through a command style allows you to direct the students through the progression of tasks. This encourages students to perform the task in the same way at the same time and allows you to check student performance. For each separate drill, provide a demonstration of the drill and identify cues:
- Keep knees bent.
- Move feet quickly from dot to dot.
- Keep body in a ready position with hands and arms out.
The teacher starts and stops the students for each drill, demonstrating the new variation and establishing cues. Throughout the activity the teacher moves about the space providing feedback.
Reciprocal Style
To present the same drill in reciprocal style, organize students into pairs. Each pair has a Dot Drill diagram on the floor. Students also have task sheets that briefly describe each drill and provide cues. In addition, we suggest providing a list of possible motivation-type feedback phrases students can use, such as “Way to keep your feet moving” or “Great job! Keep with it!”
Each pair of partners begins when ready. One student completes one rotation of the drill while the partner observes and provides feedback. The feedback should relate to the cues identified on the task sheet. After one rotation of the drill, students switch roles; the observer becomes the doer, and the doer becomes the observer. This process is repeated for each drill variation. The teacher's role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. The teacher must step in to provide feedback if a safety issue arises. Otherwise, the teacher encourages or suggests feedback to the observer only if the observer is not providing feedback. Key to this style is getting the students to interact with minimal or no input from the teacher.
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Group Meeting
Group meetings during the first developmental stage are facilitated by the teacher but provide an opportunity for students to have a voice in the learning process. This is the time for students to give input on how the lesson went, how their peers did, and even how the teacher did, all in relation to working on goals of developmental stage 1. Questions about how the activities challenged the students and how they felt participating in the lesson when the teacher used a given teaching style are good beginning points. Students can also be asked how they felt the class as a whole or just they and their partner or small group did. Lastly, you can ask how you as the teacher did and what you might work on for next session. As Don Hellison notes, this facet of the lesson tends to be foreign to students initially, as young people are not often asked to provide feedback to each other, much less to and about the teacher. Over time, students will feel more comfortable verbalizing their thoughts as this becomes a consistent part of the class.
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Don suggests that teachers initially lay down some ground rules; they can do this in collaboration with the students. These are examples of group meeting ground rules:
- No blaming others—accept responsibility for yourself.
- Include everyone in the discussion.
- Be respectful of yourself and others (full-value contract).
- Use each other's names.
- Do not talk over each other.
- Wait for classmates to finish their comments.
These are only a few examples; again, we encourage teachers to solicit input from their classes about what the ground rules should include.
Another especially relevant issue concerning group meetings is time. If you do not have sufficient time to check in with all students, ask for responses on how things went from a few students. A common practice in many TPSR-based programs is to have the students keep a journal. They can do this as homework and turn in their comments the next day. This way you keep track of how things are going and get timely input from the class.
Reflection
Reflection time should flow fairly seamlessly from the group meeting time. Group meeting time focuses on student evaluation of the lesson, and reflection time focuses on evaluation of the students' roles as learners and support. Thus, questions can move from how the activities or style of teaching challenged or engaged the students to a focus on how they participated as independent learners, demonstrated respect, showed self-direction, and cooperated during the lesson. During developmental stage 1, the teacher directs the discussion. The thumbometer is a technique often used for reflection time. In response to questions from the teacher, students point their thumbs up, sideways, or down to indicate how well they did on a particular aspect of the lesson. These are examples of questions the teacher might ask:
- “During Dot Drill today, did you demonstrate cooperation with your partner by giving feedback?”
- “Did you show stick-to-itiveness during Dot Drill as it got harder?”
- “Did you show self-direction by challenging yourself during the drill?”
Students respond as a group by pointing their thumbs. The teacher notes where most of the participants are (e.g., more thumbs up than down) so as to facilitate activities toward the higher levels (Levels III through V). As Don notes in his work, it is important to acknowledge that kids have bad days, too, which means we should support them and encourage honest self-evaluation. We also want to underscore not blaming others for our behavior.
Lastly, the reflection time is when we can begin to encourage students to think about how they can demonstrate the levels outside of the class or program. Asking students where in their out-of-class or out-of-program lives they could demonstrate a given level of responsibility allows them to begin to conceptualize this transition. For some students, reaching a particular level outside of class but still within the school (which is a nice scaffold) might be all that is possible. In any case, we should begin to encourage students to think about responsibility concepts outside the class.
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Transitioning to Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage.
Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage. This means providing opportunities for students to work collaboratively with their peers with little teacher guidance (Level III, self-direction). During the second stage you begin to call upon students to take a role in the learning process. As you will see in this section, you begin to relinquish some of the control of the class to students during awareness talks and group meetings. As this occurs, some students may begin to demonstrate a desire to take leadership roles (Level IV), but most will continue to need some guidance in keeping self-directed without individual supervision.
Relationship Time
Juggler's Carry (Model in Action 8.1) gives students the opportunity to continue to demonstrate respect (Level I) and participate with effort (Level II) while working collaboratively with their classmates without direct supervision from the teacher (Level III). Following the same format (“What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?”) but now inviting more student leadership during the process, we can begin to navigate TPSR Level III and to transition to Level IV concepts.
Awareness Talk
During the second developmental stage, the teacher begins to share the responsibility for the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, asks one or more students to guide the questioning, and draws the connection to the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 2 include self-control, self-direction, goal setting, and problem solving.
Using students to help guide the awareness talk is key in the development of youth leaders (Level IV). Following the activity, you can use student leaders to “debrief” so as to draw the attention of the learners to the cognitive and affective attributes of an activity. These are examples of questions you might provide the student leader following Juggler's Carry:
“What?” Questions
- “What helped you when talking with your group members to be successful at the activity?”
- “What were your feelings when you failed to keep balls from hitting the ground? How did you feel when you were successful in keeping balls from hitting the ground?”
“So What?” Questions
- “How might your feelings when you failed and succeeded help as you work in groups?”
- “How might you do things differently in this activity to find more success individually and as a member of the group?”
“Now What?” Questions
- “Thinking about the activity and how you felt as you succeeded or failed, how can those feelings help you as you engage in other activities during basketball?”
- “What might you do to help regain focus when you are not succeeding at something?”
By providing the students with a selection of questions, you maintain the direction of the conversation while giving students a chance to comfortably explore what it is like to take a leadership role in class.
Lesson Focus
The opportunities for self-direction take center stage during developmental stage 2. Again, activities should transition from individuals performing within the context of the group to individuals positively interacting with partners and small groups in self-guided learning experiences.
Table 8.2 presents considerations for teaching the Pass and Shoot activity (Model in Action 8.3) through two teaching styles and shows how they connect to the TPSR model. You can alter both styles so as to create challenge and, most importantly, provide students with the opportunity to work individually and in groups as well as pace themselves.
Being mindful of the activities used during this stage provides you with opportunities to alter the teaching style and encourage greater student responsibility. This allows for students to begin leading the group meeting segment of the lesson and speaking as to how the lesson activities address the theme or themes identified during the awareness talk.
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Inclusion Style
To use the inclusion style, you demonstrate the cues for Pass and Shoot and present task sheets that provide a diagram and performance cues. Identify the options available for students in deciding how and where to enter the drill. For example, students can vary distances to the basket and use different types of balls to make the task more difficult. Students can also count missed or made shots, or they can time themselves and see how many shots they can make. These options, chosen by the students for themselves, create additional challenges. Students are placed in pairs and dispersed throughout the teaching area. Allow time for the learners to assess their level though trial and error and begin the drill. After each drill, the learners reassess and set new challenges based on the levels available and the achievement of performance criteria.
Your role is to circulate throughout the learning space and provide feedback only on the decisions of the students. You can ask, for example, “How are you doing at the level you have selected?” On the basis of the students' response, inquire about the decisions made and how successful the students feel they are. With this style it is important not to start out by overtly challenging the decision made initially but to help students in their self-assessments.
Reciprocal Style
To use the reciprocal style for this activity, arrange students in groups of three; the third person becomes the observer. Provide task sheets that briefly describe the activity, the cues, and the participants' roles. We also suggest including a list of possible motivation-type feedback for students to use. Clear role expectations for students on the task sheet will help them keep focus. For example, spell out what the observer ought to be observing (performance cues) and what the doers are doing (practicing). Provide a time or a number of passes for each facet of the activity. Once they are finished, the students rotate their roles. This process is repeated for each drill variation.
Your role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. You must step in to provide feedback if there is a safety issue. Otherwise, you encourage or suggest feedback to the observer only if feedback is not occurring.
Group Meeting
The group meeting during the second developmental stage should continue to provide students with an opportunity to have a voice in the learning process but facilitate their leading more of the discussion. Because you have modeled leading the discussion in developmental stage 1, you can help students assume more responsibility by asking questions such as “What sorts of questions did I ask you about the lesson?” and “What questions do you have of your peers from the lesson?” Another strategy is to have students write their questions or comments on a slip of paper and then exchange with partners and engage in small-group discussions. You can then bring them back to the large group and ask for culminating thoughts from the day's lesson. Don't be disappointed if it takes a bit more effort during this developmental stage to get things going. Be consistent, be caring, and be a good model, and your students will begin to assume more responsibility.
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Reflection
Key to this stage is that students begin to lead more of the discussion. Students can be cued on questions that address the particular levels they are working at during this stage (Level III) and begin to scaffold to goals for the next levels (IV and V). These are examples of helpful questions:
- “How did you feel you and your partner worked independent of teacher direction?”
- “What might you improve on?”
- “As we move toward more independence, what goals can you set to show more leadership in class?”
Students can begin to generate these types of questions once you have modeled them. We encourage you to note the many examples in Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Through Physical Activity, Third Edition, of different ways to engage students in reflection time. Methods such as exit slips, journaling, and tapping in (students tap on a poster listing the levels to indicate where they are) can be quite effective and keep this part of the lesson fresh.
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Seeking leadership opportunities in Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult.
Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult. At this stage students should routinely demonstrate behaviors consistent with Levels I to III and actively seek out leadership opportunities. These opportunities for caring and leadership take center stage during developmental stage 3. Caring and leadership can manifest themselves during all aspects of the lesson as students explore ways to engage in the learning process.
Relationship Time
Relationship time during the third developmental stage should be almost entirely run by students. Student leaders can be responsible for setup, instruction, and facilitation of the relationship time tasks. For example, many teachers use a warm-up routine that is performed throughout the year. Consider allowing students to lead, or even better create, the warm-up or other relationship time activities.
The Create-a-Game activity meets the objectives of relationship time by providing opportunities for students to interact with each other constructively; it also meets the developmental stage 3 needs by providing opportunities for students to be self-directed and to develop leadership skills.
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Awareness Talk
Student leaders should be comfortable with identifying the theme, guiding the questioning, and drawing connections to the lesson by the time they reach the third developmental stage. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 3 include self-direction, leadership, and transfer. To illustrate a developmental stage 3 awareness talk, let's consider Create-a-Game (Model in Action 11.6).
In speaking for the Create-a-Game activity, the student leaders would generalize the lessons learned from the activity to the theme and subsequent activities. These are examples of statements and questions they might offer:
- “I liked how my group talked through each step and offered game ideas. How did your group decide on the game you would create?”
- “In our group we selected our five pieces of equipment first and then tried to come up with a unique game that used the equipment. How did other groups decide where to begin?”
In speaking for the experience, the student leaders can generalize what occurred in the activity. Nonverbal behavior on the part of the teacher can be really be important here. Remain involved by demonstrating active listening, nodding your head, and making eye contact with whoever is speaking. This models to the students behaviors that they too can maintain in the process.
Lesson Focus
Developmental stage 3 activities should provide students with the opportunity for leadership experiences and encourage transfer to other aspects of the curriculum. The Two Up, Two Back activity (Model in Action 11.7), a volley drill, offers students opportunities to exhibit behaviors consistent with responsibility Levels I through IV.
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Teaching strategies for developmental stage 3 include providing students with opportunities to emphasize previous levels but, more importantly, focus on Levels IV (caring and leadership) and V (outside the gymnasium). We can elicit these behaviors by modifying the way we present the task.
Table 11.3 presents considerations for teaching Two Up, Two Back through two different styles. You can use a command style, but this minimizes the opportunity for students to demonstrate developmental stage 3 behaviors. Instead, presenting the task through a divergent discovery style or a self-check style provides opportunities for self-directed learning and leadership.
Two Up, Two Back (Model in Action 11.7) provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate responsibility Levels I through IV. Using a guided discovery approach gives students a chance to collaboratively develop tactical awareness for the volley and passing shots. Self-checking enables them to self-assess in the context of group play. At this developmental stage, students have demonstrated the ability to work independently while putting forth effort and showing respect to their peers. At this point we hope you can begin to think of ways to modify the learning environment to promote leadership skills in your students. These skills can be carried over to the group meeting segment of the lesson, increasing the contribution of students to the learning process.
Divergent Discovery Style
Presenting Two Up, Two Back using a divergent discovery approach allows you to engage students in both the cognitive and psychomotor domains. Through questioning or the presentation of a problem, you can have students diverge on solutions for successfully completing the task. With this task you can allow groups of students to diverge on a solution that meets the task requirements.
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Teacher: “Each group will play a modified doubles game. One team starts at the net and the other at the baseline. The team at the baseline begins play, and team locations switch after each point. The first two hits of each round should be easily returnable by the other team. Points can be scored only after two successful hits have been completed. Rotate service each point and play to 10 points.”
After each round of 10 points, have students reflect on the following questions:
- How can you support your partner during a point (think about your movement and positioning on the court)?
- What strategies did the volleying team use to score points?
- What strategies did the baseline team use to score points?
- How can we use one hit to set up our next shot?
Self-Check Style
Shifting to a self-check style provides additional opportunities for students to demonstrate self-direction and leadership behaviors. Create a task sheet that briefly describes the activity and provides learning cues. You can ask a group to demonstrate the activity drills and focus students on their task sheet. Once groups have read their sheets, they can begin the activity at their own pace.
Following each game (to 10 points), students recheck the criteria noted on the task sheet relative to their execution of the volley. Students are responsible for their own feedback based on the criteria for the given skill. The teacher's role is to ask questions related to the student's process of self-checking or self-assessing.
Group Meeting
As with the awareness talk, this portion of the lesson is mostly student led. You can assist by cueing students regarding the levels they are working on, as well as reminding them of what sorts of questions have been asked in previous classes. Questions about how the lesson was conducted, how the activity met the students' needs or provided challenge, and how the style of teaching engaged them are all examples of program-related discussion questions.
During the Two Up, Two Back activity, a student leader can initiate a group reflection on the lesson activities by asking questions like these:
- “How did you support your partner during this drill?”
- “What are other ways we support our doubles partner during tennis?”
- “How can we use a shot to set up our partner for the next shot?”
Reflection
We should expect students at this developmental stage to be able to pose higher-order questions during their reflections. Reflections should continue to serve as an opportunity for students to self-reflect on their actions and what they observed in others throughout the lesson while exploring ways they can transfer the responsibility attributes they are developing in physical education to life beyond the gym. This can be accomplished through a variety of formats in class or outside of class time. Students can read each other's journals and provide feedback, assist each other in goal setting, or create strategies to transfer the levels to environments outside of the program. Again, the teacher remains connected to the process as an active listener and support.
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An extension of TPSR—The Kinesiology Career Club
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.”
The Kinesiology Career Club
David Walsh
Program Description
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.” The more specific goals of KCC for the youth are as follows:
- To maximize motivation to improve in, stay in, and find relevance in school
- To enhance connection between the TPSR goals of respect, effort, goal setting, and leadership skills and the importance they play in youths' futures
- To chart the necessary steps to first become a professional in kinesiology, which provides practical experience in a specific career
- To chart the necessary steps for their own careers of choice and developing strategies for matriculating and graduating from college
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The program takes place in San Francisco at Mission High School, a low-performing inner-city school. It began in spring 2011 and will be ongoing every spring and fall semester. The program runs for 80 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday over the entire semester during second-period physical education. Current KCC students include five girls and nine boys who are all ninth graders. The high school has a diverse population with the following ethnicity breakdown: 14 percent African American, 23 percent Asian, 46 percent Latino, 9 percent Caucasian, and 8 percent other. The KCC students closely reflect this diversity.
As a university-community collaboration, KCC is also part of a course offered at San Francisco State University (SFSU) to graduating kinesiology seniors. Called “SFSU Mentors,” six to eight seniors are selected to conduct their capstone kinesiology course in the community by helping me run this program. I am the lead instructor of KCC, and the SFSU Mentors help lead various physical activities—a combination of martial arts, weight training, dance, and fitness activities—and mentor the students on positive “possible futures” in either a 1-to-1 or 2-to-1 ratio for the final 15 minutes of every session.
Use of TPSR Model
The KCC goals progress through four phases. Each phase allows for the systematic application of TPSR within the program, as well as providing opportunities for students to engage the model as they move through the program.
Phase One Goals
In phase one we use TPSR daily format and strategies to introduce the program, including the various physical activities. This phase focuses on Level I, respect, and Level II, effort. We aim to begin building relationships with the students, have them voice their opinions about the program content and structure, and introduce the field of kinesiology. We also introduce the combined TPSR reflection time and mentoring time, a significant component of the positive “possible futures” emphasis that takes place throughout the program. We talk about our own choice to study kinesiology, connect the physical activities in KCC to the basis and foundation of the field of kinesiology, bridge Levels I and II to the idea of being successful in kinesiology, encourage the students to talk about their own career interests, and begin to get to know and develop relationships with them.
Phase Two Goals
Once phase one goals are mostly achieved, phase two begins to empower the students to take on the advanced TPSR responsibilities (Level III, goal setting; Level IV, leadership). Students are asked to set goals for martial arts, weight training, dance, or fitness skills. They are also encouraged to take on small leadership experiences by way of teaching the activities they worked on during goal-setting time. We encourage the students to consider a career in at least one of the many subdisciplines of kinesiology, connect the physical activities and goal setting and leadership in the program to being successful in the field of kinesiology, and begin to chart the steps to earning a college degree in kinesiology. Phase two also aims at having students reflect on what they are currently doing in school and out of school that could either help or hinder their futures.
Phase Three Goals
Once phase two goals are mostly achieved, phase three continues to empower the students to work on TPSR Levels I through IV. Goal-setting time and leadership roles are extended so that students take on more responsibility. We introduce the potential transference of the steps to a career in kinesiology to the development of responsibility traits necessary for the students' future careers of choice. The idea is to link phase two experiences of understanding how to be successful in kinesiology to understanding what success would mean in the students' own careers of choice. Students actively reflect on what they would like to pursue as a career and effectively discover ways to link what they learned about kinesiology to their own future career interests. We also introduce the importance of having both potential hopes and potential fears—as suggested by the theory of possible selves (Oyserman, Terry, & Bybee 2002)—and doing the hard work as well as having the positive attitude and preparation needed for success.
Phase Four Goals
After students have mostly achieved phase three goals, phase four continues to empower them to work on responsibility Levels I through IV. We introduce Level V, outside the gym, and address how what the students do in school, at home, and in the streets affects their futures. Phase four discussions focus solely on the students' careers of choice. We further reinforce the connection between the TPSR levels and what might prove necessary for the practical realization of their possible futures, including both potential hopes and fears. We provide additional insight into the degree of hard work, positive attitude, and preparation needed for the realization of their possible futures.
Additional Program Elements
Since KCC is run through in-school physical education, we have to integrate traditional physical education elements such as uniform requirements and fitness testing into the program. Unlike after-school programs that students may choose to attend, attending KCC is mandatory. Mission High School has been very supportive of the program and has given us complete autonomy with respect to fulfilling the goals of KCC. It is a collaboration we plan to continue for several years.
Even though KCC has some goals that differ from those of a regular TPSR program, we are able to keep a TPSR focus by systematically implementing the components of a regular TPSR daily format. Each session has relationship time, an awareness talk, physical activities designed as a way for the students to experience the responsibility levels, a group meeting, and a reflection time. Some of the KCC goals require alteration of the TPSR components. For example, a KCC awareness talk includes how the levels relate to the students' futures, and discussions focus on the field of kinesiology. Reflection time takes place with the guidance of SFSU Mentors, which students document in a journal. Students are asked to reflect not only on the levels but also on how they are performing in school and are exploring a “possible future,” first in kinesiology and then in their own careers of choice. An effective strategy has been providing information on the various subdisciplines of kinesiology to give the students the opportunity to find relevance in at least one of them. Some students easily identify with kinesiology as a “possible future” while others connect only with being physically active as an important issue in their lives. As the program progresses, discussions about their own career interests seem to get more detailed and authentic.
Keeping SITE
Though KCC has different goals and purposes, it is still an extension of TPSR. It is crucial for us to keep SITE of the four TPSR themes. KCC includes TPSR's prioritization of the instructor-student relationship through the concern for each student's emotional, social, and physical well-being. KCC is also empowerment based, giving students various leadership roles, providing goal-setting time, giving them a voice in the program's direction, and enabling them to evaluate both themselves and the program. The difference is in how the TPSR levels are integrated into the physical activities as a way to explore a career in kinesiology. Once this is established, then transference of the levels to enhance the students' understanding and exploration of their own careers of interest can occur. KCC is still in its early phases of development and will change as the program evolves, but TPSR will continue to be the foundation and core of the program.
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Relinquish control and enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student–teacher and student–student relationships.
Student-Centered Learning
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student-teacher and student-student relationships. An easy way to think about this is to ask ourselves as teachers, How do I invite the views, thoughts, or input of my students into my teaching? Given how we invite our students to share in the methods we use to teach, we are creating a situation through which we relinquish control and thus enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships.
A way to think about how we invite students into our teaching is to use the spectrum of teaching styles by Mosston and Ashworth (2002). The spectrum places the teaching context on a continuum (figure 3.3). The continuum is anchored on one end by teaching styles that are convergent or that come to a common goal. The opposite end of the continuum is anchored by teaching styles that are divergent or that have many goals or possible answers.
Mosston conceptualized the teaching spectrum on the basis of the decisions the teachers made; as he states, “Teaching behavior is a chain of decision making” (Mosston & Ashworth 2002, p. 4). For Mosston, the spectrum identified teaching and learning options. Thus, the goal of the spectrum was for teachers to become proficient in generating a variety of teaching contexts based on the content focus, objectives, and learner needs. Movement along the teaching continuum is based on manipulation of the three phases of teaching: preimpact, impact, and postimpact.
- The preimpact phase entails establishing the lesson objectives and focus. It is often the teacher who is primarily in charge of this aspect of teaching.
- The impact phase is the actual execution of the teaching. This includes elements such as the pace of the lesson and the types of learning activities. Obviously, these aspects can also be primarily teacher centered; but within the spectrum, it is when we step away from the center in the impact phase that we begin to elicit a more student-centered approach.
- The postimpact phase includes evaluation of the student's performance both during and after completion of the task.
As the teacher begins to release control of the various phases to the student, the style of teaching changes and typically moves from the convergent end of the continuum toward the divergent end.
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Mosston identified 11 styles of teaching, labeled styles A through K. The first five styles (A through E) represent teaching decisions that foster and support reproduction of past knowledge; these styles are called command, practice/task, reciprocal, inclusion, and self-check. The rest of the styles (F through K) represent options that foster production of new knowledge; these styles are called guided discovery, convergent discovery, divergent discovery, learner-designed individual program, learner-initiated, and self-teaching.
Here we briefly discuss the styles incorporated into part II of this book. For a more detailed discussion of all the styles (A through K), the reader is directed to Mosston and Ashworth (2002).
Command
Response is influenced by telling students what to do, telling them how to practice, and directing practice.
Most effective approach when:
- Goal is to learn and perform specific skill
- Teacher is looking for a specific response
- Teacher has limited experience working with a group
- Time for organization is limited
Practice/Task
The teacher presents information through tasks, often organized into stations, that provide the teacher with the flexibility to maintain control over the teaching phases (teacher-centered) or begin to release some control to the students.
- Involves different students (often individually or in pairs) practicing different tasks at the same time
- Involves stations and task cards
- Works well when students need to practice skills they have already been taught
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher explains stations or tasks well beforehand
- Teacher makes managerial aspects clear
- Teacher frequently checks with students
- Students start with only a few stations or tasks
- Students work well independently
- Students are able to function without close supervision
Reciprocal
Teacher designs and communicates tasks, and students assume roles of providing feedback and assessment to peers.
Most effective approach when:
- Skill to be taught is simple
- Cues for observation are clear
- Performance is easily measured
Inclusion
The teacher designs tasks; students are allowed to choose the level at which they begin the tasks that best meets their needs or ability levels. Learners make a decision based on self-assessment of their entry point (e.g., size of ball, distance to goal). When the learner meets that goal, she can challenge herself again at a new level.
- Accommodates individual learning differences
- Individualizes further because choices are presented
- Is really a developmentally appropriate approach
Most effective approach when:
- Criteria for self-evaluation and assessment of success are clear
- Performance is easily measured
- Students work well independently
Self-Check
Similar to the reciprocal style, the teacher designs and communicates the task; however, in this style students assume a self-teaching role as they perform the task and then self-assess and reflect upon their performance.
- Carryover from task and reciprocal styles
- Decisions shifted to the learner in the impact and postimpact phases
- Learners weaned away from external feedback; they provide their own feedback as they self-monitor their progress on task
- Learner decides the context based on feedback from self-evaluation
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher values the learner's ability to develop self-monitoring capacity
- Teacher trusts the student to be honest
- Learner can identify own limits, successes, and failures
- Learner can use self-check as feedback
- Learner can work independently
Guided Discovery
Teaching is through questioning, designed to let students think and solve problems. Two versions:
- Convergent inquiry: Students discover the same answer to a series of questions.
- Divergent inquiry: Students find multiple answers to a problem.
Most effective approach when:
- Students are encouraged to think independently to discover new and different approaches to performing skill
- Students are encouraged to solve questions related to teamwork and strategy as they relate to skill performance
- Students are encouraged to explore a movement when they are not yet ready to learn a mature version of the skill
Once we make the decision to alter the style of teaching, we are also making the decision to give the student a greater role in the lesson and thus are facilitating development of personal and social responsibility. As noted in table 1.1 (chapter 1), each teaching style connects the student to a different TPSR level focus and underscores the student's awareness and recognition of his personal and eventually social responsibility. Thus, as noted in this book and by Don, it is critical that TPSR be integrated within all aspects of your lessons and content. Incorporating divergent teaching styles allows students to make decisions within the learning context. This approach is unique in that it engages the learner in the discovery and production of options within the subject matter (Mosston & Ashworth 2002).
For example, when youth are afforded the opportunity to set their own learning pace during lesson practice, select the type(s) of equipment that best match their ability level, and work in small collaborative groups, this allows them to work on skills of self-direction, participation, cooperation, and goal setting (TPSR Levels II and III). Divergent teaching styles also create opportunities for students to learn how to assess their own performance as well as to assess and provide feedback to each other through peer or reciprocal learning (Levels III and IV).
Alteration of one's teaching style is crucial by its very nature to creating a caring environment. Therefore incorporation of the styles of teaching serves to create an environment ripe with teachable moments that enhance and connect to the TPSR model. Whether students are learning sport skills or life skills, infusion of the strategies presented here will help teachers develop youth who are responsible and caring members of their school and community.
The choice of teaching style depends on a number of factors, including the following:
- Teacher beliefs: It is difficult to loosen control; is the teacher comfortable doing so?
- Goals of lessons: Are the skills or tasks familiar to the students or are they completely new?
- Teacher skill and preference: Is the teacher confident about her teaching skills?
- Student characteristics: Do students work well independently without supervision?
- Nature of content: Are students familiar with the content? How complex is it?
- Context of teaching: How much equipment and space are available?
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Starting out with Developmental Stage 1
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students.
Developmental Stage 1
As we discussed in the beginning of this book, students in the first developmental stage are often working on exhibiting Level I (respect) and II (participating with effort) behaviors consistently. During this stage the teacher takes the predominant role in leading the awareness talk, choosing developmentally appropriate tasks and challenges, structuring the group meeting, and providing reflection opportunities. As the lessons progress, the teacher is mindful to provide students with opportunities to begin to transition to developmental stage 2 (TPSR Level III, self-direction).
Relationship Time
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students. Icebreaker games provide an opportunity for students and teachers to interact, develop relationships, and have fun. Icebreakers can vary in length but all serve the purpose of creating an environment that fosters acceptance and interaction. A number of resources for icebreaker activities for all ages appear on the list at the end of the resources section in the back of the book. When working with developmental stage 1 learners, consider selecting activities that focus on individual traits (communication, cooperation, self-control, respect, and effort) within the context of group interactions.
The Mystery Move activity (Model in Action 5.1) gives students the opportunity to demonstrate self-control and cooperation (Level I) as well as to participate with effort (Level II). There is often a point in the game when a student is unable to identify who is leading the activity and begins to point madly at everyone. This bit of conflict can allow for the group to reset and to establish limits on the number of times a person can guess the leader before he switches places. It also gives the teacher and students the opportunity to compliment the student leading the activity, as well as the whole group on their cooperation, which provides a nice transition to the awareness talk.
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Awareness Talk
During the first developmental stage, the teacher takes the primary role during the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, guides the questioning, and makes the connection to teachable moments in the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 1 include respect, self-control, participation, effort, and effective communication. We like to use icebreakers during the relationship time, because they provide a leaping-off point from the activity to the remainder of the lesson. We also use the “What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?” method of structuring the awareness talk. This technique helps us draw meaning from the activity during the relationship time; it also models for students how they may direct the awareness talk as we eventually move to the side and allow them to lead this portion of the lesson (developmental stages 2 and 3). For example, in developmental stage 1, we might ask these questions:
- “What were some of the things we needed to do in Mystery Move to be successful as a group?”
- “What did you need to do to support the group?”
On the basis of responses from the students, we then lead them to extend their thinking by asking questions such as the following:
- “So what might be some things from the activity you might want to work on personally?”
- “What might be a couple things you know about yourself that you want to try to stop doing?”
- “Today we are starting our volleyball unit. What can you do in this unit to demonstrate some of those characteristics or behaviors?”
- “As you consider where you are, what are some goals you can take forward during today's lesson? Challenge yourself a bit!”
Lesson Focus
The theme identified during the awareness talk can set the stage for teachable moments throughout the lesson focus. You can select tasks or use pedagogical strategies that provide opportunities for students to make a cognitive or affective connection between the tasks and the theme. The teaching style you use can help to create a space for those teachable moments to occur. Although in developmental stage 1 it is often beneficial to maintain a somewhat teacher-centered approach (command style), we must also give students opportunities to work toward skill development in developmental stage 2. The style you choose will be influenced by your teaching philosophy, the learning styles of your students, and the context in which the lesson is presented. Here we provide an example of a lesson focus on a volleyball skill using two different styles of teaching.
Table 5.1 presents considerations for teaching the Dot Drills (Model in Action 5.2) activity using two teaching styles and shows how these connect to the TPSR model. The command style is more teacher centered, and the reciprocal style progresses a bit toward the divergent end of the teaching spectrum.
Command (Direct) Style
Presenting the Dot Drills activity through a command style allows you to direct the students through the progression of tasks. This encourages students to perform the task in the same way at the same time and allows you to check student performance. For each separate drill, provide a demonstration of the drill and identify cues:
- Keep knees bent.
- Move feet quickly from dot to dot.
- Keep body in a ready position with hands and arms out.
The teacher starts and stops the students for each drill, demonstrating the new variation and establishing cues. Throughout the activity the teacher moves about the space providing feedback.
Reciprocal Style
To present the same drill in reciprocal style, organize students into pairs. Each pair has a Dot Drill diagram on the floor. Students also have task sheets that briefly describe each drill and provide cues. In addition, we suggest providing a list of possible motivation-type feedback phrases students can use, such as “Way to keep your feet moving” or “Great job! Keep with it!”
Each pair of partners begins when ready. One student completes one rotation of the drill while the partner observes and provides feedback. The feedback should relate to the cues identified on the task sheet. After one rotation of the drill, students switch roles; the observer becomes the doer, and the doer becomes the observer. This process is repeated for each drill variation. The teacher's role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. The teacher must step in to provide feedback if a safety issue arises. Otherwise, the teacher encourages or suggests feedback to the observer only if the observer is not providing feedback. Key to this style is getting the students to interact with minimal or no input from the teacher.
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Group Meeting
Group meetings during the first developmental stage are facilitated by the teacher but provide an opportunity for students to have a voice in the learning process. This is the time for students to give input on how the lesson went, how their peers did, and even how the teacher did, all in relation to working on goals of developmental stage 1. Questions about how the activities challenged the students and how they felt participating in the lesson when the teacher used a given teaching style are good beginning points. Students can also be asked how they felt the class as a whole or just they and their partner or small group did. Lastly, you can ask how you as the teacher did and what you might work on for next session. As Don Hellison notes, this facet of the lesson tends to be foreign to students initially, as young people are not often asked to provide feedback to each other, much less to and about the teacher. Over time, students will feel more comfortable verbalizing their thoughts as this becomes a consistent part of the class.
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Don suggests that teachers initially lay down some ground rules; they can do this in collaboration with the students. These are examples of group meeting ground rules:
- No blaming others—accept responsibility for yourself.
- Include everyone in the discussion.
- Be respectful of yourself and others (full-value contract).
- Use each other's names.
- Do not talk over each other.
- Wait for classmates to finish their comments.
These are only a few examples; again, we encourage teachers to solicit input from their classes about what the ground rules should include.
Another especially relevant issue concerning group meetings is time. If you do not have sufficient time to check in with all students, ask for responses on how things went from a few students. A common practice in many TPSR-based programs is to have the students keep a journal. They can do this as homework and turn in their comments the next day. This way you keep track of how things are going and get timely input from the class.
Reflection
Reflection time should flow fairly seamlessly from the group meeting time. Group meeting time focuses on student evaluation of the lesson, and reflection time focuses on evaluation of the students' roles as learners and support. Thus, questions can move from how the activities or style of teaching challenged or engaged the students to a focus on how they participated as independent learners, demonstrated respect, showed self-direction, and cooperated during the lesson. During developmental stage 1, the teacher directs the discussion. The thumbometer is a technique often used for reflection time. In response to questions from the teacher, students point their thumbs up, sideways, or down to indicate how well they did on a particular aspect of the lesson. These are examples of questions the teacher might ask:
- “During Dot Drill today, did you demonstrate cooperation with your partner by giving feedback?”
- “Did you show stick-to-itiveness during Dot Drill as it got harder?”
- “Did you show self-direction by challenging yourself during the drill?”
Students respond as a group by pointing their thumbs. The teacher notes where most of the participants are (e.g., more thumbs up than down) so as to facilitate activities toward the higher levels (Levels III through V). As Don notes in his work, it is important to acknowledge that kids have bad days, too, which means we should support them and encourage honest self-evaluation. We also want to underscore not blaming others for our behavior.
Lastly, the reflection time is when we can begin to encourage students to think about how they can demonstrate the levels outside of the class or program. Asking students where in their out-of-class or out-of-program lives they could demonstrate a given level of responsibility allows them to begin to conceptualize this transition. For some students, reaching a particular level outside of class but still within the school (which is a nice scaffold) might be all that is possible. In any case, we should begin to encourage students to think about responsibility concepts outside the class.
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Transitioning to Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage.
Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage. This means providing opportunities for students to work collaboratively with their peers with little teacher guidance (Level III, self-direction). During the second stage you begin to call upon students to take a role in the learning process. As you will see in this section, you begin to relinquish some of the control of the class to students during awareness talks and group meetings. As this occurs, some students may begin to demonstrate a desire to take leadership roles (Level IV), but most will continue to need some guidance in keeping self-directed without individual supervision.
Relationship Time
Juggler's Carry (Model in Action 8.1) gives students the opportunity to continue to demonstrate respect (Level I) and participate with effort (Level II) while working collaboratively with their classmates without direct supervision from the teacher (Level III). Following the same format (“What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?”) but now inviting more student leadership during the process, we can begin to navigate TPSR Level III and to transition to Level IV concepts.
Awareness Talk
During the second developmental stage, the teacher begins to share the responsibility for the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, asks one or more students to guide the questioning, and draws the connection to the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 2 include self-control, self-direction, goal setting, and problem solving.
Using students to help guide the awareness talk is key in the development of youth leaders (Level IV). Following the activity, you can use student leaders to “debrief” so as to draw the attention of the learners to the cognitive and affective attributes of an activity. These are examples of questions you might provide the student leader following Juggler's Carry:
“What?” Questions
- “What helped you when talking with your group members to be successful at the activity?”
- “What were your feelings when you failed to keep balls from hitting the ground? How did you feel when you were successful in keeping balls from hitting the ground?”
“So What?” Questions
- “How might your feelings when you failed and succeeded help as you work in groups?”
- “How might you do things differently in this activity to find more success individually and as a member of the group?”
“Now What?” Questions
- “Thinking about the activity and how you felt as you succeeded or failed, how can those feelings help you as you engage in other activities during basketball?”
- “What might you do to help regain focus when you are not succeeding at something?”
By providing the students with a selection of questions, you maintain the direction of the conversation while giving students a chance to comfortably explore what it is like to take a leadership role in class.
Lesson Focus
The opportunities for self-direction take center stage during developmental stage 2. Again, activities should transition from individuals performing within the context of the group to individuals positively interacting with partners and small groups in self-guided learning experiences.
Table 8.2 presents considerations for teaching the Pass and Shoot activity (Model in Action 8.3) through two teaching styles and shows how they connect to the TPSR model. You can alter both styles so as to create challenge and, most importantly, provide students with the opportunity to work individually and in groups as well as pace themselves.
Being mindful of the activities used during this stage provides you with opportunities to alter the teaching style and encourage greater student responsibility. This allows for students to begin leading the group meeting segment of the lesson and speaking as to how the lesson activities address the theme or themes identified during the awareness talk.
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Inclusion Style
To use the inclusion style, you demonstrate the cues for Pass and Shoot and present task sheets that provide a diagram and performance cues. Identify the options available for students in deciding how and where to enter the drill. For example, students can vary distances to the basket and use different types of balls to make the task more difficult. Students can also count missed or made shots, or they can time themselves and see how many shots they can make. These options, chosen by the students for themselves, create additional challenges. Students are placed in pairs and dispersed throughout the teaching area. Allow time for the learners to assess their level though trial and error and begin the drill. After each drill, the learners reassess and set new challenges based on the levels available and the achievement of performance criteria.
Your role is to circulate throughout the learning space and provide feedback only on the decisions of the students. You can ask, for example, “How are you doing at the level you have selected?” On the basis of the students' response, inquire about the decisions made and how successful the students feel they are. With this style it is important not to start out by overtly challenging the decision made initially but to help students in their self-assessments.
Reciprocal Style
To use the reciprocal style for this activity, arrange students in groups of three; the third person becomes the observer. Provide task sheets that briefly describe the activity, the cues, and the participants' roles. We also suggest including a list of possible motivation-type feedback for students to use. Clear role expectations for students on the task sheet will help them keep focus. For example, spell out what the observer ought to be observing (performance cues) and what the doers are doing (practicing). Provide a time or a number of passes for each facet of the activity. Once they are finished, the students rotate their roles. This process is repeated for each drill variation.
Your role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. You must step in to provide feedback if there is a safety issue. Otherwise, you encourage or suggest feedback to the observer only if feedback is not occurring.
Group Meeting
The group meeting during the second developmental stage should continue to provide students with an opportunity to have a voice in the learning process but facilitate their leading more of the discussion. Because you have modeled leading the discussion in developmental stage 1, you can help students assume more responsibility by asking questions such as “What sorts of questions did I ask you about the lesson?” and “What questions do you have of your peers from the lesson?” Another strategy is to have students write their questions or comments on a slip of paper and then exchange with partners and engage in small-group discussions. You can then bring them back to the large group and ask for culminating thoughts from the day's lesson. Don't be disappointed if it takes a bit more effort during this developmental stage to get things going. Be consistent, be caring, and be a good model, and your students will begin to assume more responsibility.
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Reflection
Key to this stage is that students begin to lead more of the discussion. Students can be cued on questions that address the particular levels they are working at during this stage (Level III) and begin to scaffold to goals for the next levels (IV and V). These are examples of helpful questions:
- “How did you feel you and your partner worked independent of teacher direction?”
- “What might you improve on?”
- “As we move toward more independence, what goals can you set to show more leadership in class?”
Students can begin to generate these types of questions once you have modeled them. We encourage you to note the many examples in Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Through Physical Activity, Third Edition, of different ways to engage students in reflection time. Methods such as exit slips, journaling, and tapping in (students tap on a poster listing the levels to indicate where they are) can be quite effective and keep this part of the lesson fresh.
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Seeking leadership opportunities in Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult.
Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult. At this stage students should routinely demonstrate behaviors consistent with Levels I to III and actively seek out leadership opportunities. These opportunities for caring and leadership take center stage during developmental stage 3. Caring and leadership can manifest themselves during all aspects of the lesson as students explore ways to engage in the learning process.
Relationship Time
Relationship time during the third developmental stage should be almost entirely run by students. Student leaders can be responsible for setup, instruction, and facilitation of the relationship time tasks. For example, many teachers use a warm-up routine that is performed throughout the year. Consider allowing students to lead, or even better create, the warm-up or other relationship time activities.
The Create-a-Game activity meets the objectives of relationship time by providing opportunities for students to interact with each other constructively; it also meets the developmental stage 3 needs by providing opportunities for students to be self-directed and to develop leadership skills.
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Awareness Talk
Student leaders should be comfortable with identifying the theme, guiding the questioning, and drawing connections to the lesson by the time they reach the third developmental stage. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 3 include self-direction, leadership, and transfer. To illustrate a developmental stage 3 awareness talk, let's consider Create-a-Game (Model in Action 11.6).
In speaking for the Create-a-Game activity, the student leaders would generalize the lessons learned from the activity to the theme and subsequent activities. These are examples of statements and questions they might offer:
- “I liked how my group talked through each step and offered game ideas. How did your group decide on the game you would create?”
- “In our group we selected our five pieces of equipment first and then tried to come up with a unique game that used the equipment. How did other groups decide where to begin?”
In speaking for the experience, the student leaders can generalize what occurred in the activity. Nonverbal behavior on the part of the teacher can be really be important here. Remain involved by demonstrating active listening, nodding your head, and making eye contact with whoever is speaking. This models to the students behaviors that they too can maintain in the process.
Lesson Focus
Developmental stage 3 activities should provide students with the opportunity for leadership experiences and encourage transfer to other aspects of the curriculum. The Two Up, Two Back activity (Model in Action 11.7), a volley drill, offers students opportunities to exhibit behaviors consistent with responsibility Levels I through IV.
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Teaching strategies for developmental stage 3 include providing students with opportunities to emphasize previous levels but, more importantly, focus on Levels IV (caring and leadership) and V (outside the gymnasium). We can elicit these behaviors by modifying the way we present the task.
Table 11.3 presents considerations for teaching Two Up, Two Back through two different styles. You can use a command style, but this minimizes the opportunity for students to demonstrate developmental stage 3 behaviors. Instead, presenting the task through a divergent discovery style or a self-check style provides opportunities for self-directed learning and leadership.
Two Up, Two Back (Model in Action 11.7) provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate responsibility Levels I through IV. Using a guided discovery approach gives students a chance to collaboratively develop tactical awareness for the volley and passing shots. Self-checking enables them to self-assess in the context of group play. At this developmental stage, students have demonstrated the ability to work independently while putting forth effort and showing respect to their peers. At this point we hope you can begin to think of ways to modify the learning environment to promote leadership skills in your students. These skills can be carried over to the group meeting segment of the lesson, increasing the contribution of students to the learning process.
Divergent Discovery Style
Presenting Two Up, Two Back using a divergent discovery approach allows you to engage students in both the cognitive and psychomotor domains. Through questioning or the presentation of a problem, you can have students diverge on solutions for successfully completing the task. With this task you can allow groups of students to diverge on a solution that meets the task requirements.
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Teacher: “Each group will play a modified doubles game. One team starts at the net and the other at the baseline. The team at the baseline begins play, and team locations switch after each point. The first two hits of each round should be easily returnable by the other team. Points can be scored only after two successful hits have been completed. Rotate service each point and play to 10 points.”
After each round of 10 points, have students reflect on the following questions:
- How can you support your partner during a point (think about your movement and positioning on the court)?
- What strategies did the volleying team use to score points?
- What strategies did the baseline team use to score points?
- How can we use one hit to set up our next shot?
Self-Check Style
Shifting to a self-check style provides additional opportunities for students to demonstrate self-direction and leadership behaviors. Create a task sheet that briefly describes the activity and provides learning cues. You can ask a group to demonstrate the activity drills and focus students on their task sheet. Once groups have read their sheets, they can begin the activity at their own pace.
Following each game (to 10 points), students recheck the criteria noted on the task sheet relative to their execution of the volley. Students are responsible for their own feedback based on the criteria for the given skill. The teacher's role is to ask questions related to the student's process of self-checking or self-assessing.
Group Meeting
As with the awareness talk, this portion of the lesson is mostly student led. You can assist by cueing students regarding the levels they are working on, as well as reminding them of what sorts of questions have been asked in previous classes. Questions about how the lesson was conducted, how the activity met the students' needs or provided challenge, and how the style of teaching engaged them are all examples of program-related discussion questions.
During the Two Up, Two Back activity, a student leader can initiate a group reflection on the lesson activities by asking questions like these:
- “How did you support your partner during this drill?”
- “What are other ways we support our doubles partner during tennis?”
- “How can we use a shot to set up our partner for the next shot?”
Reflection
We should expect students at this developmental stage to be able to pose higher-order questions during their reflections. Reflections should continue to serve as an opportunity for students to self-reflect on their actions and what they observed in others throughout the lesson while exploring ways they can transfer the responsibility attributes they are developing in physical education to life beyond the gym. This can be accomplished through a variety of formats in class or outside of class time. Students can read each other's journals and provide feedback, assist each other in goal setting, or create strategies to transfer the levels to environments outside of the program. Again, the teacher remains connected to the process as an active listener and support.
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An extension of TPSR—The Kinesiology Career Club
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.”
The Kinesiology Career Club
David Walsh
Program Description
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.” The more specific goals of KCC for the youth are as follows:
- To maximize motivation to improve in, stay in, and find relevance in school
- To enhance connection between the TPSR goals of respect, effort, goal setting, and leadership skills and the importance they play in youths' futures
- To chart the necessary steps to first become a professional in kinesiology, which provides practical experience in a specific career
- To chart the necessary steps for their own careers of choice and developing strategies for matriculating and graduating from college
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The program takes place in San Francisco at Mission High School, a low-performing inner-city school. It began in spring 2011 and will be ongoing every spring and fall semester. The program runs for 80 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday over the entire semester during second-period physical education. Current KCC students include five girls and nine boys who are all ninth graders. The high school has a diverse population with the following ethnicity breakdown: 14 percent African American, 23 percent Asian, 46 percent Latino, 9 percent Caucasian, and 8 percent other. The KCC students closely reflect this diversity.
As a university-community collaboration, KCC is also part of a course offered at San Francisco State University (SFSU) to graduating kinesiology seniors. Called “SFSU Mentors,” six to eight seniors are selected to conduct their capstone kinesiology course in the community by helping me run this program. I am the lead instructor of KCC, and the SFSU Mentors help lead various physical activities—a combination of martial arts, weight training, dance, and fitness activities—and mentor the students on positive “possible futures” in either a 1-to-1 or 2-to-1 ratio for the final 15 minutes of every session.
Use of TPSR Model
The KCC goals progress through four phases. Each phase allows for the systematic application of TPSR within the program, as well as providing opportunities for students to engage the model as they move through the program.
Phase One Goals
In phase one we use TPSR daily format and strategies to introduce the program, including the various physical activities. This phase focuses on Level I, respect, and Level II, effort. We aim to begin building relationships with the students, have them voice their opinions about the program content and structure, and introduce the field of kinesiology. We also introduce the combined TPSR reflection time and mentoring time, a significant component of the positive “possible futures” emphasis that takes place throughout the program. We talk about our own choice to study kinesiology, connect the physical activities in KCC to the basis and foundation of the field of kinesiology, bridge Levels I and II to the idea of being successful in kinesiology, encourage the students to talk about their own career interests, and begin to get to know and develop relationships with them.
Phase Two Goals
Once phase one goals are mostly achieved, phase two begins to empower the students to take on the advanced TPSR responsibilities (Level III, goal setting; Level IV, leadership). Students are asked to set goals for martial arts, weight training, dance, or fitness skills. They are also encouraged to take on small leadership experiences by way of teaching the activities they worked on during goal-setting time. We encourage the students to consider a career in at least one of the many subdisciplines of kinesiology, connect the physical activities and goal setting and leadership in the program to being successful in the field of kinesiology, and begin to chart the steps to earning a college degree in kinesiology. Phase two also aims at having students reflect on what they are currently doing in school and out of school that could either help or hinder their futures.
Phase Three Goals
Once phase two goals are mostly achieved, phase three continues to empower the students to work on TPSR Levels I through IV. Goal-setting time and leadership roles are extended so that students take on more responsibility. We introduce the potential transference of the steps to a career in kinesiology to the development of responsibility traits necessary for the students' future careers of choice. The idea is to link phase two experiences of understanding how to be successful in kinesiology to understanding what success would mean in the students' own careers of choice. Students actively reflect on what they would like to pursue as a career and effectively discover ways to link what they learned about kinesiology to their own future career interests. We also introduce the importance of having both potential hopes and potential fears—as suggested by the theory of possible selves (Oyserman, Terry, & Bybee 2002)—and doing the hard work as well as having the positive attitude and preparation needed for success.
Phase Four Goals
After students have mostly achieved phase three goals, phase four continues to empower them to work on responsibility Levels I through IV. We introduce Level V, outside the gym, and address how what the students do in school, at home, and in the streets affects their futures. Phase four discussions focus solely on the students' careers of choice. We further reinforce the connection between the TPSR levels and what might prove necessary for the practical realization of their possible futures, including both potential hopes and fears. We provide additional insight into the degree of hard work, positive attitude, and preparation needed for the realization of their possible futures.
Additional Program Elements
Since KCC is run through in-school physical education, we have to integrate traditional physical education elements such as uniform requirements and fitness testing into the program. Unlike after-school programs that students may choose to attend, attending KCC is mandatory. Mission High School has been very supportive of the program and has given us complete autonomy with respect to fulfilling the goals of KCC. It is a collaboration we plan to continue for several years.
Even though KCC has some goals that differ from those of a regular TPSR program, we are able to keep a TPSR focus by systematically implementing the components of a regular TPSR daily format. Each session has relationship time, an awareness talk, physical activities designed as a way for the students to experience the responsibility levels, a group meeting, and a reflection time. Some of the KCC goals require alteration of the TPSR components. For example, a KCC awareness talk includes how the levels relate to the students' futures, and discussions focus on the field of kinesiology. Reflection time takes place with the guidance of SFSU Mentors, which students document in a journal. Students are asked to reflect not only on the levels but also on how they are performing in school and are exploring a “possible future,” first in kinesiology and then in their own careers of choice. An effective strategy has been providing information on the various subdisciplines of kinesiology to give the students the opportunity to find relevance in at least one of them. Some students easily identify with kinesiology as a “possible future” while others connect only with being physically active as an important issue in their lives. As the program progresses, discussions about their own career interests seem to get more detailed and authentic.
Keeping SITE
Though KCC has different goals and purposes, it is still an extension of TPSR. It is crucial for us to keep SITE of the four TPSR themes. KCC includes TPSR's prioritization of the instructor-student relationship through the concern for each student's emotional, social, and physical well-being. KCC is also empowerment based, giving students various leadership roles, providing goal-setting time, giving them a voice in the program's direction, and enabling them to evaluate both themselves and the program. The difference is in how the TPSR levels are integrated into the physical activities as a way to explore a career in kinesiology. Once this is established, then transference of the levels to enhance the students' understanding and exploration of their own careers of interest can occur. KCC is still in its early phases of development and will change as the program evolves, but TPSR will continue to be the foundation and core of the program.
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Relinquish control and enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student–teacher and student–student relationships.
Student-Centered Learning
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student-teacher and student-student relationships. An easy way to think about this is to ask ourselves as teachers, How do I invite the views, thoughts, or input of my students into my teaching? Given how we invite our students to share in the methods we use to teach, we are creating a situation through which we relinquish control and thus enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships.
A way to think about how we invite students into our teaching is to use the spectrum of teaching styles by Mosston and Ashworth (2002). The spectrum places the teaching context on a continuum (figure 3.3). The continuum is anchored on one end by teaching styles that are convergent or that come to a common goal. The opposite end of the continuum is anchored by teaching styles that are divergent or that have many goals or possible answers.
Mosston conceptualized the teaching spectrum on the basis of the decisions the teachers made; as he states, “Teaching behavior is a chain of decision making” (Mosston & Ashworth 2002, p. 4). For Mosston, the spectrum identified teaching and learning options. Thus, the goal of the spectrum was for teachers to become proficient in generating a variety of teaching contexts based on the content focus, objectives, and learner needs. Movement along the teaching continuum is based on manipulation of the three phases of teaching: preimpact, impact, and postimpact.
- The preimpact phase entails establishing the lesson objectives and focus. It is often the teacher who is primarily in charge of this aspect of teaching.
- The impact phase is the actual execution of the teaching. This includes elements such as the pace of the lesson and the types of learning activities. Obviously, these aspects can also be primarily teacher centered; but within the spectrum, it is when we step away from the center in the impact phase that we begin to elicit a more student-centered approach.
- The postimpact phase includes evaluation of the student's performance both during and after completion of the task.
As the teacher begins to release control of the various phases to the student, the style of teaching changes and typically moves from the convergent end of the continuum toward the divergent end.
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Mosston identified 11 styles of teaching, labeled styles A through K. The first five styles (A through E) represent teaching decisions that foster and support reproduction of past knowledge; these styles are called command, practice/task, reciprocal, inclusion, and self-check. The rest of the styles (F through K) represent options that foster production of new knowledge; these styles are called guided discovery, convergent discovery, divergent discovery, learner-designed individual program, learner-initiated, and self-teaching.
Here we briefly discuss the styles incorporated into part II of this book. For a more detailed discussion of all the styles (A through K), the reader is directed to Mosston and Ashworth (2002).
Command
Response is influenced by telling students what to do, telling them how to practice, and directing practice.
Most effective approach when:
- Goal is to learn and perform specific skill
- Teacher is looking for a specific response
- Teacher has limited experience working with a group
- Time for organization is limited
Practice/Task
The teacher presents information through tasks, often organized into stations, that provide the teacher with the flexibility to maintain control over the teaching phases (teacher-centered) or begin to release some control to the students.
- Involves different students (often individually or in pairs) practicing different tasks at the same time
- Involves stations and task cards
- Works well when students need to practice skills they have already been taught
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher explains stations or tasks well beforehand
- Teacher makes managerial aspects clear
- Teacher frequently checks with students
- Students start with only a few stations or tasks
- Students work well independently
- Students are able to function without close supervision
Reciprocal
Teacher designs and communicates tasks, and students assume roles of providing feedback and assessment to peers.
Most effective approach when:
- Skill to be taught is simple
- Cues for observation are clear
- Performance is easily measured
Inclusion
The teacher designs tasks; students are allowed to choose the level at which they begin the tasks that best meets their needs or ability levels. Learners make a decision based on self-assessment of their entry point (e.g., size of ball, distance to goal). When the learner meets that goal, she can challenge herself again at a new level.
- Accommodates individual learning differences
- Individualizes further because choices are presented
- Is really a developmentally appropriate approach
Most effective approach when:
- Criteria for self-evaluation and assessment of success are clear
- Performance is easily measured
- Students work well independently
Self-Check
Similar to the reciprocal style, the teacher designs and communicates the task; however, in this style students assume a self-teaching role as they perform the task and then self-assess and reflect upon their performance.
- Carryover from task and reciprocal styles
- Decisions shifted to the learner in the impact and postimpact phases
- Learners weaned away from external feedback; they provide their own feedback as they self-monitor their progress on task
- Learner decides the context based on feedback from self-evaluation
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher values the learner's ability to develop self-monitoring capacity
- Teacher trusts the student to be honest
- Learner can identify own limits, successes, and failures
- Learner can use self-check as feedback
- Learner can work independently
Guided Discovery
Teaching is through questioning, designed to let students think and solve problems. Two versions:
- Convergent inquiry: Students discover the same answer to a series of questions.
- Divergent inquiry: Students find multiple answers to a problem.
Most effective approach when:
- Students are encouraged to think independently to discover new and different approaches to performing skill
- Students are encouraged to solve questions related to teamwork and strategy as they relate to skill performance
- Students are encouraged to explore a movement when they are not yet ready to learn a mature version of the skill
Once we make the decision to alter the style of teaching, we are also making the decision to give the student a greater role in the lesson and thus are facilitating development of personal and social responsibility. As noted in table 1.1 (chapter 1), each teaching style connects the student to a different TPSR level focus and underscores the student's awareness and recognition of his personal and eventually social responsibility. Thus, as noted in this book and by Don, it is critical that TPSR be integrated within all aspects of your lessons and content. Incorporating divergent teaching styles allows students to make decisions within the learning context. This approach is unique in that it engages the learner in the discovery and production of options within the subject matter (Mosston & Ashworth 2002).
For example, when youth are afforded the opportunity to set their own learning pace during lesson practice, select the type(s) of equipment that best match their ability level, and work in small collaborative groups, this allows them to work on skills of self-direction, participation, cooperation, and goal setting (TPSR Levels II and III). Divergent teaching styles also create opportunities for students to learn how to assess their own performance as well as to assess and provide feedback to each other through peer or reciprocal learning (Levels III and IV).
Alteration of one's teaching style is crucial by its very nature to creating a caring environment. Therefore incorporation of the styles of teaching serves to create an environment ripe with teachable moments that enhance and connect to the TPSR model. Whether students are learning sport skills or life skills, infusion of the strategies presented here will help teachers develop youth who are responsible and caring members of their school and community.
The choice of teaching style depends on a number of factors, including the following:
- Teacher beliefs: It is difficult to loosen control; is the teacher comfortable doing so?
- Goals of lessons: Are the skills or tasks familiar to the students or are they completely new?
- Teacher skill and preference: Is the teacher confident about her teaching skills?
- Student characteristics: Do students work well independently without supervision?
- Nature of content: Are students familiar with the content? How complex is it?
- Context of teaching: How much equipment and space are available?
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Starting out with Developmental Stage 1
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students.
Developmental Stage 1
As we discussed in the beginning of this book, students in the first developmental stage are often working on exhibiting Level I (respect) and II (participating with effort) behaviors consistently. During this stage the teacher takes the predominant role in leading the awareness talk, choosing developmentally appropriate tasks and challenges, structuring the group meeting, and providing reflection opportunities. As the lessons progress, the teacher is mindful to provide students with opportunities to begin to transition to developmental stage 2 (TPSR Level III, self-direction).
Relationship Time
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students. Icebreaker games provide an opportunity for students and teachers to interact, develop relationships, and have fun. Icebreakers can vary in length but all serve the purpose of creating an environment that fosters acceptance and interaction. A number of resources for icebreaker activities for all ages appear on the list at the end of the resources section in the back of the book. When working with developmental stage 1 learners, consider selecting activities that focus on individual traits (communication, cooperation, self-control, respect, and effort) within the context of group interactions.
The Mystery Move activity (Model in Action 5.1) gives students the opportunity to demonstrate self-control and cooperation (Level I) as well as to participate with effort (Level II). There is often a point in the game when a student is unable to identify who is leading the activity and begins to point madly at everyone. This bit of conflict can allow for the group to reset and to establish limits on the number of times a person can guess the leader before he switches places. It also gives the teacher and students the opportunity to compliment the student leading the activity, as well as the whole group on their cooperation, which provides a nice transition to the awareness talk.
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Awareness Talk
During the first developmental stage, the teacher takes the primary role during the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, guides the questioning, and makes the connection to teachable moments in the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 1 include respect, self-control, participation, effort, and effective communication. We like to use icebreakers during the relationship time, because they provide a leaping-off point from the activity to the remainder of the lesson. We also use the “What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?” method of structuring the awareness talk. This technique helps us draw meaning from the activity during the relationship time; it also models for students how they may direct the awareness talk as we eventually move to the side and allow them to lead this portion of the lesson (developmental stages 2 and 3). For example, in developmental stage 1, we might ask these questions:
- “What were some of the things we needed to do in Mystery Move to be successful as a group?”
- “What did you need to do to support the group?”
On the basis of responses from the students, we then lead them to extend their thinking by asking questions such as the following:
- “So what might be some things from the activity you might want to work on personally?”
- “What might be a couple things you know about yourself that you want to try to stop doing?”
- “Today we are starting our volleyball unit. What can you do in this unit to demonstrate some of those characteristics or behaviors?”
- “As you consider where you are, what are some goals you can take forward during today's lesson? Challenge yourself a bit!”
Lesson Focus
The theme identified during the awareness talk can set the stage for teachable moments throughout the lesson focus. You can select tasks or use pedagogical strategies that provide opportunities for students to make a cognitive or affective connection between the tasks and the theme. The teaching style you use can help to create a space for those teachable moments to occur. Although in developmental stage 1 it is often beneficial to maintain a somewhat teacher-centered approach (command style), we must also give students opportunities to work toward skill development in developmental stage 2. The style you choose will be influenced by your teaching philosophy, the learning styles of your students, and the context in which the lesson is presented. Here we provide an example of a lesson focus on a volleyball skill using two different styles of teaching.
Table 5.1 presents considerations for teaching the Dot Drills (Model in Action 5.2) activity using two teaching styles and shows how these connect to the TPSR model. The command style is more teacher centered, and the reciprocal style progresses a bit toward the divergent end of the teaching spectrum.
Command (Direct) Style
Presenting the Dot Drills activity through a command style allows you to direct the students through the progression of tasks. This encourages students to perform the task in the same way at the same time and allows you to check student performance. For each separate drill, provide a demonstration of the drill and identify cues:
- Keep knees bent.
- Move feet quickly from dot to dot.
- Keep body in a ready position with hands and arms out.
The teacher starts and stops the students for each drill, demonstrating the new variation and establishing cues. Throughout the activity the teacher moves about the space providing feedback.
Reciprocal Style
To present the same drill in reciprocal style, organize students into pairs. Each pair has a Dot Drill diagram on the floor. Students also have task sheets that briefly describe each drill and provide cues. In addition, we suggest providing a list of possible motivation-type feedback phrases students can use, such as “Way to keep your feet moving” or “Great job! Keep with it!”
Each pair of partners begins when ready. One student completes one rotation of the drill while the partner observes and provides feedback. The feedback should relate to the cues identified on the task sheet. After one rotation of the drill, students switch roles; the observer becomes the doer, and the doer becomes the observer. This process is repeated for each drill variation. The teacher's role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. The teacher must step in to provide feedback if a safety issue arises. Otherwise, the teacher encourages or suggests feedback to the observer only if the observer is not providing feedback. Key to this style is getting the students to interact with minimal or no input from the teacher.
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Group Meeting
Group meetings during the first developmental stage are facilitated by the teacher but provide an opportunity for students to have a voice in the learning process. This is the time for students to give input on how the lesson went, how their peers did, and even how the teacher did, all in relation to working on goals of developmental stage 1. Questions about how the activities challenged the students and how they felt participating in the lesson when the teacher used a given teaching style are good beginning points. Students can also be asked how they felt the class as a whole or just they and their partner or small group did. Lastly, you can ask how you as the teacher did and what you might work on for next session. As Don Hellison notes, this facet of the lesson tends to be foreign to students initially, as young people are not often asked to provide feedback to each other, much less to and about the teacher. Over time, students will feel more comfortable verbalizing their thoughts as this becomes a consistent part of the class.
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Don suggests that teachers initially lay down some ground rules; they can do this in collaboration with the students. These are examples of group meeting ground rules:
- No blaming others—accept responsibility for yourself.
- Include everyone in the discussion.
- Be respectful of yourself and others (full-value contract).
- Use each other's names.
- Do not talk over each other.
- Wait for classmates to finish their comments.
These are only a few examples; again, we encourage teachers to solicit input from their classes about what the ground rules should include.
Another especially relevant issue concerning group meetings is time. If you do not have sufficient time to check in with all students, ask for responses on how things went from a few students. A common practice in many TPSR-based programs is to have the students keep a journal. They can do this as homework and turn in their comments the next day. This way you keep track of how things are going and get timely input from the class.
Reflection
Reflection time should flow fairly seamlessly from the group meeting time. Group meeting time focuses on student evaluation of the lesson, and reflection time focuses on evaluation of the students' roles as learners and support. Thus, questions can move from how the activities or style of teaching challenged or engaged the students to a focus on how they participated as independent learners, demonstrated respect, showed self-direction, and cooperated during the lesson. During developmental stage 1, the teacher directs the discussion. The thumbometer is a technique often used for reflection time. In response to questions from the teacher, students point their thumbs up, sideways, or down to indicate how well they did on a particular aspect of the lesson. These are examples of questions the teacher might ask:
- “During Dot Drill today, did you demonstrate cooperation with your partner by giving feedback?”
- “Did you show stick-to-itiveness during Dot Drill as it got harder?”
- “Did you show self-direction by challenging yourself during the drill?”
Students respond as a group by pointing their thumbs. The teacher notes where most of the participants are (e.g., more thumbs up than down) so as to facilitate activities toward the higher levels (Levels III through V). As Don notes in his work, it is important to acknowledge that kids have bad days, too, which means we should support them and encourage honest self-evaluation. We also want to underscore not blaming others for our behavior.
Lastly, the reflection time is when we can begin to encourage students to think about how they can demonstrate the levels outside of the class or program. Asking students where in their out-of-class or out-of-program lives they could demonstrate a given level of responsibility allows them to begin to conceptualize this transition. For some students, reaching a particular level outside of class but still within the school (which is a nice scaffold) might be all that is possible. In any case, we should begin to encourage students to think about responsibility concepts outside the class.
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Transitioning to Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage.
Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage. This means providing opportunities for students to work collaboratively with their peers with little teacher guidance (Level III, self-direction). During the second stage you begin to call upon students to take a role in the learning process. As you will see in this section, you begin to relinquish some of the control of the class to students during awareness talks and group meetings. As this occurs, some students may begin to demonstrate a desire to take leadership roles (Level IV), but most will continue to need some guidance in keeping self-directed without individual supervision.
Relationship Time
Juggler's Carry (Model in Action 8.1) gives students the opportunity to continue to demonstrate respect (Level I) and participate with effort (Level II) while working collaboratively with their classmates without direct supervision from the teacher (Level III). Following the same format (“What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?”) but now inviting more student leadership during the process, we can begin to navigate TPSR Level III and to transition to Level IV concepts.
Awareness Talk
During the second developmental stage, the teacher begins to share the responsibility for the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, asks one or more students to guide the questioning, and draws the connection to the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 2 include self-control, self-direction, goal setting, and problem solving.
Using students to help guide the awareness talk is key in the development of youth leaders (Level IV). Following the activity, you can use student leaders to “debrief” so as to draw the attention of the learners to the cognitive and affective attributes of an activity. These are examples of questions you might provide the student leader following Juggler's Carry:
“What?” Questions
- “What helped you when talking with your group members to be successful at the activity?”
- “What were your feelings when you failed to keep balls from hitting the ground? How did you feel when you were successful in keeping balls from hitting the ground?”
“So What?” Questions
- “How might your feelings when you failed and succeeded help as you work in groups?”
- “How might you do things differently in this activity to find more success individually and as a member of the group?”
“Now What?” Questions
- “Thinking about the activity and how you felt as you succeeded or failed, how can those feelings help you as you engage in other activities during basketball?”
- “What might you do to help regain focus when you are not succeeding at something?”
By providing the students with a selection of questions, you maintain the direction of the conversation while giving students a chance to comfortably explore what it is like to take a leadership role in class.
Lesson Focus
The opportunities for self-direction take center stage during developmental stage 2. Again, activities should transition from individuals performing within the context of the group to individuals positively interacting with partners and small groups in self-guided learning experiences.
Table 8.2 presents considerations for teaching the Pass and Shoot activity (Model in Action 8.3) through two teaching styles and shows how they connect to the TPSR model. You can alter both styles so as to create challenge and, most importantly, provide students with the opportunity to work individually and in groups as well as pace themselves.
Being mindful of the activities used during this stage provides you with opportunities to alter the teaching style and encourage greater student responsibility. This allows for students to begin leading the group meeting segment of the lesson and speaking as to how the lesson activities address the theme or themes identified during the awareness talk.
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Inclusion Style
To use the inclusion style, you demonstrate the cues for Pass and Shoot and present task sheets that provide a diagram and performance cues. Identify the options available for students in deciding how and where to enter the drill. For example, students can vary distances to the basket and use different types of balls to make the task more difficult. Students can also count missed or made shots, or they can time themselves and see how many shots they can make. These options, chosen by the students for themselves, create additional challenges. Students are placed in pairs and dispersed throughout the teaching area. Allow time for the learners to assess their level though trial and error and begin the drill. After each drill, the learners reassess and set new challenges based on the levels available and the achievement of performance criteria.
Your role is to circulate throughout the learning space and provide feedback only on the decisions of the students. You can ask, for example, “How are you doing at the level you have selected?” On the basis of the students' response, inquire about the decisions made and how successful the students feel they are. With this style it is important not to start out by overtly challenging the decision made initially but to help students in their self-assessments.
Reciprocal Style
To use the reciprocal style for this activity, arrange students in groups of three; the third person becomes the observer. Provide task sheets that briefly describe the activity, the cues, and the participants' roles. We also suggest including a list of possible motivation-type feedback for students to use. Clear role expectations for students on the task sheet will help them keep focus. For example, spell out what the observer ought to be observing (performance cues) and what the doers are doing (practicing). Provide a time or a number of passes for each facet of the activity. Once they are finished, the students rotate their roles. This process is repeated for each drill variation.
Your role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. You must step in to provide feedback if there is a safety issue. Otherwise, you encourage or suggest feedback to the observer only if feedback is not occurring.
Group Meeting
The group meeting during the second developmental stage should continue to provide students with an opportunity to have a voice in the learning process but facilitate their leading more of the discussion. Because you have modeled leading the discussion in developmental stage 1, you can help students assume more responsibility by asking questions such as “What sorts of questions did I ask you about the lesson?” and “What questions do you have of your peers from the lesson?” Another strategy is to have students write their questions or comments on a slip of paper and then exchange with partners and engage in small-group discussions. You can then bring them back to the large group and ask for culminating thoughts from the day's lesson. Don't be disappointed if it takes a bit more effort during this developmental stage to get things going. Be consistent, be caring, and be a good model, and your students will begin to assume more responsibility.
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Reflection
Key to this stage is that students begin to lead more of the discussion. Students can be cued on questions that address the particular levels they are working at during this stage (Level III) and begin to scaffold to goals for the next levels (IV and V). These are examples of helpful questions:
- “How did you feel you and your partner worked independent of teacher direction?”
- “What might you improve on?”
- “As we move toward more independence, what goals can you set to show more leadership in class?”
Students can begin to generate these types of questions once you have modeled them. We encourage you to note the many examples in Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Through Physical Activity, Third Edition, of different ways to engage students in reflection time. Methods such as exit slips, journaling, and tapping in (students tap on a poster listing the levels to indicate where they are) can be quite effective and keep this part of the lesson fresh.
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Seeking leadership opportunities in Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult.
Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult. At this stage students should routinely demonstrate behaviors consistent with Levels I to III and actively seek out leadership opportunities. These opportunities for caring and leadership take center stage during developmental stage 3. Caring and leadership can manifest themselves during all aspects of the lesson as students explore ways to engage in the learning process.
Relationship Time
Relationship time during the third developmental stage should be almost entirely run by students. Student leaders can be responsible for setup, instruction, and facilitation of the relationship time tasks. For example, many teachers use a warm-up routine that is performed throughout the year. Consider allowing students to lead, or even better create, the warm-up or other relationship time activities.
The Create-a-Game activity meets the objectives of relationship time by providing opportunities for students to interact with each other constructively; it also meets the developmental stage 3 needs by providing opportunities for students to be self-directed and to develop leadership skills.
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Awareness Talk
Student leaders should be comfortable with identifying the theme, guiding the questioning, and drawing connections to the lesson by the time they reach the third developmental stage. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 3 include self-direction, leadership, and transfer. To illustrate a developmental stage 3 awareness talk, let's consider Create-a-Game (Model in Action 11.6).
In speaking for the Create-a-Game activity, the student leaders would generalize the lessons learned from the activity to the theme and subsequent activities. These are examples of statements and questions they might offer:
- “I liked how my group talked through each step and offered game ideas. How did your group decide on the game you would create?”
- “In our group we selected our five pieces of equipment first and then tried to come up with a unique game that used the equipment. How did other groups decide where to begin?”
In speaking for the experience, the student leaders can generalize what occurred in the activity. Nonverbal behavior on the part of the teacher can be really be important here. Remain involved by demonstrating active listening, nodding your head, and making eye contact with whoever is speaking. This models to the students behaviors that they too can maintain in the process.
Lesson Focus
Developmental stage 3 activities should provide students with the opportunity for leadership experiences and encourage transfer to other aspects of the curriculum. The Two Up, Two Back activity (Model in Action 11.7), a volley drill, offers students opportunities to exhibit behaviors consistent with responsibility Levels I through IV.
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Teaching strategies for developmental stage 3 include providing students with opportunities to emphasize previous levels but, more importantly, focus on Levels IV (caring and leadership) and V (outside the gymnasium). We can elicit these behaviors by modifying the way we present the task.
Table 11.3 presents considerations for teaching Two Up, Two Back through two different styles. You can use a command style, but this minimizes the opportunity for students to demonstrate developmental stage 3 behaviors. Instead, presenting the task through a divergent discovery style or a self-check style provides opportunities for self-directed learning and leadership.
Two Up, Two Back (Model in Action 11.7) provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate responsibility Levels I through IV. Using a guided discovery approach gives students a chance to collaboratively develop tactical awareness for the volley and passing shots. Self-checking enables them to self-assess in the context of group play. At this developmental stage, students have demonstrated the ability to work independently while putting forth effort and showing respect to their peers. At this point we hope you can begin to think of ways to modify the learning environment to promote leadership skills in your students. These skills can be carried over to the group meeting segment of the lesson, increasing the contribution of students to the learning process.
Divergent Discovery Style
Presenting Two Up, Two Back using a divergent discovery approach allows you to engage students in both the cognitive and psychomotor domains. Through questioning or the presentation of a problem, you can have students diverge on solutions for successfully completing the task. With this task you can allow groups of students to diverge on a solution that meets the task requirements.
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Teacher: “Each group will play a modified doubles game. One team starts at the net and the other at the baseline. The team at the baseline begins play, and team locations switch after each point. The first two hits of each round should be easily returnable by the other team. Points can be scored only after two successful hits have been completed. Rotate service each point and play to 10 points.”
After each round of 10 points, have students reflect on the following questions:
- How can you support your partner during a point (think about your movement and positioning on the court)?
- What strategies did the volleying team use to score points?
- What strategies did the baseline team use to score points?
- How can we use one hit to set up our next shot?
Self-Check Style
Shifting to a self-check style provides additional opportunities for students to demonstrate self-direction and leadership behaviors. Create a task sheet that briefly describes the activity and provides learning cues. You can ask a group to demonstrate the activity drills and focus students on their task sheet. Once groups have read their sheets, they can begin the activity at their own pace.
Following each game (to 10 points), students recheck the criteria noted on the task sheet relative to their execution of the volley. Students are responsible for their own feedback based on the criteria for the given skill. The teacher's role is to ask questions related to the student's process of self-checking or self-assessing.
Group Meeting
As with the awareness talk, this portion of the lesson is mostly student led. You can assist by cueing students regarding the levels they are working on, as well as reminding them of what sorts of questions have been asked in previous classes. Questions about how the lesson was conducted, how the activity met the students' needs or provided challenge, and how the style of teaching engaged them are all examples of program-related discussion questions.
During the Two Up, Two Back activity, a student leader can initiate a group reflection on the lesson activities by asking questions like these:
- “How did you support your partner during this drill?”
- “What are other ways we support our doubles partner during tennis?”
- “How can we use a shot to set up our partner for the next shot?”
Reflection
We should expect students at this developmental stage to be able to pose higher-order questions during their reflections. Reflections should continue to serve as an opportunity for students to self-reflect on their actions and what they observed in others throughout the lesson while exploring ways they can transfer the responsibility attributes they are developing in physical education to life beyond the gym. This can be accomplished through a variety of formats in class or outside of class time. Students can read each other's journals and provide feedback, assist each other in goal setting, or create strategies to transfer the levels to environments outside of the program. Again, the teacher remains connected to the process as an active listener and support.
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An extension of TPSR—The Kinesiology Career Club
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.”
The Kinesiology Career Club
David Walsh
Program Description
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.” The more specific goals of KCC for the youth are as follows:
- To maximize motivation to improve in, stay in, and find relevance in school
- To enhance connection between the TPSR goals of respect, effort, goal setting, and leadership skills and the importance they play in youths' futures
- To chart the necessary steps to first become a professional in kinesiology, which provides practical experience in a specific career
- To chart the necessary steps for their own careers of choice and developing strategies for matriculating and graduating from college
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The program takes place in San Francisco at Mission High School, a low-performing inner-city school. It began in spring 2011 and will be ongoing every spring and fall semester. The program runs for 80 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday over the entire semester during second-period physical education. Current KCC students include five girls and nine boys who are all ninth graders. The high school has a diverse population with the following ethnicity breakdown: 14 percent African American, 23 percent Asian, 46 percent Latino, 9 percent Caucasian, and 8 percent other. The KCC students closely reflect this diversity.
As a university-community collaboration, KCC is also part of a course offered at San Francisco State University (SFSU) to graduating kinesiology seniors. Called “SFSU Mentors,” six to eight seniors are selected to conduct their capstone kinesiology course in the community by helping me run this program. I am the lead instructor of KCC, and the SFSU Mentors help lead various physical activities—a combination of martial arts, weight training, dance, and fitness activities—and mentor the students on positive “possible futures” in either a 1-to-1 or 2-to-1 ratio for the final 15 minutes of every session.
Use of TPSR Model
The KCC goals progress through four phases. Each phase allows for the systematic application of TPSR within the program, as well as providing opportunities for students to engage the model as they move through the program.
Phase One Goals
In phase one we use TPSR daily format and strategies to introduce the program, including the various physical activities. This phase focuses on Level I, respect, and Level II, effort. We aim to begin building relationships with the students, have them voice their opinions about the program content and structure, and introduce the field of kinesiology. We also introduce the combined TPSR reflection time and mentoring time, a significant component of the positive “possible futures” emphasis that takes place throughout the program. We talk about our own choice to study kinesiology, connect the physical activities in KCC to the basis and foundation of the field of kinesiology, bridge Levels I and II to the idea of being successful in kinesiology, encourage the students to talk about their own career interests, and begin to get to know and develop relationships with them.
Phase Two Goals
Once phase one goals are mostly achieved, phase two begins to empower the students to take on the advanced TPSR responsibilities (Level III, goal setting; Level IV, leadership). Students are asked to set goals for martial arts, weight training, dance, or fitness skills. They are also encouraged to take on small leadership experiences by way of teaching the activities they worked on during goal-setting time. We encourage the students to consider a career in at least one of the many subdisciplines of kinesiology, connect the physical activities and goal setting and leadership in the program to being successful in the field of kinesiology, and begin to chart the steps to earning a college degree in kinesiology. Phase two also aims at having students reflect on what they are currently doing in school and out of school that could either help or hinder their futures.
Phase Three Goals
Once phase two goals are mostly achieved, phase three continues to empower the students to work on TPSR Levels I through IV. Goal-setting time and leadership roles are extended so that students take on more responsibility. We introduce the potential transference of the steps to a career in kinesiology to the development of responsibility traits necessary for the students' future careers of choice. The idea is to link phase two experiences of understanding how to be successful in kinesiology to understanding what success would mean in the students' own careers of choice. Students actively reflect on what they would like to pursue as a career and effectively discover ways to link what they learned about kinesiology to their own future career interests. We also introduce the importance of having both potential hopes and potential fears—as suggested by the theory of possible selves (Oyserman, Terry, & Bybee 2002)—and doing the hard work as well as having the positive attitude and preparation needed for success.
Phase Four Goals
After students have mostly achieved phase three goals, phase four continues to empower them to work on responsibility Levels I through IV. We introduce Level V, outside the gym, and address how what the students do in school, at home, and in the streets affects their futures. Phase four discussions focus solely on the students' careers of choice. We further reinforce the connection between the TPSR levels and what might prove necessary for the practical realization of their possible futures, including both potential hopes and fears. We provide additional insight into the degree of hard work, positive attitude, and preparation needed for the realization of their possible futures.
Additional Program Elements
Since KCC is run through in-school physical education, we have to integrate traditional physical education elements such as uniform requirements and fitness testing into the program. Unlike after-school programs that students may choose to attend, attending KCC is mandatory. Mission High School has been very supportive of the program and has given us complete autonomy with respect to fulfilling the goals of KCC. It is a collaboration we plan to continue for several years.
Even though KCC has some goals that differ from those of a regular TPSR program, we are able to keep a TPSR focus by systematically implementing the components of a regular TPSR daily format. Each session has relationship time, an awareness talk, physical activities designed as a way for the students to experience the responsibility levels, a group meeting, and a reflection time. Some of the KCC goals require alteration of the TPSR components. For example, a KCC awareness talk includes how the levels relate to the students' futures, and discussions focus on the field of kinesiology. Reflection time takes place with the guidance of SFSU Mentors, which students document in a journal. Students are asked to reflect not only on the levels but also on how they are performing in school and are exploring a “possible future,” first in kinesiology and then in their own careers of choice. An effective strategy has been providing information on the various subdisciplines of kinesiology to give the students the opportunity to find relevance in at least one of them. Some students easily identify with kinesiology as a “possible future” while others connect only with being physically active as an important issue in their lives. As the program progresses, discussions about their own career interests seem to get more detailed and authentic.
Keeping SITE
Though KCC has different goals and purposes, it is still an extension of TPSR. It is crucial for us to keep SITE of the four TPSR themes. KCC includes TPSR's prioritization of the instructor-student relationship through the concern for each student's emotional, social, and physical well-being. KCC is also empowerment based, giving students various leadership roles, providing goal-setting time, giving them a voice in the program's direction, and enabling them to evaluate both themselves and the program. The difference is in how the TPSR levels are integrated into the physical activities as a way to explore a career in kinesiology. Once this is established, then transference of the levels to enhance the students' understanding and exploration of their own careers of interest can occur. KCC is still in its early phases of development and will change as the program evolves, but TPSR will continue to be the foundation and core of the program.
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Relinquish control and enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student–teacher and student–student relationships.
Student-Centered Learning
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student-teacher and student-student relationships. An easy way to think about this is to ask ourselves as teachers, How do I invite the views, thoughts, or input of my students into my teaching? Given how we invite our students to share in the methods we use to teach, we are creating a situation through which we relinquish control and thus enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships.
A way to think about how we invite students into our teaching is to use the spectrum of teaching styles by Mosston and Ashworth (2002). The spectrum places the teaching context on a continuum (figure 3.3). The continuum is anchored on one end by teaching styles that are convergent or that come to a common goal. The opposite end of the continuum is anchored by teaching styles that are divergent or that have many goals or possible answers.
Mosston conceptualized the teaching spectrum on the basis of the decisions the teachers made; as he states, “Teaching behavior is a chain of decision making” (Mosston & Ashworth 2002, p. 4). For Mosston, the spectrum identified teaching and learning options. Thus, the goal of the spectrum was for teachers to become proficient in generating a variety of teaching contexts based on the content focus, objectives, and learner needs. Movement along the teaching continuum is based on manipulation of the three phases of teaching: preimpact, impact, and postimpact.
- The preimpact phase entails establishing the lesson objectives and focus. It is often the teacher who is primarily in charge of this aspect of teaching.
- The impact phase is the actual execution of the teaching. This includes elements such as the pace of the lesson and the types of learning activities. Obviously, these aspects can also be primarily teacher centered; but within the spectrum, it is when we step away from the center in the impact phase that we begin to elicit a more student-centered approach.
- The postimpact phase includes evaluation of the student's performance both during and after completion of the task.
As the teacher begins to release control of the various phases to the student, the style of teaching changes and typically moves from the convergent end of the continuum toward the divergent end.
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Mosston identified 11 styles of teaching, labeled styles A through K. The first five styles (A through E) represent teaching decisions that foster and support reproduction of past knowledge; these styles are called command, practice/task, reciprocal, inclusion, and self-check. The rest of the styles (F through K) represent options that foster production of new knowledge; these styles are called guided discovery, convergent discovery, divergent discovery, learner-designed individual program, learner-initiated, and self-teaching.
Here we briefly discuss the styles incorporated into part II of this book. For a more detailed discussion of all the styles (A through K), the reader is directed to Mosston and Ashworth (2002).
Command
Response is influenced by telling students what to do, telling them how to practice, and directing practice.
Most effective approach when:
- Goal is to learn and perform specific skill
- Teacher is looking for a specific response
- Teacher has limited experience working with a group
- Time for organization is limited
Practice/Task
The teacher presents information through tasks, often organized into stations, that provide the teacher with the flexibility to maintain control over the teaching phases (teacher-centered) or begin to release some control to the students.
- Involves different students (often individually or in pairs) practicing different tasks at the same time
- Involves stations and task cards
- Works well when students need to practice skills they have already been taught
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher explains stations or tasks well beforehand
- Teacher makes managerial aspects clear
- Teacher frequently checks with students
- Students start with only a few stations or tasks
- Students work well independently
- Students are able to function without close supervision
Reciprocal
Teacher designs and communicates tasks, and students assume roles of providing feedback and assessment to peers.
Most effective approach when:
- Skill to be taught is simple
- Cues for observation are clear
- Performance is easily measured
Inclusion
The teacher designs tasks; students are allowed to choose the level at which they begin the tasks that best meets their needs or ability levels. Learners make a decision based on self-assessment of their entry point (e.g., size of ball, distance to goal). When the learner meets that goal, she can challenge herself again at a new level.
- Accommodates individual learning differences
- Individualizes further because choices are presented
- Is really a developmentally appropriate approach
Most effective approach when:
- Criteria for self-evaluation and assessment of success are clear
- Performance is easily measured
- Students work well independently
Self-Check
Similar to the reciprocal style, the teacher designs and communicates the task; however, in this style students assume a self-teaching role as they perform the task and then self-assess and reflect upon their performance.
- Carryover from task and reciprocal styles
- Decisions shifted to the learner in the impact and postimpact phases
- Learners weaned away from external feedback; they provide their own feedback as they self-monitor their progress on task
- Learner decides the context based on feedback from self-evaluation
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher values the learner's ability to develop self-monitoring capacity
- Teacher trusts the student to be honest
- Learner can identify own limits, successes, and failures
- Learner can use self-check as feedback
- Learner can work independently
Guided Discovery
Teaching is through questioning, designed to let students think and solve problems. Two versions:
- Convergent inquiry: Students discover the same answer to a series of questions.
- Divergent inquiry: Students find multiple answers to a problem.
Most effective approach when:
- Students are encouraged to think independently to discover new and different approaches to performing skill
- Students are encouraged to solve questions related to teamwork and strategy as they relate to skill performance
- Students are encouraged to explore a movement when they are not yet ready to learn a mature version of the skill
Once we make the decision to alter the style of teaching, we are also making the decision to give the student a greater role in the lesson and thus are facilitating development of personal and social responsibility. As noted in table 1.1 (chapter 1), each teaching style connects the student to a different TPSR level focus and underscores the student's awareness and recognition of his personal and eventually social responsibility. Thus, as noted in this book and by Don, it is critical that TPSR be integrated within all aspects of your lessons and content. Incorporating divergent teaching styles allows students to make decisions within the learning context. This approach is unique in that it engages the learner in the discovery and production of options within the subject matter (Mosston & Ashworth 2002).
For example, when youth are afforded the opportunity to set their own learning pace during lesson practice, select the type(s) of equipment that best match their ability level, and work in small collaborative groups, this allows them to work on skills of self-direction, participation, cooperation, and goal setting (TPSR Levels II and III). Divergent teaching styles also create opportunities for students to learn how to assess their own performance as well as to assess and provide feedback to each other through peer or reciprocal learning (Levels III and IV).
Alteration of one's teaching style is crucial by its very nature to creating a caring environment. Therefore incorporation of the styles of teaching serves to create an environment ripe with teachable moments that enhance and connect to the TPSR model. Whether students are learning sport skills or life skills, infusion of the strategies presented here will help teachers develop youth who are responsible and caring members of their school and community.
The choice of teaching style depends on a number of factors, including the following:
- Teacher beliefs: It is difficult to loosen control; is the teacher comfortable doing so?
- Goals of lessons: Are the skills or tasks familiar to the students or are they completely new?
- Teacher skill and preference: Is the teacher confident about her teaching skills?
- Student characteristics: Do students work well independently without supervision?
- Nature of content: Are students familiar with the content? How complex is it?
- Context of teaching: How much equipment and space are available?
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Starting out with Developmental Stage 1
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students.
Developmental Stage 1
As we discussed in the beginning of this book, students in the first developmental stage are often working on exhibiting Level I (respect) and II (participating with effort) behaviors consistently. During this stage the teacher takes the predominant role in leading the awareness talk, choosing developmentally appropriate tasks and challenges, structuring the group meeting, and providing reflection opportunities. As the lessons progress, the teacher is mindful to provide students with opportunities to begin to transition to developmental stage 2 (TPSR Level III, self-direction).
Relationship Time
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students. Icebreaker games provide an opportunity for students and teachers to interact, develop relationships, and have fun. Icebreakers can vary in length but all serve the purpose of creating an environment that fosters acceptance and interaction. A number of resources for icebreaker activities for all ages appear on the list at the end of the resources section in the back of the book. When working with developmental stage 1 learners, consider selecting activities that focus on individual traits (communication, cooperation, self-control, respect, and effort) within the context of group interactions.
The Mystery Move activity (Model in Action 5.1) gives students the opportunity to demonstrate self-control and cooperation (Level I) as well as to participate with effort (Level II). There is often a point in the game when a student is unable to identify who is leading the activity and begins to point madly at everyone. This bit of conflict can allow for the group to reset and to establish limits on the number of times a person can guess the leader before he switches places. It also gives the teacher and students the opportunity to compliment the student leading the activity, as well as the whole group on their cooperation, which provides a nice transition to the awareness talk.
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Awareness Talk
During the first developmental stage, the teacher takes the primary role during the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, guides the questioning, and makes the connection to teachable moments in the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 1 include respect, self-control, participation, effort, and effective communication. We like to use icebreakers during the relationship time, because they provide a leaping-off point from the activity to the remainder of the lesson. We also use the “What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?” method of structuring the awareness talk. This technique helps us draw meaning from the activity during the relationship time; it also models for students how they may direct the awareness talk as we eventually move to the side and allow them to lead this portion of the lesson (developmental stages 2 and 3). For example, in developmental stage 1, we might ask these questions:
- “What were some of the things we needed to do in Mystery Move to be successful as a group?”
- “What did you need to do to support the group?”
On the basis of responses from the students, we then lead them to extend their thinking by asking questions such as the following:
- “So what might be some things from the activity you might want to work on personally?”
- “What might be a couple things you know about yourself that you want to try to stop doing?”
- “Today we are starting our volleyball unit. What can you do in this unit to demonstrate some of those characteristics or behaviors?”
- “As you consider where you are, what are some goals you can take forward during today's lesson? Challenge yourself a bit!”
Lesson Focus
The theme identified during the awareness talk can set the stage for teachable moments throughout the lesson focus. You can select tasks or use pedagogical strategies that provide opportunities for students to make a cognitive or affective connection between the tasks and the theme. The teaching style you use can help to create a space for those teachable moments to occur. Although in developmental stage 1 it is often beneficial to maintain a somewhat teacher-centered approach (command style), we must also give students opportunities to work toward skill development in developmental stage 2. The style you choose will be influenced by your teaching philosophy, the learning styles of your students, and the context in which the lesson is presented. Here we provide an example of a lesson focus on a volleyball skill using two different styles of teaching.
Table 5.1 presents considerations for teaching the Dot Drills (Model in Action 5.2) activity using two teaching styles and shows how these connect to the TPSR model. The command style is more teacher centered, and the reciprocal style progresses a bit toward the divergent end of the teaching spectrum.
Command (Direct) Style
Presenting the Dot Drills activity through a command style allows you to direct the students through the progression of tasks. This encourages students to perform the task in the same way at the same time and allows you to check student performance. For each separate drill, provide a demonstration of the drill and identify cues:
- Keep knees bent.
- Move feet quickly from dot to dot.
- Keep body in a ready position with hands and arms out.
The teacher starts and stops the students for each drill, demonstrating the new variation and establishing cues. Throughout the activity the teacher moves about the space providing feedback.
Reciprocal Style
To present the same drill in reciprocal style, organize students into pairs. Each pair has a Dot Drill diagram on the floor. Students also have task sheets that briefly describe each drill and provide cues. In addition, we suggest providing a list of possible motivation-type feedback phrases students can use, such as “Way to keep your feet moving” or “Great job! Keep with it!”
Each pair of partners begins when ready. One student completes one rotation of the drill while the partner observes and provides feedback. The feedback should relate to the cues identified on the task sheet. After one rotation of the drill, students switch roles; the observer becomes the doer, and the doer becomes the observer. This process is repeated for each drill variation. The teacher's role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. The teacher must step in to provide feedback if a safety issue arises. Otherwise, the teacher encourages or suggests feedback to the observer only if the observer is not providing feedback. Key to this style is getting the students to interact with minimal or no input from the teacher.
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Group Meeting
Group meetings during the first developmental stage are facilitated by the teacher but provide an opportunity for students to have a voice in the learning process. This is the time for students to give input on how the lesson went, how their peers did, and even how the teacher did, all in relation to working on goals of developmental stage 1. Questions about how the activities challenged the students and how they felt participating in the lesson when the teacher used a given teaching style are good beginning points. Students can also be asked how they felt the class as a whole or just they and their partner or small group did. Lastly, you can ask how you as the teacher did and what you might work on for next session. As Don Hellison notes, this facet of the lesson tends to be foreign to students initially, as young people are not often asked to provide feedback to each other, much less to and about the teacher. Over time, students will feel more comfortable verbalizing their thoughts as this becomes a consistent part of the class.
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Don suggests that teachers initially lay down some ground rules; they can do this in collaboration with the students. These are examples of group meeting ground rules:
- No blaming others—accept responsibility for yourself.
- Include everyone in the discussion.
- Be respectful of yourself and others (full-value contract).
- Use each other's names.
- Do not talk over each other.
- Wait for classmates to finish their comments.
These are only a few examples; again, we encourage teachers to solicit input from their classes about what the ground rules should include.
Another especially relevant issue concerning group meetings is time. If you do not have sufficient time to check in with all students, ask for responses on how things went from a few students. A common practice in many TPSR-based programs is to have the students keep a journal. They can do this as homework and turn in their comments the next day. This way you keep track of how things are going and get timely input from the class.
Reflection
Reflection time should flow fairly seamlessly from the group meeting time. Group meeting time focuses on student evaluation of the lesson, and reflection time focuses on evaluation of the students' roles as learners and support. Thus, questions can move from how the activities or style of teaching challenged or engaged the students to a focus on how they participated as independent learners, demonstrated respect, showed self-direction, and cooperated during the lesson. During developmental stage 1, the teacher directs the discussion. The thumbometer is a technique often used for reflection time. In response to questions from the teacher, students point their thumbs up, sideways, or down to indicate how well they did on a particular aspect of the lesson. These are examples of questions the teacher might ask:
- “During Dot Drill today, did you demonstrate cooperation with your partner by giving feedback?”
- “Did you show stick-to-itiveness during Dot Drill as it got harder?”
- “Did you show self-direction by challenging yourself during the drill?”
Students respond as a group by pointing their thumbs. The teacher notes where most of the participants are (e.g., more thumbs up than down) so as to facilitate activities toward the higher levels (Levels III through V). As Don notes in his work, it is important to acknowledge that kids have bad days, too, which means we should support them and encourage honest self-evaluation. We also want to underscore not blaming others for our behavior.
Lastly, the reflection time is when we can begin to encourage students to think about how they can demonstrate the levels outside of the class or program. Asking students where in their out-of-class or out-of-program lives they could demonstrate a given level of responsibility allows them to begin to conceptualize this transition. For some students, reaching a particular level outside of class but still within the school (which is a nice scaffold) might be all that is possible. In any case, we should begin to encourage students to think about responsibility concepts outside the class.
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Transitioning to Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage.
Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage. This means providing opportunities for students to work collaboratively with their peers with little teacher guidance (Level III, self-direction). During the second stage you begin to call upon students to take a role in the learning process. As you will see in this section, you begin to relinquish some of the control of the class to students during awareness talks and group meetings. As this occurs, some students may begin to demonstrate a desire to take leadership roles (Level IV), but most will continue to need some guidance in keeping self-directed without individual supervision.
Relationship Time
Juggler's Carry (Model in Action 8.1) gives students the opportunity to continue to demonstrate respect (Level I) and participate with effort (Level II) while working collaboratively with their classmates without direct supervision from the teacher (Level III). Following the same format (“What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?”) but now inviting more student leadership during the process, we can begin to navigate TPSR Level III and to transition to Level IV concepts.
Awareness Talk
During the second developmental stage, the teacher begins to share the responsibility for the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, asks one or more students to guide the questioning, and draws the connection to the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 2 include self-control, self-direction, goal setting, and problem solving.
Using students to help guide the awareness talk is key in the development of youth leaders (Level IV). Following the activity, you can use student leaders to “debrief” so as to draw the attention of the learners to the cognitive and affective attributes of an activity. These are examples of questions you might provide the student leader following Juggler's Carry:
“What?” Questions
- “What helped you when talking with your group members to be successful at the activity?”
- “What were your feelings when you failed to keep balls from hitting the ground? How did you feel when you were successful in keeping balls from hitting the ground?”
“So What?” Questions
- “How might your feelings when you failed and succeeded help as you work in groups?”
- “How might you do things differently in this activity to find more success individually and as a member of the group?”
“Now What?” Questions
- “Thinking about the activity and how you felt as you succeeded or failed, how can those feelings help you as you engage in other activities during basketball?”
- “What might you do to help regain focus when you are not succeeding at something?”
By providing the students with a selection of questions, you maintain the direction of the conversation while giving students a chance to comfortably explore what it is like to take a leadership role in class.
Lesson Focus
The opportunities for self-direction take center stage during developmental stage 2. Again, activities should transition from individuals performing within the context of the group to individuals positively interacting with partners and small groups in self-guided learning experiences.
Table 8.2 presents considerations for teaching the Pass and Shoot activity (Model in Action 8.3) through two teaching styles and shows how they connect to the TPSR model. You can alter both styles so as to create challenge and, most importantly, provide students with the opportunity to work individually and in groups as well as pace themselves.
Being mindful of the activities used during this stage provides you with opportunities to alter the teaching style and encourage greater student responsibility. This allows for students to begin leading the group meeting segment of the lesson and speaking as to how the lesson activities address the theme or themes identified during the awareness talk.
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Inclusion Style
To use the inclusion style, you demonstrate the cues for Pass and Shoot and present task sheets that provide a diagram and performance cues. Identify the options available for students in deciding how and where to enter the drill. For example, students can vary distances to the basket and use different types of balls to make the task more difficult. Students can also count missed or made shots, or they can time themselves and see how many shots they can make. These options, chosen by the students for themselves, create additional challenges. Students are placed in pairs and dispersed throughout the teaching area. Allow time for the learners to assess their level though trial and error and begin the drill. After each drill, the learners reassess and set new challenges based on the levels available and the achievement of performance criteria.
Your role is to circulate throughout the learning space and provide feedback only on the decisions of the students. You can ask, for example, “How are you doing at the level you have selected?” On the basis of the students' response, inquire about the decisions made and how successful the students feel they are. With this style it is important not to start out by overtly challenging the decision made initially but to help students in their self-assessments.
Reciprocal Style
To use the reciprocal style for this activity, arrange students in groups of three; the third person becomes the observer. Provide task sheets that briefly describe the activity, the cues, and the participants' roles. We also suggest including a list of possible motivation-type feedback for students to use. Clear role expectations for students on the task sheet will help them keep focus. For example, spell out what the observer ought to be observing (performance cues) and what the doers are doing (practicing). Provide a time or a number of passes for each facet of the activity. Once they are finished, the students rotate their roles. This process is repeated for each drill variation.
Your role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. You must step in to provide feedback if there is a safety issue. Otherwise, you encourage or suggest feedback to the observer only if feedback is not occurring.
Group Meeting
The group meeting during the second developmental stage should continue to provide students with an opportunity to have a voice in the learning process but facilitate their leading more of the discussion. Because you have modeled leading the discussion in developmental stage 1, you can help students assume more responsibility by asking questions such as “What sorts of questions did I ask you about the lesson?” and “What questions do you have of your peers from the lesson?” Another strategy is to have students write their questions or comments on a slip of paper and then exchange with partners and engage in small-group discussions. You can then bring them back to the large group and ask for culminating thoughts from the day's lesson. Don't be disappointed if it takes a bit more effort during this developmental stage to get things going. Be consistent, be caring, and be a good model, and your students will begin to assume more responsibility.
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Reflection
Key to this stage is that students begin to lead more of the discussion. Students can be cued on questions that address the particular levels they are working at during this stage (Level III) and begin to scaffold to goals for the next levels (IV and V). These are examples of helpful questions:
- “How did you feel you and your partner worked independent of teacher direction?”
- “What might you improve on?”
- “As we move toward more independence, what goals can you set to show more leadership in class?”
Students can begin to generate these types of questions once you have modeled them. We encourage you to note the many examples in Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Through Physical Activity, Third Edition, of different ways to engage students in reflection time. Methods such as exit slips, journaling, and tapping in (students tap on a poster listing the levels to indicate where they are) can be quite effective and keep this part of the lesson fresh.
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Seeking leadership opportunities in Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult.
Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult. At this stage students should routinely demonstrate behaviors consistent with Levels I to III and actively seek out leadership opportunities. These opportunities for caring and leadership take center stage during developmental stage 3. Caring and leadership can manifest themselves during all aspects of the lesson as students explore ways to engage in the learning process.
Relationship Time
Relationship time during the third developmental stage should be almost entirely run by students. Student leaders can be responsible for setup, instruction, and facilitation of the relationship time tasks. For example, many teachers use a warm-up routine that is performed throughout the year. Consider allowing students to lead, or even better create, the warm-up or other relationship time activities.
The Create-a-Game activity meets the objectives of relationship time by providing opportunities for students to interact with each other constructively; it also meets the developmental stage 3 needs by providing opportunities for students to be self-directed and to develop leadership skills.
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Awareness Talk
Student leaders should be comfortable with identifying the theme, guiding the questioning, and drawing connections to the lesson by the time they reach the third developmental stage. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 3 include self-direction, leadership, and transfer. To illustrate a developmental stage 3 awareness talk, let's consider Create-a-Game (Model in Action 11.6).
In speaking for the Create-a-Game activity, the student leaders would generalize the lessons learned from the activity to the theme and subsequent activities. These are examples of statements and questions they might offer:
- “I liked how my group talked through each step and offered game ideas. How did your group decide on the game you would create?”
- “In our group we selected our five pieces of equipment first and then tried to come up with a unique game that used the equipment. How did other groups decide where to begin?”
In speaking for the experience, the student leaders can generalize what occurred in the activity. Nonverbal behavior on the part of the teacher can be really be important here. Remain involved by demonstrating active listening, nodding your head, and making eye contact with whoever is speaking. This models to the students behaviors that they too can maintain in the process.
Lesson Focus
Developmental stage 3 activities should provide students with the opportunity for leadership experiences and encourage transfer to other aspects of the curriculum. The Two Up, Two Back activity (Model in Action 11.7), a volley drill, offers students opportunities to exhibit behaviors consistent with responsibility Levels I through IV.
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Teaching strategies for developmental stage 3 include providing students with opportunities to emphasize previous levels but, more importantly, focus on Levels IV (caring and leadership) and V (outside the gymnasium). We can elicit these behaviors by modifying the way we present the task.
Table 11.3 presents considerations for teaching Two Up, Two Back through two different styles. You can use a command style, but this minimizes the opportunity for students to demonstrate developmental stage 3 behaviors. Instead, presenting the task through a divergent discovery style or a self-check style provides opportunities for self-directed learning and leadership.
Two Up, Two Back (Model in Action 11.7) provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate responsibility Levels I through IV. Using a guided discovery approach gives students a chance to collaboratively develop tactical awareness for the volley and passing shots. Self-checking enables them to self-assess in the context of group play. At this developmental stage, students have demonstrated the ability to work independently while putting forth effort and showing respect to their peers. At this point we hope you can begin to think of ways to modify the learning environment to promote leadership skills in your students. These skills can be carried over to the group meeting segment of the lesson, increasing the contribution of students to the learning process.
Divergent Discovery Style
Presenting Two Up, Two Back using a divergent discovery approach allows you to engage students in both the cognitive and psychomotor domains. Through questioning or the presentation of a problem, you can have students diverge on solutions for successfully completing the task. With this task you can allow groups of students to diverge on a solution that meets the task requirements.
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Teacher: “Each group will play a modified doubles game. One team starts at the net and the other at the baseline. The team at the baseline begins play, and team locations switch after each point. The first two hits of each round should be easily returnable by the other team. Points can be scored only after two successful hits have been completed. Rotate service each point and play to 10 points.”
After each round of 10 points, have students reflect on the following questions:
- How can you support your partner during a point (think about your movement and positioning on the court)?
- What strategies did the volleying team use to score points?
- What strategies did the baseline team use to score points?
- How can we use one hit to set up our next shot?
Self-Check Style
Shifting to a self-check style provides additional opportunities for students to demonstrate self-direction and leadership behaviors. Create a task sheet that briefly describes the activity and provides learning cues. You can ask a group to demonstrate the activity drills and focus students on their task sheet. Once groups have read their sheets, they can begin the activity at their own pace.
Following each game (to 10 points), students recheck the criteria noted on the task sheet relative to their execution of the volley. Students are responsible for their own feedback based on the criteria for the given skill. The teacher's role is to ask questions related to the student's process of self-checking or self-assessing.
Group Meeting
As with the awareness talk, this portion of the lesson is mostly student led. You can assist by cueing students regarding the levels they are working on, as well as reminding them of what sorts of questions have been asked in previous classes. Questions about how the lesson was conducted, how the activity met the students' needs or provided challenge, and how the style of teaching engaged them are all examples of program-related discussion questions.
During the Two Up, Two Back activity, a student leader can initiate a group reflection on the lesson activities by asking questions like these:
- “How did you support your partner during this drill?”
- “What are other ways we support our doubles partner during tennis?”
- “How can we use a shot to set up our partner for the next shot?”
Reflection
We should expect students at this developmental stage to be able to pose higher-order questions during their reflections. Reflections should continue to serve as an opportunity for students to self-reflect on their actions and what they observed in others throughout the lesson while exploring ways they can transfer the responsibility attributes they are developing in physical education to life beyond the gym. This can be accomplished through a variety of formats in class or outside of class time. Students can read each other's journals and provide feedback, assist each other in goal setting, or create strategies to transfer the levels to environments outside of the program. Again, the teacher remains connected to the process as an active listener and support.
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An extension of TPSR—The Kinesiology Career Club
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.”
The Kinesiology Career Club
David Walsh
Program Description
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.” The more specific goals of KCC for the youth are as follows:
- To maximize motivation to improve in, stay in, and find relevance in school
- To enhance connection between the TPSR goals of respect, effort, goal setting, and leadership skills and the importance they play in youths' futures
- To chart the necessary steps to first become a professional in kinesiology, which provides practical experience in a specific career
- To chart the necessary steps for their own careers of choice and developing strategies for matriculating and graduating from college
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The program takes place in San Francisco at Mission High School, a low-performing inner-city school. It began in spring 2011 and will be ongoing every spring and fall semester. The program runs for 80 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday over the entire semester during second-period physical education. Current KCC students include five girls and nine boys who are all ninth graders. The high school has a diverse population with the following ethnicity breakdown: 14 percent African American, 23 percent Asian, 46 percent Latino, 9 percent Caucasian, and 8 percent other. The KCC students closely reflect this diversity.
As a university-community collaboration, KCC is also part of a course offered at San Francisco State University (SFSU) to graduating kinesiology seniors. Called “SFSU Mentors,” six to eight seniors are selected to conduct their capstone kinesiology course in the community by helping me run this program. I am the lead instructor of KCC, and the SFSU Mentors help lead various physical activities—a combination of martial arts, weight training, dance, and fitness activities—and mentor the students on positive “possible futures” in either a 1-to-1 or 2-to-1 ratio for the final 15 minutes of every session.
Use of TPSR Model
The KCC goals progress through four phases. Each phase allows for the systematic application of TPSR within the program, as well as providing opportunities for students to engage the model as they move through the program.
Phase One Goals
In phase one we use TPSR daily format and strategies to introduce the program, including the various physical activities. This phase focuses on Level I, respect, and Level II, effort. We aim to begin building relationships with the students, have them voice their opinions about the program content and structure, and introduce the field of kinesiology. We also introduce the combined TPSR reflection time and mentoring time, a significant component of the positive “possible futures” emphasis that takes place throughout the program. We talk about our own choice to study kinesiology, connect the physical activities in KCC to the basis and foundation of the field of kinesiology, bridge Levels I and II to the idea of being successful in kinesiology, encourage the students to talk about their own career interests, and begin to get to know and develop relationships with them.
Phase Two Goals
Once phase one goals are mostly achieved, phase two begins to empower the students to take on the advanced TPSR responsibilities (Level III, goal setting; Level IV, leadership). Students are asked to set goals for martial arts, weight training, dance, or fitness skills. They are also encouraged to take on small leadership experiences by way of teaching the activities they worked on during goal-setting time. We encourage the students to consider a career in at least one of the many subdisciplines of kinesiology, connect the physical activities and goal setting and leadership in the program to being successful in the field of kinesiology, and begin to chart the steps to earning a college degree in kinesiology. Phase two also aims at having students reflect on what they are currently doing in school and out of school that could either help or hinder their futures.
Phase Three Goals
Once phase two goals are mostly achieved, phase three continues to empower the students to work on TPSR Levels I through IV. Goal-setting time and leadership roles are extended so that students take on more responsibility. We introduce the potential transference of the steps to a career in kinesiology to the development of responsibility traits necessary for the students' future careers of choice. The idea is to link phase two experiences of understanding how to be successful in kinesiology to understanding what success would mean in the students' own careers of choice. Students actively reflect on what they would like to pursue as a career and effectively discover ways to link what they learned about kinesiology to their own future career interests. We also introduce the importance of having both potential hopes and potential fears—as suggested by the theory of possible selves (Oyserman, Terry, & Bybee 2002)—and doing the hard work as well as having the positive attitude and preparation needed for success.
Phase Four Goals
After students have mostly achieved phase three goals, phase four continues to empower them to work on responsibility Levels I through IV. We introduce Level V, outside the gym, and address how what the students do in school, at home, and in the streets affects their futures. Phase four discussions focus solely on the students' careers of choice. We further reinforce the connection between the TPSR levels and what might prove necessary for the practical realization of their possible futures, including both potential hopes and fears. We provide additional insight into the degree of hard work, positive attitude, and preparation needed for the realization of their possible futures.
Additional Program Elements
Since KCC is run through in-school physical education, we have to integrate traditional physical education elements such as uniform requirements and fitness testing into the program. Unlike after-school programs that students may choose to attend, attending KCC is mandatory. Mission High School has been very supportive of the program and has given us complete autonomy with respect to fulfilling the goals of KCC. It is a collaboration we plan to continue for several years.
Even though KCC has some goals that differ from those of a regular TPSR program, we are able to keep a TPSR focus by systematically implementing the components of a regular TPSR daily format. Each session has relationship time, an awareness talk, physical activities designed as a way for the students to experience the responsibility levels, a group meeting, and a reflection time. Some of the KCC goals require alteration of the TPSR components. For example, a KCC awareness talk includes how the levels relate to the students' futures, and discussions focus on the field of kinesiology. Reflection time takes place with the guidance of SFSU Mentors, which students document in a journal. Students are asked to reflect not only on the levels but also on how they are performing in school and are exploring a “possible future,” first in kinesiology and then in their own careers of choice. An effective strategy has been providing information on the various subdisciplines of kinesiology to give the students the opportunity to find relevance in at least one of them. Some students easily identify with kinesiology as a “possible future” while others connect only with being physically active as an important issue in their lives. As the program progresses, discussions about their own career interests seem to get more detailed and authentic.
Keeping SITE
Though KCC has different goals and purposes, it is still an extension of TPSR. It is crucial for us to keep SITE of the four TPSR themes. KCC includes TPSR's prioritization of the instructor-student relationship through the concern for each student's emotional, social, and physical well-being. KCC is also empowerment based, giving students various leadership roles, providing goal-setting time, giving them a voice in the program's direction, and enabling them to evaluate both themselves and the program. The difference is in how the TPSR levels are integrated into the physical activities as a way to explore a career in kinesiology. Once this is established, then transference of the levels to enhance the students' understanding and exploration of their own careers of interest can occur. KCC is still in its early phases of development and will change as the program evolves, but TPSR will continue to be the foundation and core of the program.
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Relinquish control and enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student–teacher and student–student relationships.
Student-Centered Learning
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student-teacher and student-student relationships. An easy way to think about this is to ask ourselves as teachers, How do I invite the views, thoughts, or input of my students into my teaching? Given how we invite our students to share in the methods we use to teach, we are creating a situation through which we relinquish control and thus enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships.
A way to think about how we invite students into our teaching is to use the spectrum of teaching styles by Mosston and Ashworth (2002). The spectrum places the teaching context on a continuum (figure 3.3). The continuum is anchored on one end by teaching styles that are convergent or that come to a common goal. The opposite end of the continuum is anchored by teaching styles that are divergent or that have many goals or possible answers.
Mosston conceptualized the teaching spectrum on the basis of the decisions the teachers made; as he states, “Teaching behavior is a chain of decision making” (Mosston & Ashworth 2002, p. 4). For Mosston, the spectrum identified teaching and learning options. Thus, the goal of the spectrum was for teachers to become proficient in generating a variety of teaching contexts based on the content focus, objectives, and learner needs. Movement along the teaching continuum is based on manipulation of the three phases of teaching: preimpact, impact, and postimpact.
- The preimpact phase entails establishing the lesson objectives and focus. It is often the teacher who is primarily in charge of this aspect of teaching.
- The impact phase is the actual execution of the teaching. This includes elements such as the pace of the lesson and the types of learning activities. Obviously, these aspects can also be primarily teacher centered; but within the spectrum, it is when we step away from the center in the impact phase that we begin to elicit a more student-centered approach.
- The postimpact phase includes evaluation of the student's performance both during and after completion of the task.
As the teacher begins to release control of the various phases to the student, the style of teaching changes and typically moves from the convergent end of the continuum toward the divergent end.
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Mosston identified 11 styles of teaching, labeled styles A through K. The first five styles (A through E) represent teaching decisions that foster and support reproduction of past knowledge; these styles are called command, practice/task, reciprocal, inclusion, and self-check. The rest of the styles (F through K) represent options that foster production of new knowledge; these styles are called guided discovery, convergent discovery, divergent discovery, learner-designed individual program, learner-initiated, and self-teaching.
Here we briefly discuss the styles incorporated into part II of this book. For a more detailed discussion of all the styles (A through K), the reader is directed to Mosston and Ashworth (2002).
Command
Response is influenced by telling students what to do, telling them how to practice, and directing practice.
Most effective approach when:
- Goal is to learn and perform specific skill
- Teacher is looking for a specific response
- Teacher has limited experience working with a group
- Time for organization is limited
Practice/Task
The teacher presents information through tasks, often organized into stations, that provide the teacher with the flexibility to maintain control over the teaching phases (teacher-centered) or begin to release some control to the students.
- Involves different students (often individually or in pairs) practicing different tasks at the same time
- Involves stations and task cards
- Works well when students need to practice skills they have already been taught
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher explains stations or tasks well beforehand
- Teacher makes managerial aspects clear
- Teacher frequently checks with students
- Students start with only a few stations or tasks
- Students work well independently
- Students are able to function without close supervision
Reciprocal
Teacher designs and communicates tasks, and students assume roles of providing feedback and assessment to peers.
Most effective approach when:
- Skill to be taught is simple
- Cues for observation are clear
- Performance is easily measured
Inclusion
The teacher designs tasks; students are allowed to choose the level at which they begin the tasks that best meets their needs or ability levels. Learners make a decision based on self-assessment of their entry point (e.g., size of ball, distance to goal). When the learner meets that goal, she can challenge herself again at a new level.
- Accommodates individual learning differences
- Individualizes further because choices are presented
- Is really a developmentally appropriate approach
Most effective approach when:
- Criteria for self-evaluation and assessment of success are clear
- Performance is easily measured
- Students work well independently
Self-Check
Similar to the reciprocal style, the teacher designs and communicates the task; however, in this style students assume a self-teaching role as they perform the task and then self-assess and reflect upon their performance.
- Carryover from task and reciprocal styles
- Decisions shifted to the learner in the impact and postimpact phases
- Learners weaned away from external feedback; they provide their own feedback as they self-monitor their progress on task
- Learner decides the context based on feedback from self-evaluation
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher values the learner's ability to develop self-monitoring capacity
- Teacher trusts the student to be honest
- Learner can identify own limits, successes, and failures
- Learner can use self-check as feedback
- Learner can work independently
Guided Discovery
Teaching is through questioning, designed to let students think and solve problems. Two versions:
- Convergent inquiry: Students discover the same answer to a series of questions.
- Divergent inquiry: Students find multiple answers to a problem.
Most effective approach when:
- Students are encouraged to think independently to discover new and different approaches to performing skill
- Students are encouraged to solve questions related to teamwork and strategy as they relate to skill performance
- Students are encouraged to explore a movement when they are not yet ready to learn a mature version of the skill
Once we make the decision to alter the style of teaching, we are also making the decision to give the student a greater role in the lesson and thus are facilitating development of personal and social responsibility. As noted in table 1.1 (chapter 1), each teaching style connects the student to a different TPSR level focus and underscores the student's awareness and recognition of his personal and eventually social responsibility. Thus, as noted in this book and by Don, it is critical that TPSR be integrated within all aspects of your lessons and content. Incorporating divergent teaching styles allows students to make decisions within the learning context. This approach is unique in that it engages the learner in the discovery and production of options within the subject matter (Mosston & Ashworth 2002).
For example, when youth are afforded the opportunity to set their own learning pace during lesson practice, select the type(s) of equipment that best match their ability level, and work in small collaborative groups, this allows them to work on skills of self-direction, participation, cooperation, and goal setting (TPSR Levels II and III). Divergent teaching styles also create opportunities for students to learn how to assess their own performance as well as to assess and provide feedback to each other through peer or reciprocal learning (Levels III and IV).
Alteration of one's teaching style is crucial by its very nature to creating a caring environment. Therefore incorporation of the styles of teaching serves to create an environment ripe with teachable moments that enhance and connect to the TPSR model. Whether students are learning sport skills or life skills, infusion of the strategies presented here will help teachers develop youth who are responsible and caring members of their school and community.
The choice of teaching style depends on a number of factors, including the following:
- Teacher beliefs: It is difficult to loosen control; is the teacher comfortable doing so?
- Goals of lessons: Are the skills or tasks familiar to the students or are they completely new?
- Teacher skill and preference: Is the teacher confident about her teaching skills?
- Student characteristics: Do students work well independently without supervision?
- Nature of content: Are students familiar with the content? How complex is it?
- Context of teaching: How much equipment and space are available?
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Starting out with Developmental Stage 1
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students.
Developmental Stage 1
As we discussed in the beginning of this book, students in the first developmental stage are often working on exhibiting Level I (respect) and II (participating with effort) behaviors consistently. During this stage the teacher takes the predominant role in leading the awareness talk, choosing developmentally appropriate tasks and challenges, structuring the group meeting, and providing reflection opportunities. As the lessons progress, the teacher is mindful to provide students with opportunities to begin to transition to developmental stage 2 (TPSR Level III, self-direction).
Relationship Time
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students. Icebreaker games provide an opportunity for students and teachers to interact, develop relationships, and have fun. Icebreakers can vary in length but all serve the purpose of creating an environment that fosters acceptance and interaction. A number of resources for icebreaker activities for all ages appear on the list at the end of the resources section in the back of the book. When working with developmental stage 1 learners, consider selecting activities that focus on individual traits (communication, cooperation, self-control, respect, and effort) within the context of group interactions.
The Mystery Move activity (Model in Action 5.1) gives students the opportunity to demonstrate self-control and cooperation (Level I) as well as to participate with effort (Level II). There is often a point in the game when a student is unable to identify who is leading the activity and begins to point madly at everyone. This bit of conflict can allow for the group to reset and to establish limits on the number of times a person can guess the leader before he switches places. It also gives the teacher and students the opportunity to compliment the student leading the activity, as well as the whole group on their cooperation, which provides a nice transition to the awareness talk.
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Awareness Talk
During the first developmental stage, the teacher takes the primary role during the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, guides the questioning, and makes the connection to teachable moments in the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 1 include respect, self-control, participation, effort, and effective communication. We like to use icebreakers during the relationship time, because they provide a leaping-off point from the activity to the remainder of the lesson. We also use the “What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?” method of structuring the awareness talk. This technique helps us draw meaning from the activity during the relationship time; it also models for students how they may direct the awareness talk as we eventually move to the side and allow them to lead this portion of the lesson (developmental stages 2 and 3). For example, in developmental stage 1, we might ask these questions:
- “What were some of the things we needed to do in Mystery Move to be successful as a group?”
- “What did you need to do to support the group?”
On the basis of responses from the students, we then lead them to extend their thinking by asking questions such as the following:
- “So what might be some things from the activity you might want to work on personally?”
- “What might be a couple things you know about yourself that you want to try to stop doing?”
- “Today we are starting our volleyball unit. What can you do in this unit to demonstrate some of those characteristics or behaviors?”
- “As you consider where you are, what are some goals you can take forward during today's lesson? Challenge yourself a bit!”
Lesson Focus
The theme identified during the awareness talk can set the stage for teachable moments throughout the lesson focus. You can select tasks or use pedagogical strategies that provide opportunities for students to make a cognitive or affective connection between the tasks and the theme. The teaching style you use can help to create a space for those teachable moments to occur. Although in developmental stage 1 it is often beneficial to maintain a somewhat teacher-centered approach (command style), we must also give students opportunities to work toward skill development in developmental stage 2. The style you choose will be influenced by your teaching philosophy, the learning styles of your students, and the context in which the lesson is presented. Here we provide an example of a lesson focus on a volleyball skill using two different styles of teaching.
Table 5.1 presents considerations for teaching the Dot Drills (Model in Action 5.2) activity using two teaching styles and shows how these connect to the TPSR model. The command style is more teacher centered, and the reciprocal style progresses a bit toward the divergent end of the teaching spectrum.
Command (Direct) Style
Presenting the Dot Drills activity through a command style allows you to direct the students through the progression of tasks. This encourages students to perform the task in the same way at the same time and allows you to check student performance. For each separate drill, provide a demonstration of the drill and identify cues:
- Keep knees bent.
- Move feet quickly from dot to dot.
- Keep body in a ready position with hands and arms out.
The teacher starts and stops the students for each drill, demonstrating the new variation and establishing cues. Throughout the activity the teacher moves about the space providing feedback.
Reciprocal Style
To present the same drill in reciprocal style, organize students into pairs. Each pair has a Dot Drill diagram on the floor. Students also have task sheets that briefly describe each drill and provide cues. In addition, we suggest providing a list of possible motivation-type feedback phrases students can use, such as “Way to keep your feet moving” or “Great job! Keep with it!”
Each pair of partners begins when ready. One student completes one rotation of the drill while the partner observes and provides feedback. The feedback should relate to the cues identified on the task sheet. After one rotation of the drill, students switch roles; the observer becomes the doer, and the doer becomes the observer. This process is repeated for each drill variation. The teacher's role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. The teacher must step in to provide feedback if a safety issue arises. Otherwise, the teacher encourages or suggests feedback to the observer only if the observer is not providing feedback. Key to this style is getting the students to interact with minimal or no input from the teacher.
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Group Meeting
Group meetings during the first developmental stage are facilitated by the teacher but provide an opportunity for students to have a voice in the learning process. This is the time for students to give input on how the lesson went, how their peers did, and even how the teacher did, all in relation to working on goals of developmental stage 1. Questions about how the activities challenged the students and how they felt participating in the lesson when the teacher used a given teaching style are good beginning points. Students can also be asked how they felt the class as a whole or just they and their partner or small group did. Lastly, you can ask how you as the teacher did and what you might work on for next session. As Don Hellison notes, this facet of the lesson tends to be foreign to students initially, as young people are not often asked to provide feedback to each other, much less to and about the teacher. Over time, students will feel more comfortable verbalizing their thoughts as this becomes a consistent part of the class.
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Don suggests that teachers initially lay down some ground rules; they can do this in collaboration with the students. These are examples of group meeting ground rules:
- No blaming others—accept responsibility for yourself.
- Include everyone in the discussion.
- Be respectful of yourself and others (full-value contract).
- Use each other's names.
- Do not talk over each other.
- Wait for classmates to finish their comments.
These are only a few examples; again, we encourage teachers to solicit input from their classes about what the ground rules should include.
Another especially relevant issue concerning group meetings is time. If you do not have sufficient time to check in with all students, ask for responses on how things went from a few students. A common practice in many TPSR-based programs is to have the students keep a journal. They can do this as homework and turn in their comments the next day. This way you keep track of how things are going and get timely input from the class.
Reflection
Reflection time should flow fairly seamlessly from the group meeting time. Group meeting time focuses on student evaluation of the lesson, and reflection time focuses on evaluation of the students' roles as learners and support. Thus, questions can move from how the activities or style of teaching challenged or engaged the students to a focus on how they participated as independent learners, demonstrated respect, showed self-direction, and cooperated during the lesson. During developmental stage 1, the teacher directs the discussion. The thumbometer is a technique often used for reflection time. In response to questions from the teacher, students point their thumbs up, sideways, or down to indicate how well they did on a particular aspect of the lesson. These are examples of questions the teacher might ask:
- “During Dot Drill today, did you demonstrate cooperation with your partner by giving feedback?”
- “Did you show stick-to-itiveness during Dot Drill as it got harder?”
- “Did you show self-direction by challenging yourself during the drill?”
Students respond as a group by pointing their thumbs. The teacher notes where most of the participants are (e.g., more thumbs up than down) so as to facilitate activities toward the higher levels (Levels III through V). As Don notes in his work, it is important to acknowledge that kids have bad days, too, which means we should support them and encourage honest self-evaluation. We also want to underscore not blaming others for our behavior.
Lastly, the reflection time is when we can begin to encourage students to think about how they can demonstrate the levels outside of the class or program. Asking students where in their out-of-class or out-of-program lives they could demonstrate a given level of responsibility allows them to begin to conceptualize this transition. For some students, reaching a particular level outside of class but still within the school (which is a nice scaffold) might be all that is possible. In any case, we should begin to encourage students to think about responsibility concepts outside the class.
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Transitioning to Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage.
Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage. This means providing opportunities for students to work collaboratively with their peers with little teacher guidance (Level III, self-direction). During the second stage you begin to call upon students to take a role in the learning process. As you will see in this section, you begin to relinquish some of the control of the class to students during awareness talks and group meetings. As this occurs, some students may begin to demonstrate a desire to take leadership roles (Level IV), but most will continue to need some guidance in keeping self-directed without individual supervision.
Relationship Time
Juggler's Carry (Model in Action 8.1) gives students the opportunity to continue to demonstrate respect (Level I) and participate with effort (Level II) while working collaboratively with their classmates without direct supervision from the teacher (Level III). Following the same format (“What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?”) but now inviting more student leadership during the process, we can begin to navigate TPSR Level III and to transition to Level IV concepts.
Awareness Talk
During the second developmental stage, the teacher begins to share the responsibility for the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, asks one or more students to guide the questioning, and draws the connection to the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 2 include self-control, self-direction, goal setting, and problem solving.
Using students to help guide the awareness talk is key in the development of youth leaders (Level IV). Following the activity, you can use student leaders to “debrief” so as to draw the attention of the learners to the cognitive and affective attributes of an activity. These are examples of questions you might provide the student leader following Juggler's Carry:
“What?” Questions
- “What helped you when talking with your group members to be successful at the activity?”
- “What were your feelings when you failed to keep balls from hitting the ground? How did you feel when you were successful in keeping balls from hitting the ground?”
“So What?” Questions
- “How might your feelings when you failed and succeeded help as you work in groups?”
- “How might you do things differently in this activity to find more success individually and as a member of the group?”
“Now What?” Questions
- “Thinking about the activity and how you felt as you succeeded or failed, how can those feelings help you as you engage in other activities during basketball?”
- “What might you do to help regain focus when you are not succeeding at something?”
By providing the students with a selection of questions, you maintain the direction of the conversation while giving students a chance to comfortably explore what it is like to take a leadership role in class.
Lesson Focus
The opportunities for self-direction take center stage during developmental stage 2. Again, activities should transition from individuals performing within the context of the group to individuals positively interacting with partners and small groups in self-guided learning experiences.
Table 8.2 presents considerations for teaching the Pass and Shoot activity (Model in Action 8.3) through two teaching styles and shows how they connect to the TPSR model. You can alter both styles so as to create challenge and, most importantly, provide students with the opportunity to work individually and in groups as well as pace themselves.
Being mindful of the activities used during this stage provides you with opportunities to alter the teaching style and encourage greater student responsibility. This allows for students to begin leading the group meeting segment of the lesson and speaking as to how the lesson activities address the theme or themes identified during the awareness talk.
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Inclusion Style
To use the inclusion style, you demonstrate the cues for Pass and Shoot and present task sheets that provide a diagram and performance cues. Identify the options available for students in deciding how and where to enter the drill. For example, students can vary distances to the basket and use different types of balls to make the task more difficult. Students can also count missed or made shots, or they can time themselves and see how many shots they can make. These options, chosen by the students for themselves, create additional challenges. Students are placed in pairs and dispersed throughout the teaching area. Allow time for the learners to assess their level though trial and error and begin the drill. After each drill, the learners reassess and set new challenges based on the levels available and the achievement of performance criteria.
Your role is to circulate throughout the learning space and provide feedback only on the decisions of the students. You can ask, for example, “How are you doing at the level you have selected?” On the basis of the students' response, inquire about the decisions made and how successful the students feel they are. With this style it is important not to start out by overtly challenging the decision made initially but to help students in their self-assessments.
Reciprocal Style
To use the reciprocal style for this activity, arrange students in groups of three; the third person becomes the observer. Provide task sheets that briefly describe the activity, the cues, and the participants' roles. We also suggest including a list of possible motivation-type feedback for students to use. Clear role expectations for students on the task sheet will help them keep focus. For example, spell out what the observer ought to be observing (performance cues) and what the doers are doing (practicing). Provide a time or a number of passes for each facet of the activity. Once they are finished, the students rotate their roles. This process is repeated for each drill variation.
Your role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. You must step in to provide feedback if there is a safety issue. Otherwise, you encourage or suggest feedback to the observer only if feedback is not occurring.
Group Meeting
The group meeting during the second developmental stage should continue to provide students with an opportunity to have a voice in the learning process but facilitate their leading more of the discussion. Because you have modeled leading the discussion in developmental stage 1, you can help students assume more responsibility by asking questions such as “What sorts of questions did I ask you about the lesson?” and “What questions do you have of your peers from the lesson?” Another strategy is to have students write their questions or comments on a slip of paper and then exchange with partners and engage in small-group discussions. You can then bring them back to the large group and ask for culminating thoughts from the day's lesson. Don't be disappointed if it takes a bit more effort during this developmental stage to get things going. Be consistent, be caring, and be a good model, and your students will begin to assume more responsibility.
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Reflection
Key to this stage is that students begin to lead more of the discussion. Students can be cued on questions that address the particular levels they are working at during this stage (Level III) and begin to scaffold to goals for the next levels (IV and V). These are examples of helpful questions:
- “How did you feel you and your partner worked independent of teacher direction?”
- “What might you improve on?”
- “As we move toward more independence, what goals can you set to show more leadership in class?”
Students can begin to generate these types of questions once you have modeled them. We encourage you to note the many examples in Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Through Physical Activity, Third Edition, of different ways to engage students in reflection time. Methods such as exit slips, journaling, and tapping in (students tap on a poster listing the levels to indicate where they are) can be quite effective and keep this part of the lesson fresh.
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Seeking leadership opportunities in Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult.
Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult. At this stage students should routinely demonstrate behaviors consistent with Levels I to III and actively seek out leadership opportunities. These opportunities for caring and leadership take center stage during developmental stage 3. Caring and leadership can manifest themselves during all aspects of the lesson as students explore ways to engage in the learning process.
Relationship Time
Relationship time during the third developmental stage should be almost entirely run by students. Student leaders can be responsible for setup, instruction, and facilitation of the relationship time tasks. For example, many teachers use a warm-up routine that is performed throughout the year. Consider allowing students to lead, or even better create, the warm-up or other relationship time activities.
The Create-a-Game activity meets the objectives of relationship time by providing opportunities for students to interact with each other constructively; it also meets the developmental stage 3 needs by providing opportunities for students to be self-directed and to develop leadership skills.
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Awareness Talk
Student leaders should be comfortable with identifying the theme, guiding the questioning, and drawing connections to the lesson by the time they reach the third developmental stage. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 3 include self-direction, leadership, and transfer. To illustrate a developmental stage 3 awareness talk, let's consider Create-a-Game (Model in Action 11.6).
In speaking for the Create-a-Game activity, the student leaders would generalize the lessons learned from the activity to the theme and subsequent activities. These are examples of statements and questions they might offer:
- “I liked how my group talked through each step and offered game ideas. How did your group decide on the game you would create?”
- “In our group we selected our five pieces of equipment first and then tried to come up with a unique game that used the equipment. How did other groups decide where to begin?”
In speaking for the experience, the student leaders can generalize what occurred in the activity. Nonverbal behavior on the part of the teacher can be really be important here. Remain involved by demonstrating active listening, nodding your head, and making eye contact with whoever is speaking. This models to the students behaviors that they too can maintain in the process.
Lesson Focus
Developmental stage 3 activities should provide students with the opportunity for leadership experiences and encourage transfer to other aspects of the curriculum. The Two Up, Two Back activity (Model in Action 11.7), a volley drill, offers students opportunities to exhibit behaviors consistent with responsibility Levels I through IV.
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Teaching strategies for developmental stage 3 include providing students with opportunities to emphasize previous levels but, more importantly, focus on Levels IV (caring and leadership) and V (outside the gymnasium). We can elicit these behaviors by modifying the way we present the task.
Table 11.3 presents considerations for teaching Two Up, Two Back through two different styles. You can use a command style, but this minimizes the opportunity for students to demonstrate developmental stage 3 behaviors. Instead, presenting the task through a divergent discovery style or a self-check style provides opportunities for self-directed learning and leadership.
Two Up, Two Back (Model in Action 11.7) provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate responsibility Levels I through IV. Using a guided discovery approach gives students a chance to collaboratively develop tactical awareness for the volley and passing shots. Self-checking enables them to self-assess in the context of group play. At this developmental stage, students have demonstrated the ability to work independently while putting forth effort and showing respect to their peers. At this point we hope you can begin to think of ways to modify the learning environment to promote leadership skills in your students. These skills can be carried over to the group meeting segment of the lesson, increasing the contribution of students to the learning process.
Divergent Discovery Style
Presenting Two Up, Two Back using a divergent discovery approach allows you to engage students in both the cognitive and psychomotor domains. Through questioning or the presentation of a problem, you can have students diverge on solutions for successfully completing the task. With this task you can allow groups of students to diverge on a solution that meets the task requirements.
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Teacher: “Each group will play a modified doubles game. One team starts at the net and the other at the baseline. The team at the baseline begins play, and team locations switch after each point. The first two hits of each round should be easily returnable by the other team. Points can be scored only after two successful hits have been completed. Rotate service each point and play to 10 points.”
After each round of 10 points, have students reflect on the following questions:
- How can you support your partner during a point (think about your movement and positioning on the court)?
- What strategies did the volleying team use to score points?
- What strategies did the baseline team use to score points?
- How can we use one hit to set up our next shot?
Self-Check Style
Shifting to a self-check style provides additional opportunities for students to demonstrate self-direction and leadership behaviors. Create a task sheet that briefly describes the activity and provides learning cues. You can ask a group to demonstrate the activity drills and focus students on their task sheet. Once groups have read their sheets, they can begin the activity at their own pace.
Following each game (to 10 points), students recheck the criteria noted on the task sheet relative to their execution of the volley. Students are responsible for their own feedback based on the criteria for the given skill. The teacher's role is to ask questions related to the student's process of self-checking or self-assessing.
Group Meeting
As with the awareness talk, this portion of the lesson is mostly student led. You can assist by cueing students regarding the levels they are working on, as well as reminding them of what sorts of questions have been asked in previous classes. Questions about how the lesson was conducted, how the activity met the students' needs or provided challenge, and how the style of teaching engaged them are all examples of program-related discussion questions.
During the Two Up, Two Back activity, a student leader can initiate a group reflection on the lesson activities by asking questions like these:
- “How did you support your partner during this drill?”
- “What are other ways we support our doubles partner during tennis?”
- “How can we use a shot to set up our partner for the next shot?”
Reflection
We should expect students at this developmental stage to be able to pose higher-order questions during their reflections. Reflections should continue to serve as an opportunity for students to self-reflect on their actions and what they observed in others throughout the lesson while exploring ways they can transfer the responsibility attributes they are developing in physical education to life beyond the gym. This can be accomplished through a variety of formats in class or outside of class time. Students can read each other's journals and provide feedback, assist each other in goal setting, or create strategies to transfer the levels to environments outside of the program. Again, the teacher remains connected to the process as an active listener and support.
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An extension of TPSR—The Kinesiology Career Club
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.”
The Kinesiology Career Club
David Walsh
Program Description
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.” The more specific goals of KCC for the youth are as follows:
- To maximize motivation to improve in, stay in, and find relevance in school
- To enhance connection between the TPSR goals of respect, effort, goal setting, and leadership skills and the importance they play in youths' futures
- To chart the necessary steps to first become a professional in kinesiology, which provides practical experience in a specific career
- To chart the necessary steps for their own careers of choice and developing strategies for matriculating and graduating from college
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The program takes place in San Francisco at Mission High School, a low-performing inner-city school. It began in spring 2011 and will be ongoing every spring and fall semester. The program runs for 80 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday over the entire semester during second-period physical education. Current KCC students include five girls and nine boys who are all ninth graders. The high school has a diverse population with the following ethnicity breakdown: 14 percent African American, 23 percent Asian, 46 percent Latino, 9 percent Caucasian, and 8 percent other. The KCC students closely reflect this diversity.
As a university-community collaboration, KCC is also part of a course offered at San Francisco State University (SFSU) to graduating kinesiology seniors. Called “SFSU Mentors,” six to eight seniors are selected to conduct their capstone kinesiology course in the community by helping me run this program. I am the lead instructor of KCC, and the SFSU Mentors help lead various physical activities—a combination of martial arts, weight training, dance, and fitness activities—and mentor the students on positive “possible futures” in either a 1-to-1 or 2-to-1 ratio for the final 15 minutes of every session.
Use of TPSR Model
The KCC goals progress through four phases. Each phase allows for the systematic application of TPSR within the program, as well as providing opportunities for students to engage the model as they move through the program.
Phase One Goals
In phase one we use TPSR daily format and strategies to introduce the program, including the various physical activities. This phase focuses on Level I, respect, and Level II, effort. We aim to begin building relationships with the students, have them voice their opinions about the program content and structure, and introduce the field of kinesiology. We also introduce the combined TPSR reflection time and mentoring time, a significant component of the positive “possible futures” emphasis that takes place throughout the program. We talk about our own choice to study kinesiology, connect the physical activities in KCC to the basis and foundation of the field of kinesiology, bridge Levels I and II to the idea of being successful in kinesiology, encourage the students to talk about their own career interests, and begin to get to know and develop relationships with them.
Phase Two Goals
Once phase one goals are mostly achieved, phase two begins to empower the students to take on the advanced TPSR responsibilities (Level III, goal setting; Level IV, leadership). Students are asked to set goals for martial arts, weight training, dance, or fitness skills. They are also encouraged to take on small leadership experiences by way of teaching the activities they worked on during goal-setting time. We encourage the students to consider a career in at least one of the many subdisciplines of kinesiology, connect the physical activities and goal setting and leadership in the program to being successful in the field of kinesiology, and begin to chart the steps to earning a college degree in kinesiology. Phase two also aims at having students reflect on what they are currently doing in school and out of school that could either help or hinder their futures.
Phase Three Goals
Once phase two goals are mostly achieved, phase three continues to empower the students to work on TPSR Levels I through IV. Goal-setting time and leadership roles are extended so that students take on more responsibility. We introduce the potential transference of the steps to a career in kinesiology to the development of responsibility traits necessary for the students' future careers of choice. The idea is to link phase two experiences of understanding how to be successful in kinesiology to understanding what success would mean in the students' own careers of choice. Students actively reflect on what they would like to pursue as a career and effectively discover ways to link what they learned about kinesiology to their own future career interests. We also introduce the importance of having both potential hopes and potential fears—as suggested by the theory of possible selves (Oyserman, Terry, & Bybee 2002)—and doing the hard work as well as having the positive attitude and preparation needed for success.
Phase Four Goals
After students have mostly achieved phase three goals, phase four continues to empower them to work on responsibility Levels I through IV. We introduce Level V, outside the gym, and address how what the students do in school, at home, and in the streets affects their futures. Phase four discussions focus solely on the students' careers of choice. We further reinforce the connection between the TPSR levels and what might prove necessary for the practical realization of their possible futures, including both potential hopes and fears. We provide additional insight into the degree of hard work, positive attitude, and preparation needed for the realization of their possible futures.
Additional Program Elements
Since KCC is run through in-school physical education, we have to integrate traditional physical education elements such as uniform requirements and fitness testing into the program. Unlike after-school programs that students may choose to attend, attending KCC is mandatory. Mission High School has been very supportive of the program and has given us complete autonomy with respect to fulfilling the goals of KCC. It is a collaboration we plan to continue for several years.
Even though KCC has some goals that differ from those of a regular TPSR program, we are able to keep a TPSR focus by systematically implementing the components of a regular TPSR daily format. Each session has relationship time, an awareness talk, physical activities designed as a way for the students to experience the responsibility levels, a group meeting, and a reflection time. Some of the KCC goals require alteration of the TPSR components. For example, a KCC awareness talk includes how the levels relate to the students' futures, and discussions focus on the field of kinesiology. Reflection time takes place with the guidance of SFSU Mentors, which students document in a journal. Students are asked to reflect not only on the levels but also on how they are performing in school and are exploring a “possible future,” first in kinesiology and then in their own careers of choice. An effective strategy has been providing information on the various subdisciplines of kinesiology to give the students the opportunity to find relevance in at least one of them. Some students easily identify with kinesiology as a “possible future” while others connect only with being physically active as an important issue in their lives. As the program progresses, discussions about their own career interests seem to get more detailed and authentic.
Keeping SITE
Though KCC has different goals and purposes, it is still an extension of TPSR. It is crucial for us to keep SITE of the four TPSR themes. KCC includes TPSR's prioritization of the instructor-student relationship through the concern for each student's emotional, social, and physical well-being. KCC is also empowerment based, giving students various leadership roles, providing goal-setting time, giving them a voice in the program's direction, and enabling them to evaluate both themselves and the program. The difference is in how the TPSR levels are integrated into the physical activities as a way to explore a career in kinesiology. Once this is established, then transference of the levels to enhance the students' understanding and exploration of their own careers of interest can occur. KCC is still in its early phases of development and will change as the program evolves, but TPSR will continue to be the foundation and core of the program.
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Relinquish control and enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student–teacher and student–student relationships.
Student-Centered Learning
A major aspect of the TPSR model is its focus on student-teacher and student-student relationships. An easy way to think about this is to ask ourselves as teachers, How do I invite the views, thoughts, or input of my students into my teaching? Given how we invite our students to share in the methods we use to teach, we are creating a situation through which we relinquish control and thus enhance student-teacher and student-student relationships.
A way to think about how we invite students into our teaching is to use the spectrum of teaching styles by Mosston and Ashworth (2002). The spectrum places the teaching context on a continuum (figure 3.3). The continuum is anchored on one end by teaching styles that are convergent or that come to a common goal. The opposite end of the continuum is anchored by teaching styles that are divergent or that have many goals or possible answers.
Mosston conceptualized the teaching spectrum on the basis of the decisions the teachers made; as he states, “Teaching behavior is a chain of decision making” (Mosston & Ashworth 2002, p. 4). For Mosston, the spectrum identified teaching and learning options. Thus, the goal of the spectrum was for teachers to become proficient in generating a variety of teaching contexts based on the content focus, objectives, and learner needs. Movement along the teaching continuum is based on manipulation of the three phases of teaching: preimpact, impact, and postimpact.
- The preimpact phase entails establishing the lesson objectives and focus. It is often the teacher who is primarily in charge of this aspect of teaching.
- The impact phase is the actual execution of the teaching. This includes elements such as the pace of the lesson and the types of learning activities. Obviously, these aspects can also be primarily teacher centered; but within the spectrum, it is when we step away from the center in the impact phase that we begin to elicit a more student-centered approach.
- The postimpact phase includes evaluation of the student's performance both during and after completion of the task.
As the teacher begins to release control of the various phases to the student, the style of teaching changes and typically moves from the convergent end of the continuum toward the divergent end.
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Mosston identified 11 styles of teaching, labeled styles A through K. The first five styles (A through E) represent teaching decisions that foster and support reproduction of past knowledge; these styles are called command, practice/task, reciprocal, inclusion, and self-check. The rest of the styles (F through K) represent options that foster production of new knowledge; these styles are called guided discovery, convergent discovery, divergent discovery, learner-designed individual program, learner-initiated, and self-teaching.
Here we briefly discuss the styles incorporated into part II of this book. For a more detailed discussion of all the styles (A through K), the reader is directed to Mosston and Ashworth (2002).
Command
Response is influenced by telling students what to do, telling them how to practice, and directing practice.
Most effective approach when:
- Goal is to learn and perform specific skill
- Teacher is looking for a specific response
- Teacher has limited experience working with a group
- Time for organization is limited
Practice/Task
The teacher presents information through tasks, often organized into stations, that provide the teacher with the flexibility to maintain control over the teaching phases (teacher-centered) or begin to release some control to the students.
- Involves different students (often individually or in pairs) practicing different tasks at the same time
- Involves stations and task cards
- Works well when students need to practice skills they have already been taught
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher explains stations or tasks well beforehand
- Teacher makes managerial aspects clear
- Teacher frequently checks with students
- Students start with only a few stations or tasks
- Students work well independently
- Students are able to function without close supervision
Reciprocal
Teacher designs and communicates tasks, and students assume roles of providing feedback and assessment to peers.
Most effective approach when:
- Skill to be taught is simple
- Cues for observation are clear
- Performance is easily measured
Inclusion
The teacher designs tasks; students are allowed to choose the level at which they begin the tasks that best meets their needs or ability levels. Learners make a decision based on self-assessment of their entry point (e.g., size of ball, distance to goal). When the learner meets that goal, she can challenge herself again at a new level.
- Accommodates individual learning differences
- Individualizes further because choices are presented
- Is really a developmentally appropriate approach
Most effective approach when:
- Criteria for self-evaluation and assessment of success are clear
- Performance is easily measured
- Students work well independently
Self-Check
Similar to the reciprocal style, the teacher designs and communicates the task; however, in this style students assume a self-teaching role as they perform the task and then self-assess and reflect upon their performance.
- Carryover from task and reciprocal styles
- Decisions shifted to the learner in the impact and postimpact phases
- Learners weaned away from external feedback; they provide their own feedback as they self-monitor their progress on task
- Learner decides the context based on feedback from self-evaluation
Most effective approach when:
- Teacher values the learner's ability to develop self-monitoring capacity
- Teacher trusts the student to be honest
- Learner can identify own limits, successes, and failures
- Learner can use self-check as feedback
- Learner can work independently
Guided Discovery
Teaching is through questioning, designed to let students think and solve problems. Two versions:
- Convergent inquiry: Students discover the same answer to a series of questions.
- Divergent inquiry: Students find multiple answers to a problem.
Most effective approach when:
- Students are encouraged to think independently to discover new and different approaches to performing skill
- Students are encouraged to solve questions related to teamwork and strategy as they relate to skill performance
- Students are encouraged to explore a movement when they are not yet ready to learn a mature version of the skill
Once we make the decision to alter the style of teaching, we are also making the decision to give the student a greater role in the lesson and thus are facilitating development of personal and social responsibility. As noted in table 1.1 (chapter 1), each teaching style connects the student to a different TPSR level focus and underscores the student's awareness and recognition of his personal and eventually social responsibility. Thus, as noted in this book and by Don, it is critical that TPSR be integrated within all aspects of your lessons and content. Incorporating divergent teaching styles allows students to make decisions within the learning context. This approach is unique in that it engages the learner in the discovery and production of options within the subject matter (Mosston & Ashworth 2002).
For example, when youth are afforded the opportunity to set their own learning pace during lesson practice, select the type(s) of equipment that best match their ability level, and work in small collaborative groups, this allows them to work on skills of self-direction, participation, cooperation, and goal setting (TPSR Levels II and III). Divergent teaching styles also create opportunities for students to learn how to assess their own performance as well as to assess and provide feedback to each other through peer or reciprocal learning (Levels III and IV).
Alteration of one's teaching style is crucial by its very nature to creating a caring environment. Therefore incorporation of the styles of teaching serves to create an environment ripe with teachable moments that enhance and connect to the TPSR model. Whether students are learning sport skills or life skills, infusion of the strategies presented here will help teachers develop youth who are responsible and caring members of their school and community.
The choice of teaching style depends on a number of factors, including the following:
- Teacher beliefs: It is difficult to loosen control; is the teacher comfortable doing so?
- Goals of lessons: Are the skills or tasks familiar to the students or are they completely new?
- Teacher skill and preference: Is the teacher confident about her teaching skills?
- Student characteristics: Do students work well independently without supervision?
- Nature of content: Are students familiar with the content? How complex is it?
- Context of teaching: How much equipment and space are available?
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Starting out with Developmental Stage 1
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students.
Developmental Stage 1
As we discussed in the beginning of this book, students in the first developmental stage are often working on exhibiting Level I (respect) and II (participating with effort) behaviors consistently. During this stage the teacher takes the predominant role in leading the awareness talk, choosing developmentally appropriate tasks and challenges, structuring the group meeting, and providing reflection opportunities. As the lessons progress, the teacher is mindful to provide students with opportunities to begin to transition to developmental stage 2 (TPSR Level III, self-direction).
Relationship Time
Although icebreaker games can set the stage for learning experiences in adventure education, we use them throughout the learning process in a variety of sport and physical activities to facilitate a more coordinated effort to build connections between the teacher and students. Icebreaker games provide an opportunity for students and teachers to interact, develop relationships, and have fun. Icebreakers can vary in length but all serve the purpose of creating an environment that fosters acceptance and interaction. A number of resources for icebreaker activities for all ages appear on the list at the end of the resources section in the back of the book. When working with developmental stage 1 learners, consider selecting activities that focus on individual traits (communication, cooperation, self-control, respect, and effort) within the context of group interactions.
The Mystery Move activity (Model in Action 5.1) gives students the opportunity to demonstrate self-control and cooperation (Level I) as well as to participate with effort (Level II). There is often a point in the game when a student is unable to identify who is leading the activity and begins to point madly at everyone. This bit of conflict can allow for the group to reset and to establish limits on the number of times a person can guess the leader before he switches places. It also gives the teacher and students the opportunity to compliment the student leading the activity, as well as the whole group on their cooperation, which provides a nice transition to the awareness talk.
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Awareness Talk
During the first developmental stage, the teacher takes the primary role during the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, guides the questioning, and makes the connection to teachable moments in the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 1 include respect, self-control, participation, effort, and effective communication. We like to use icebreakers during the relationship time, because they provide a leaping-off point from the activity to the remainder of the lesson. We also use the “What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?” method of structuring the awareness talk. This technique helps us draw meaning from the activity during the relationship time; it also models for students how they may direct the awareness talk as we eventually move to the side and allow them to lead this portion of the lesson (developmental stages 2 and 3). For example, in developmental stage 1, we might ask these questions:
- “What were some of the things we needed to do in Mystery Move to be successful as a group?”
- “What did you need to do to support the group?”
On the basis of responses from the students, we then lead them to extend their thinking by asking questions such as the following:
- “So what might be some things from the activity you might want to work on personally?”
- “What might be a couple things you know about yourself that you want to try to stop doing?”
- “Today we are starting our volleyball unit. What can you do in this unit to demonstrate some of those characteristics or behaviors?”
- “As you consider where you are, what are some goals you can take forward during today's lesson? Challenge yourself a bit!”
Lesson Focus
The theme identified during the awareness talk can set the stage for teachable moments throughout the lesson focus. You can select tasks or use pedagogical strategies that provide opportunities for students to make a cognitive or affective connection between the tasks and the theme. The teaching style you use can help to create a space for those teachable moments to occur. Although in developmental stage 1 it is often beneficial to maintain a somewhat teacher-centered approach (command style), we must also give students opportunities to work toward skill development in developmental stage 2. The style you choose will be influenced by your teaching philosophy, the learning styles of your students, and the context in which the lesson is presented. Here we provide an example of a lesson focus on a volleyball skill using two different styles of teaching.
Table 5.1 presents considerations for teaching the Dot Drills (Model in Action 5.2) activity using two teaching styles and shows how these connect to the TPSR model. The command style is more teacher centered, and the reciprocal style progresses a bit toward the divergent end of the teaching spectrum.
Command (Direct) Style
Presenting the Dot Drills activity through a command style allows you to direct the students through the progression of tasks. This encourages students to perform the task in the same way at the same time and allows you to check student performance. For each separate drill, provide a demonstration of the drill and identify cues:
- Keep knees bent.
- Move feet quickly from dot to dot.
- Keep body in a ready position with hands and arms out.
The teacher starts and stops the students for each drill, demonstrating the new variation and establishing cues. Throughout the activity the teacher moves about the space providing feedback.
Reciprocal Style
To present the same drill in reciprocal style, organize students into pairs. Each pair has a Dot Drill diagram on the floor. Students also have task sheets that briefly describe each drill and provide cues. In addition, we suggest providing a list of possible motivation-type feedback phrases students can use, such as “Way to keep your feet moving” or “Great job! Keep with it!”
Each pair of partners begins when ready. One student completes one rotation of the drill while the partner observes and provides feedback. The feedback should relate to the cues identified on the task sheet. After one rotation of the drill, students switch roles; the observer becomes the doer, and the doer becomes the observer. This process is repeated for each drill variation. The teacher's role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. The teacher must step in to provide feedback if a safety issue arises. Otherwise, the teacher encourages or suggests feedback to the observer only if the observer is not providing feedback. Key to this style is getting the students to interact with minimal or no input from the teacher.
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Group Meeting
Group meetings during the first developmental stage are facilitated by the teacher but provide an opportunity for students to have a voice in the learning process. This is the time for students to give input on how the lesson went, how their peers did, and even how the teacher did, all in relation to working on goals of developmental stage 1. Questions about how the activities challenged the students and how they felt participating in the lesson when the teacher used a given teaching style are good beginning points. Students can also be asked how they felt the class as a whole or just they and their partner or small group did. Lastly, you can ask how you as the teacher did and what you might work on for next session. As Don Hellison notes, this facet of the lesson tends to be foreign to students initially, as young people are not often asked to provide feedback to each other, much less to and about the teacher. Over time, students will feel more comfortable verbalizing their thoughts as this becomes a consistent part of the class.
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Don suggests that teachers initially lay down some ground rules; they can do this in collaboration with the students. These are examples of group meeting ground rules:
- No blaming others—accept responsibility for yourself.
- Include everyone in the discussion.
- Be respectful of yourself and others (full-value contract).
- Use each other's names.
- Do not talk over each other.
- Wait for classmates to finish their comments.
These are only a few examples; again, we encourage teachers to solicit input from their classes about what the ground rules should include.
Another especially relevant issue concerning group meetings is time. If you do not have sufficient time to check in with all students, ask for responses on how things went from a few students. A common practice in many TPSR-based programs is to have the students keep a journal. They can do this as homework and turn in their comments the next day. This way you keep track of how things are going and get timely input from the class.
Reflection
Reflection time should flow fairly seamlessly from the group meeting time. Group meeting time focuses on student evaluation of the lesson, and reflection time focuses on evaluation of the students' roles as learners and support. Thus, questions can move from how the activities or style of teaching challenged or engaged the students to a focus on how they participated as independent learners, demonstrated respect, showed self-direction, and cooperated during the lesson. During developmental stage 1, the teacher directs the discussion. The thumbometer is a technique often used for reflection time. In response to questions from the teacher, students point their thumbs up, sideways, or down to indicate how well they did on a particular aspect of the lesson. These are examples of questions the teacher might ask:
- “During Dot Drill today, did you demonstrate cooperation with your partner by giving feedback?”
- “Did you show stick-to-itiveness during Dot Drill as it got harder?”
- “Did you show self-direction by challenging yourself during the drill?”
Students respond as a group by pointing their thumbs. The teacher notes where most of the participants are (e.g., more thumbs up than down) so as to facilitate activities toward the higher levels (Levels III through V). As Don notes in his work, it is important to acknowledge that kids have bad days, too, which means we should support them and encourage honest self-evaluation. We also want to underscore not blaming others for our behavior.
Lastly, the reflection time is when we can begin to encourage students to think about how they can demonstrate the levels outside of the class or program. Asking students where in their out-of-class or out-of-program lives they could demonstrate a given level of responsibility allows them to begin to conceptualize this transition. For some students, reaching a particular level outside of class but still within the school (which is a nice scaffold) might be all that is possible. In any case, we should begin to encourage students to think about responsibility concepts outside the class.
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Transitioning to Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage.
Developmental Stage 2
Once students are consistently demonstrating Level I and II behaviors, you should transition to the second developmental stage. This means providing opportunities for students to work collaboratively with their peers with little teacher guidance (Level III, self-direction). During the second stage you begin to call upon students to take a role in the learning process. As you will see in this section, you begin to relinquish some of the control of the class to students during awareness talks and group meetings. As this occurs, some students may begin to demonstrate a desire to take leadership roles (Level IV), but most will continue to need some guidance in keeping self-directed without individual supervision.
Relationship Time
Juggler's Carry (Model in Action 8.1) gives students the opportunity to continue to demonstrate respect (Level I) and participate with effort (Level II) while working collaboratively with their classmates without direct supervision from the teacher (Level III). Following the same format (“What?”, “So what?”, “Now what?”) but now inviting more student leadership during the process, we can begin to navigate TPSR Level III and to transition to Level IV concepts.
Awareness Talk
During the second developmental stage, the teacher begins to share the responsibility for the awareness talks. He identifies the theme, asks one or more students to guide the questioning, and draws the connection to the lesson focus. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 2 include self-control, self-direction, goal setting, and problem solving.
Using students to help guide the awareness talk is key in the development of youth leaders (Level IV). Following the activity, you can use student leaders to “debrief” so as to draw the attention of the learners to the cognitive and affective attributes of an activity. These are examples of questions you might provide the student leader following Juggler's Carry:
“What?” Questions
- “What helped you when talking with your group members to be successful at the activity?”
- “What were your feelings when you failed to keep balls from hitting the ground? How did you feel when you were successful in keeping balls from hitting the ground?”
“So What?” Questions
- “How might your feelings when you failed and succeeded help as you work in groups?”
- “How might you do things differently in this activity to find more success individually and as a member of the group?”
“Now What?” Questions
- “Thinking about the activity and how you felt as you succeeded or failed, how can those feelings help you as you engage in other activities during basketball?”
- “What might you do to help regain focus when you are not succeeding at something?”
By providing the students with a selection of questions, you maintain the direction of the conversation while giving students a chance to comfortably explore what it is like to take a leadership role in class.
Lesson Focus
The opportunities for self-direction take center stage during developmental stage 2. Again, activities should transition from individuals performing within the context of the group to individuals positively interacting with partners and small groups in self-guided learning experiences.
Table 8.2 presents considerations for teaching the Pass and Shoot activity (Model in Action 8.3) through two teaching styles and shows how they connect to the TPSR model. You can alter both styles so as to create challenge and, most importantly, provide students with the opportunity to work individually and in groups as well as pace themselves.
Being mindful of the activities used during this stage provides you with opportunities to alter the teaching style and encourage greater student responsibility. This allows for students to begin leading the group meeting segment of the lesson and speaking as to how the lesson activities address the theme or themes identified during the awareness talk.
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Inclusion Style
To use the inclusion style, you demonstrate the cues for Pass and Shoot and present task sheets that provide a diagram and performance cues. Identify the options available for students in deciding how and where to enter the drill. For example, students can vary distances to the basket and use different types of balls to make the task more difficult. Students can also count missed or made shots, or they can time themselves and see how many shots they can make. These options, chosen by the students for themselves, create additional challenges. Students are placed in pairs and dispersed throughout the teaching area. Allow time for the learners to assess their level though trial and error and begin the drill. After each drill, the learners reassess and set new challenges based on the levels available and the achievement of performance criteria.
Your role is to circulate throughout the learning space and provide feedback only on the decisions of the students. You can ask, for example, “How are you doing at the level you have selected?” On the basis of the students' response, inquire about the decisions made and how successful the students feel they are. With this style it is important not to start out by overtly challenging the decision made initially but to help students in their self-assessments.
Reciprocal Style
To use the reciprocal style for this activity, arrange students in groups of three; the third person becomes the observer. Provide task sheets that briefly describe the activity, the cues, and the participants' roles. We also suggest including a list of possible motivation-type feedback for students to use. Clear role expectations for students on the task sheet will help them keep focus. For example, spell out what the observer ought to be observing (performance cues) and what the doers are doing (practicing). Provide a time or a number of passes for each facet of the activity. Once they are finished, the students rotate their roles. This process is repeated for each drill variation.
Your role is to move about the space and assist the observers in accurately observing the doer. You must step in to provide feedback if there is a safety issue. Otherwise, you encourage or suggest feedback to the observer only if feedback is not occurring.
Group Meeting
The group meeting during the second developmental stage should continue to provide students with an opportunity to have a voice in the learning process but facilitate their leading more of the discussion. Because you have modeled leading the discussion in developmental stage 1, you can help students assume more responsibility by asking questions such as “What sorts of questions did I ask you about the lesson?” and “What questions do you have of your peers from the lesson?” Another strategy is to have students write their questions or comments on a slip of paper and then exchange with partners and engage in small-group discussions. You can then bring them back to the large group and ask for culminating thoughts from the day's lesson. Don't be disappointed if it takes a bit more effort during this developmental stage to get things going. Be consistent, be caring, and be a good model, and your students will begin to assume more responsibility.
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Reflection
Key to this stage is that students begin to lead more of the discussion. Students can be cued on questions that address the particular levels they are working at during this stage (Level III) and begin to scaffold to goals for the next levels (IV and V). These are examples of helpful questions:
- “How did you feel you and your partner worked independent of teacher direction?”
- “What might you improve on?”
- “As we move toward more independence, what goals can you set to show more leadership in class?”
Students can begin to generate these types of questions once you have modeled them. We encourage you to note the many examples in Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility Through Physical Activity, Third Edition, of different ways to engage students in reflection time. Methods such as exit slips, journaling, and tapping in (students tap on a poster listing the levels to indicate where they are) can be quite effective and keep this part of the lesson fresh.
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Seeking leadership opportunities in Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult.
Developmental Stage 3
Transitioning students to developmental stage 3 within the confines of physical education settings can be difficult. At this stage students should routinely demonstrate behaviors consistent with Levels I to III and actively seek out leadership opportunities. These opportunities for caring and leadership take center stage during developmental stage 3. Caring and leadership can manifest themselves during all aspects of the lesson as students explore ways to engage in the learning process.
Relationship Time
Relationship time during the third developmental stage should be almost entirely run by students. Student leaders can be responsible for setup, instruction, and facilitation of the relationship time tasks. For example, many teachers use a warm-up routine that is performed throughout the year. Consider allowing students to lead, or even better create, the warm-up or other relationship time activities.
The Create-a-Game activity meets the objectives of relationship time by providing opportunities for students to interact with each other constructively; it also meets the developmental stage 3 needs by providing opportunities for students to be self-directed and to develop leadership skills.
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Awareness Talk
Student leaders should be comfortable with identifying the theme, guiding the questioning, and drawing connections to the lesson by the time they reach the third developmental stage. Commonly used themes during developmental stage 3 include self-direction, leadership, and transfer. To illustrate a developmental stage 3 awareness talk, let's consider Create-a-Game (Model in Action 11.6).
In speaking for the Create-a-Game activity, the student leaders would generalize the lessons learned from the activity to the theme and subsequent activities. These are examples of statements and questions they might offer:
- “I liked how my group talked through each step and offered game ideas. How did your group decide on the game you would create?”
- “In our group we selected our five pieces of equipment first and then tried to come up with a unique game that used the equipment. How did other groups decide where to begin?”
In speaking for the experience, the student leaders can generalize what occurred in the activity. Nonverbal behavior on the part of the teacher can be really be important here. Remain involved by demonstrating active listening, nodding your head, and making eye contact with whoever is speaking. This models to the students behaviors that they too can maintain in the process.
Lesson Focus
Developmental stage 3 activities should provide students with the opportunity for leadership experiences and encourage transfer to other aspects of the curriculum. The Two Up, Two Back activity (Model in Action 11.7), a volley drill, offers students opportunities to exhibit behaviors consistent with responsibility Levels I through IV.
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Teaching strategies for developmental stage 3 include providing students with opportunities to emphasize previous levels but, more importantly, focus on Levels IV (caring and leadership) and V (outside the gymnasium). We can elicit these behaviors by modifying the way we present the task.
Table 11.3 presents considerations for teaching Two Up, Two Back through two different styles. You can use a command style, but this minimizes the opportunity for students to demonstrate developmental stage 3 behaviors. Instead, presenting the task through a divergent discovery style or a self-check style provides opportunities for self-directed learning and leadership.
Two Up, Two Back (Model in Action 11.7) provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate responsibility Levels I through IV. Using a guided discovery approach gives students a chance to collaboratively develop tactical awareness for the volley and passing shots. Self-checking enables them to self-assess in the context of group play. At this developmental stage, students have demonstrated the ability to work independently while putting forth effort and showing respect to their peers. At this point we hope you can begin to think of ways to modify the learning environment to promote leadership skills in your students. These skills can be carried over to the group meeting segment of the lesson, increasing the contribution of students to the learning process.
Divergent Discovery Style
Presenting Two Up, Two Back using a divergent discovery approach allows you to engage students in both the cognitive and psychomotor domains. Through questioning or the presentation of a problem, you can have students diverge on solutions for successfully completing the task. With this task you can allow groups of students to diverge on a solution that meets the task requirements.
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Teacher: “Each group will play a modified doubles game. One team starts at the net and the other at the baseline. The team at the baseline begins play, and team locations switch after each point. The first two hits of each round should be easily returnable by the other team. Points can be scored only after two successful hits have been completed. Rotate service each point and play to 10 points.”
After each round of 10 points, have students reflect on the following questions:
- How can you support your partner during a point (think about your movement and positioning on the court)?
- What strategies did the volleying team use to score points?
- What strategies did the baseline team use to score points?
- How can we use one hit to set up our next shot?
Self-Check Style
Shifting to a self-check style provides additional opportunities for students to demonstrate self-direction and leadership behaviors. Create a task sheet that briefly describes the activity and provides learning cues. You can ask a group to demonstrate the activity drills and focus students on their task sheet. Once groups have read their sheets, they can begin the activity at their own pace.
Following each game (to 10 points), students recheck the criteria noted on the task sheet relative to their execution of the volley. Students are responsible for their own feedback based on the criteria for the given skill. The teacher's role is to ask questions related to the student's process of self-checking or self-assessing.
Group Meeting
As with the awareness talk, this portion of the lesson is mostly student led. You can assist by cueing students regarding the levels they are working on, as well as reminding them of what sorts of questions have been asked in previous classes. Questions about how the lesson was conducted, how the activity met the students' needs or provided challenge, and how the style of teaching engaged them are all examples of program-related discussion questions.
During the Two Up, Two Back activity, a student leader can initiate a group reflection on the lesson activities by asking questions like these:
- “How did you support your partner during this drill?”
- “What are other ways we support our doubles partner during tennis?”
- “How can we use a shot to set up our partner for the next shot?”
Reflection
We should expect students at this developmental stage to be able to pose higher-order questions during their reflections. Reflections should continue to serve as an opportunity for students to self-reflect on their actions and what they observed in others throughout the lesson while exploring ways they can transfer the responsibility attributes they are developing in physical education to life beyond the gym. This can be accomplished through a variety of formats in class or outside of class time. Students can read each other's journals and provide feedback, assist each other in goal setting, or create strategies to transfer the levels to environments outside of the program. Again, the teacher remains connected to the process as an active listener and support.
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An extension of TPSR—The Kinesiology Career Club
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.”
The Kinesiology Career Club
David Walsh
Program Description
The Kinesiology Career Club (KCC) is an extension of TPSR with the primary goal of helping inner-city youth envision and discover meaningful, positive “possible futures.” The more specific goals of KCC for the youth are as follows:
- To maximize motivation to improve in, stay in, and find relevance in school
- To enhance connection between the TPSR goals of respect, effort, goal setting, and leadership skills and the importance they play in youths' futures
- To chart the necessary steps to first become a professional in kinesiology, which provides practical experience in a specific career
- To chart the necessary steps for their own careers of choice and developing strategies for matriculating and graduating from college
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The program takes place in San Francisco at Mission High School, a low-performing inner-city school. It began in spring 2011 and will be ongoing every spring and fall semester. The program runs for 80 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday over the entire semester during second-period physical education. Current KCC students include five girls and nine boys who are all ninth graders. The high school has a diverse population with the following ethnicity breakdown: 14 percent African American, 23 percent Asian, 46 percent Latino, 9 percent Caucasian, and 8 percent other. The KCC students closely reflect this diversity.
As a university-community collaboration, KCC is also part of a course offered at San Francisco State University (SFSU) to graduating kinesiology seniors. Called “SFSU Mentors,” six to eight seniors are selected to conduct their capstone kinesiology course in the community by helping me run this program. I am the lead instructor of KCC, and the SFSU Mentors help lead various physical activities—a combination of martial arts, weight training, dance, and fitness activities—and mentor the students on positive “possible futures” in either a 1-to-1 or 2-to-1 ratio for the final 15 minutes of every session.
Use of TPSR Model
The KCC goals progress through four phases. Each phase allows for the systematic application of TPSR within the program, as well as providing opportunities for students to engage the model as they move through the program.
Phase One Goals
In phase one we use TPSR daily format and strategies to introduce the program, including the various physical activities. This phase focuses on Level I, respect, and Level II, effort. We aim to begin building relationships with the students, have them voice their opinions about the program content and structure, and introduce the field of kinesiology. We also introduce the combined TPSR reflection time and mentoring time, a significant component of the positive “possible futures” emphasis that takes place throughout the program. We talk about our own choice to study kinesiology, connect the physical activities in KCC to the basis and foundation of the field of kinesiology, bridge Levels I and II to the idea of being successful in kinesiology, encourage the students to talk about their own career interests, and begin to get to know and develop relationships with them.
Phase Two Goals
Once phase one goals are mostly achieved, phase two begins to empower the students to take on the advanced TPSR responsibilities (Level III, goal setting; Level IV, leadership). Students are asked to set goals for martial arts, weight training, dance, or fitness skills. They are also encouraged to take on small leadership experiences by way of teaching the activities they worked on during goal-setting time. We encourage the students to consider a career in at least one of the many subdisciplines of kinesiology, connect the physical activities and goal setting and leadership in the program to being successful in the field of kinesiology, and begin to chart the steps to earning a college degree in kinesiology. Phase two also aims at having students reflect on what they are currently doing in school and out of school that could either help or hinder their futures.
Phase Three Goals
Once phase two goals are mostly achieved, phase three continues to empower the students to work on TPSR Levels I through IV. Goal-setting time and leadership roles are extended so that students take on more responsibility. We introduce the potential transference of the steps to a career in kinesiology to the development of responsibility traits necessary for the students' future careers of choice. The idea is to link phase two experiences of understanding how to be successful in kinesiology to understanding what success would mean in the students' own careers of choice. Students actively reflect on what they would like to pursue as a career and effectively discover ways to link what they learned about kinesiology to their own future career interests. We also introduce the importance of having both potential hopes and potential fears—as suggested by the theory of possible selves (Oyserman, Terry, & Bybee 2002)—and doing the hard work as well as having the positive attitude and preparation needed for success.
Phase Four Goals
After students have mostly achieved phase three goals, phase four continues to empower them to work on responsibility Levels I through IV. We introduce Level V, outside the gym, and address how what the students do in school, at home, and in the streets affects their futures. Phase four discussions focus solely on the students' careers of choice. We further reinforce the connection between the TPSR levels and what might prove necessary for the practical realization of their possible futures, including both potential hopes and fears. We provide additional insight into the degree of hard work, positive attitude, and preparation needed for the realization of their possible futures.
Additional Program Elements
Since KCC is run through in-school physical education, we have to integrate traditional physical education elements such as uniform requirements and fitness testing into the program. Unlike after-school programs that students may choose to attend, attending KCC is mandatory. Mission High School has been very supportive of the program and has given us complete autonomy with respect to fulfilling the goals of KCC. It is a collaboration we plan to continue for several years.
Even though KCC has some goals that differ from those of a regular TPSR program, we are able to keep a TPSR focus by systematically implementing the components of a regular TPSR daily format. Each session has relationship time, an awareness talk, physical activities designed as a way for the students to experience the responsibility levels, a group meeting, and a reflection time. Some of the KCC goals require alteration of the TPSR components. For example, a KCC awareness talk includes how the levels relate to the students' futures, and discussions focus on the field of kinesiology. Reflection time takes place with the guidance of SFSU Mentors, which students document in a journal. Students are asked to reflect not only on the levels but also on how they are performing in school and are exploring a “possible future,” first in kinesiology and then in their own careers of choice. An effective strategy has been providing information on the various subdisciplines of kinesiology to give the students the opportunity to find relevance in at least one of them. Some students easily identify with kinesiology as a “possible future” while others connect only with being physically active as an important issue in their lives. As the program progresses, discussions about their own career interests seem to get more detailed and authentic.
Keeping SITE
Though KCC has different goals and purposes, it is still an extension of TPSR. It is crucial for us to keep SITE of the four TPSR themes. KCC includes TPSR's prioritization of the instructor-student relationship through the concern for each student's emotional, social, and physical well-being. KCC is also empowerment based, giving students various leadership roles, providing goal-setting time, giving them a voice in the program's direction, and enabling them to evaluate both themselves and the program. The difference is in how the TPSR levels are integrated into the physical activities as a way to explore a career in kinesiology. Once this is established, then transference of the levels to enhance the students' understanding and exploration of their own careers of interest can occur. KCC is still in its early phases of development and will change as the program evolves, but TPSR will continue to be the foundation and core of the program.
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