Some Students Don’t Like PE:Experiences From Various Perspectives

David A. Fitzpatrick, PhD.University of WinnipegManitoba, Canada

Four Studies/Questions

What is it like to be low skilled in PE or to experience physical awkwardness?

How do students who are low skilled or physically awkward cope with and avoid exposure in PE?

What is it like to teach PE to students who are low skilled or physically awkward?

What are the rewarding and disappointing PE experiences?

Possible Reasons for Negative PE Experiences

Low Skilled Physically Awkward (DCD)* Overweight/Obese Illness/Disease Disability Shy about public display of Body Adolescent Puberty Embarrassing Incidents/Experiences* Bad day Other

Incorrect Assumptions of Teaching PE

Because PE teachers likes physical activity, assumes everyone likes physical activity.

Because PE teachers are relatively skilled assume all others are skilled.

PE Teachers teach only to the skilled. Some assume “Anyone can teach

‘gym.” PE is playing games and free play. PE requires little or no preparation

Justifying The Studies

We may not fully appreciate what it is like to have a negative PE experience.

We may benefit from personal insights of others.

Need for more tactful teaching and coaching.

Research has not identified a definitive instructional intervention for low skilled students.

The Target Experience

What is it like to have a negative PE experience?

• Personal accounts

• Reflections

• Thoughts, feelings, and actions

Methodology

Hermeneutic Phenomenology

A qualitative research method, that seeks to describe, explain, and understand the meaning of human experiences.

“The only thing the Craine boys are good at catching are subtle nuances and the occasional virus” (Niles Craine on Fraser)

e.g. Craines learn to ride a bike!

Awkwardness in the Media

“Today at 3:00 PM is PE Class, also know as state sponsored terrorism” (Calvin).

Calvin and Hobbs

Study One

The Lived Experience ofPhysical Awkwardness:

Adults’ Retrospective Views

Describing Awkwardness “When other people that say … they can't play,

… it means they can't play very well. If I say I can't play, I can't play!”

“There are people who are athletes, and people who are non-athletes, and then there is me.”

“Baseball was the worst. It happened to be a combination of all the things I did badly … I couldn’t throw. I couldn’t bat. I couldn’t catch. That doesn’t leave much.”

Four Main Themesof Experiencing Awkwardness

“Failing and Falling”

“Hurt and Humiliation”

“Worrying and Wondering”

“Avoiding Awkwardness”

Failing and Falling “I would quite often trip over my own

feet and not be able to run.”

“I was not steady…. I could not bend over like other kids … and pick something up. I’d fall over.”

“I was on the ground more times than I was up.”

Hurt and Humiliation

“I was embarrassed about falling down.”

“In a position where other people can laugh at you … definitely embarrassed.”

“I had to take my turn at serving. I was totally humiliated, being so unskilled.”

Worrying and Wondering

“Others … were able to do it … What’s my problem?”

“I don’t know why I’m not better at this, like most kids.”

“Why can’t I throw a ball like a regular human being?”

Avoidance Awkwardness

“I would come up with a sore stomach to get out of it.”

“On field days I ... was doing other things like selling tickets or ice cream.”

“I took three Sciences, three Maths, two English, and Russian History so there wasn't room for PE.”

“I even took singing lessons (and I can’t sing) opposed to taking phys. ed.”

Study Two

Avoiding PE:

A Subversive Activity

How do Some Students Cope

And Avoid PE?

Physical Education is Public

The child is in a position of being “acclaimed or humiliated by an authority from whose decision there is no recourse and in a group from which there is no escape (Wood, 1983, p. 220).

Cognition and Avoidance

“I was a klutz, but I was a thinking klutz, so I learned how to hide most of it.”

Avoiding AwkwardnessVaried Involvement

Compliance/Trying hard

Supportive others

Selective participation

Pseudo participation

Hiding within activity 

Humor

Emotional Response

Pretending Illness

Misrepresentation

Doing other things

Actively avoid

Refuse/Rebel

Give Up/Do not try

Didn’t care/Accept it

Involved Uninvolved

Supportive Peers

“I fell and she actually stopped running and came back and helped me up and … ran with me the rest of the race”

“Quite often the kids would … they just grab me by the arm and basically pull me along so I wouldn't fall.”

Pseudo-Participation

“Just run around and as long as you don't get the ball, you don't worry about getting ‘swacked.’”

“I never … [swung when I batted] … because kids are no good at throwing. You always got four balls.

Distraction/Doing Unrelated tasks

If there were something I could do instead of gym, I was doing it.

I joined the yearbook committee … as an alternative to intramurals.

I did a school history compilation. I

missed a lot of PE.

Illness and Avoidance

“I even pretended that I was sick”.

“I remember writing notes to get out of gym”.

Not Seeking Assistance

“It might have been a good thing to go and ask the phys. ed. teacher … for some help … but I never.”

“I would rather just struggle along with it on my own.”

About Teachers “I wasn’t too enthused with the teacher …

one of those phys. ed. geniuses, a real physical jerk…. It was her life.”

“Teachers really seemed to focus on the people who were good.”

“No one ever taught me … “I had no help from my teachers."

I didn't like the teacher's attitude, she always shouted at me.

The Experience of Teaching Students Who are Physically Awkward

Study Three

Teaching Awkward Students: Questions of Interest

Do teachers recognize these students?

How do teachers feel about instruction?

How do teachers interact instructionally?

What invariant and variant themes arise?

What further questions arise?

Invariant (Consistent) Themes

Knowing the Students

Empathic/Perceptive Awareness

Accepting/Answering the Challenge

Wishful Thinking/Hopeful Expectation

Frustrations

Successes and Rewarding Results

Identifying AwkwardnessDo Teachers Recognize Awkwardness?

“Yes, absolutely, there’s no question….

They stick out like a sore thumb and

teachers know that right away” (Dixi).

“I’ve got them identified fairly early”(Pam)

“I was aware pretty quickly” (Ken).

Veteran Teacher Feelings Empathic and Perceptive Awareness

Feeling:• Badly• Unhappy• Sad• Frustrated• Hopeful• Optimistic

Empathic Awareness

“He was very unhappy, I could tell” (Cara)

  “You can tell when they don’t have that

success, the … [lack of] …confidence, the …[low]…self-esteem” (Dan).

  You could see that wasn’t a positive

experience” (Dixi).

The Challenge

“Every PE teacher I ever had tried to teach me this, and I can’t…. You’re wasting your time…. I dare you to teach me” (Ken’s student).

“Everyone who walks out of this … [gym] … today is going to know how to do this” (Cara). 

Wishful Thinking andHopeful Expectations

“You’d like to think that everyone would come into your program and totally love phys. ed. and be successful and then go on and enjoy physical activity.”

“I wish I could convince him to find one thing that he’d really like” (Pam).

Feelings of Frustration

“I felt frustrated that I hadn’t set it up in order for her to get success” (Pete).

“I felt a little bit frustrated because you expected kids to get on with something you were teaching” (Dixi).

  “The frustrating part … is … once they move

… into a junior high school … they may do nothing physical” (Pam).

Barriers to Teaching “Our failure to recognize the need to teach

skills, really hurts kids” (Ken).

“Some children get lost in the shuffle” (Pam)

“The problem is in not having the resources to run a quality programs” (Dixi).

There’s no accountability.

There are no curriculum police (Dixi).

Effective Instruction Guidelines

Warm and Orderly Environment Realistic, High, Achievable Outcomes Promote Student Choice and Control Structured Instruction Demonstrate Expectations Group Students and Use Stations Ask and Encourage Questions Maximize Practice and Success Circulate and Monitor Progress Provide Feedback (Vogel & Seefeldt 1988)

Strategies Employed

Promoting success Encouragement Choice Individual attention Physical guidance Modifications Individual activities

Peer Teaching Groups/Partners Volunteers Pull out programs Practice Mass participation Gradual competition

Warm Orderly Environment

“Once you developed rapport … they trust you … don’t feel threatened … don’t feel singled out and then you have a starting point” (Ken).

“The biggest impact for me is being sensitive to the student’s feelings … when they’re trying something” (Pete).

Promoting Choice

“Everybody, if given choice, would be better at something.”

“Choices give them a much better chance of finding what they like and feeling some enjoyment from it” (Dixi)

Finding A Way to Teach

“Equate it to the math teacher who can’t understand why … [students] … can’t get a question.”

“What do I do, say it louder? That doesn’t work.”

“You have to have all of the kids be successful” (Cara).

Teaching Skills Steps by Step

“We can’t be play leaders, we have to be physical educators and recognize where skill deficiencies are and break things down and teach them” (Ken).

“We did achieve some success by breaking the skill right down” (Pam). 

Taking the Time

“He got extra attention … intensive individual instruction” (Dixi).

“In teaching … it takes a fair amount of time for mastery to occur” (Pete).

“I see it as a kid who going to need a little more of my time” (Ken).

“We Have Ways of Making You Learn”

“We’ve grown a lot as a profession … Now there’s more accountability…. Everyone’s better included” (Dixi).

“We do not treat Joe-Hockey Player any different than Rita-Trip-Over-Her-Feet-Every-Two-Seconds” (Cara).

“Everyone plays (Pete).”

Rewarding Results

“We found something he was good at…. Others were giving him praise. It meant he was more accepted” (Cara).

“Even though I was terrible, I always had fun … when she was my teacher” (Dixi’s student).

Knowing When Not to Teach

“I had a sense that she didn’t want me to spend too much time … because she didn’t feel like she was making that much improvement or she was being singled out” (Pete).

Finding Humour “My teaching partner and I … would bet lunch

on our ability to teach him something” (Dixi).

One awkward student interaction• I said, “You seem to be having a problem.”• She said, “Oh I am, I’m ambidextrous and I

don’t know which hand to use,”• I responded “I think ambidextrous means

equally good with both hands.” • She laughed and said, “I’m such a klutz.”

(Dixi).

Conclusions

Are they physically awkward, or physically

uneducated? (Wall, 1998)

Students and teachers are telling incongruent

stories(Fitzpatrick, 2003).

Regardless, “They Have to be Carefully

Taught” (Evans, 1975).

Experiences in Physical Education:

A Reflective Retrospective

A Longitudinal Study

Study 4Negative Experiences in PE

Physical Education ExperiencesWriting Exercise

•1. Describe a positive or rewarding incident from your school

physical education experience.

•2. Describe a negative or disappointing incident from your school physical education experience.

Positive PE Experiences (90-04)

Choice of activities, games and sports Varity of activities, games and sports Learning new skills Helping others learn skills Cooperating and playing with and against peers Grouping age and ability playing together Encouraging teacher/coach Recognition for good performance Voluntary competition Emphasizing Fairplay Principles Special events (Field Day/Winter Fun Day) Setting a record/Winning a game or championship Playing on a team against other schools

Negative PE Experiences (90-04)

Inappropriate competition/Losing Separating boys and girls Forced participation of boys and girls Different activities for boys and girls Forced participation in activities (e.g. field day) Lack of facilities Shirts Vs Skins/Boys Vs Girls Being low skilled Teacher ridiculing non-athletes or low skilled students Teacher Favoritism/Bias to skilled/athletes/boys Performing in front of others Skills/Fitness/Skinfold testing Unfair teams and unequal competition Student picked teams/Chosen last.

More Negative PE Experiences (90-04)

Finishing last Losing/elimination/too competitive type games Changing for PE Skilled and or athletes dominating activities Going back to class sweaty Performing poorly in public Overcrowded classes/line-ups, waiting turns Playing “painful” games e.g. murder ball Unequal playing time Lack of choice/variety Repetitive boring activity Forced fitness testing

Negative PE Experiences (90-04) Conclusion

Lack of equipment/facilities Segregating boys and girls Teaching only to the skilled Boys dominating activities Not learning skills Failing to meet personal expectations Injury Too little time in the gym Long boring warm-ups Public weighing/Skinfold testing Unenthusiastic Teachers *

Unenthusiastic Teaching Behaviours

Disinterest Ignoring Inactive Unprepared No or negative feedback Verbally abusive criticism Showing favoritism Using physical activity as a punishment

Implications?

We are evaluated every time we teach.

Students form lasting impressions.

Students become adults who support or criticize PE, based upon their experiences.

Some become administrators, trustees, Minister’s of Education and can have a huge impact on the structure and delivery of PE.

Negative impressions can last a lifetime!

Inclusive Physical Education

Inclusion may be defined as a:

• Philosophy of teaching

• Method of teaching

• Curricular adaptation

• Process of teaching to all students

Inclusive Physical Education:a Challenge to Teachers

Inclusive physical education is an approach to teaching that challenges PE teachers to adapt variables to facilitate meaningful participation of all students, regardless of skill level, ability, or disability.

Assumptions of Inclusion

People are more alike than unlike Needs are neither normal or abnormal All students can be taught All students can learn All students can benefit from inclusion in PE All students need active participation in PE.

Differences are a norm, not an exception. IPE de-emphasis individual differences.

Something to Think About

Participating in an activity by performing a motor or sport skill in a different or non-traditional way does not lessen its value if it facilitates participation.

Does it matter how the skills is performed, if the outcome is achieved?

Benefits of Inclusion for SWD

Modeling opportunities for SWD Socializing opportunities for SWD Socialization opportunities for SWD More normal experience for SWD SWD feels part of the group, school, life Improved coping skills for SWD Improved self concept/self worth for SWD Opportunity for SWD to self actualize in PE

Benefits of Inclusion for All

Provides normal experiences for all Learning about differences Learning about helping All feel part of class Educate other students about disability IPE is more like real society

Factors Promoting Inclusion

Teacher preparation Teacher attitude Preparation of class peers Readiness of SWD Administration support* Resources Readiness and Preparation of SWD Willingness to try

Supportive Administrative Decisions

Decreased class size Decreased student teacher ratio Increased IA or volunteers In-service opportunities Resource availability Involve PE teacher in IEP

Questions/Criticisms of Inclusion Inclusion lessens the PE experience for others?

Are some SWD incapable of participating in PE?

Do students have a responsibility to assume a role of teacher in assisting SWD?

At what point is an inclusive program no longer Physical Education?

Can all be Included in PE? It may not be possible to include all students,

all of the time, in PE, but it is possible to try.

Total Inclusion is the beginning point.

Segregated placements are a last resort.

Alternatives are considered only if IPE is not meeting the needs of the SWD or others.

When IPE is Not Appropriate

Risk of injury (self or others)

Interferes with teaching/learning

Unsafe for student or others

Persistent disruptions

Lack of supports/assistants/volunteers

Range of IPE Participation

Full participation (most desirable)

Modified active (with adaptations)

Partner assisted (with a little help from my friends)

Parallel active (specific designed activity in class)

Active observer (assists organization/administration)

Passive observer (knowledgeable observer)

Alternative tasks (specially designed program)

Inclusion Teaching Style

Inclusive teaching presents multiple versions, variations, or degrees of difficulty of a task, for students to select a successful entry level and make further choices for successful participation.

Inclusion Style Advantages

Student pressure and anxiety reduced Increased student decision making Potential to promotes student self confidence. Increased individualization Inclusion is an easy for students to understand. Inclusion is an inviting style

Inclusion for independent practice and progress.

Inclusion Style Disadvantages

Some students content to stay at one spot. Danger of loss of integrity of task/game. May not include all students all the time. Requires careful teacher planning. Requires adequate space and equipment. Time intensive style.

Inclusive Process

Teacher presents task options. Student surveys task/activity. Student considers options. Student selects option. Student decides entry level. Student self assesses performance. Teachers provides instruction

Safe choice is the best choice!

Options After Initial Entry Choice

Harder or more difficult choice

Same choice

Less difficult choice

Process continues

Inclusion: Role of Teacher

Teacher decides task Teacher designs range of tasks Teacher designs adaptations Teachers circulates Teacher answers questions Teacher offers instructional points

Slanted Rope Theory

Slanted Rope Theory

Inclusive Basketball Shot: Factors To Consider

Ball size Ball weight of ball Basket distance Basket height Hoop dimensions Multiple goals

Angle of shot Timing/pace of shot Attempts Degree of success Context of shot Other

Inclusive Teaching Cautions

Teacher must must create legitimate options

Note students who stay at their entry level.

Note gaps between student aspiration and reality

Teach to close gaps between aspiration and reality

Thank You!

Questions/Commentsas time permits.

Negative PE Experiences