PDHPE reflections

Resources for PDHPE

edu-resource

Friday, June 30, 2006

Resources for teaching PDHPE

Resources for
Personal Development, Health & Physical Education (PDHPE) Teachers K- 6

PDHPE is one of the six key learning areas in the Australian NSW primary curriculum. It is concerned with developing in students the knowledge and understanding, skills, values and attitudes that will enable them to lead healthy and fulfilling lives. The subject matter of PDHPE K- 6 is organised into eight interrelated strands consisting of: Dance, Games and Sports, Gymnastics, Growth and Development, Interpersonal Relationships, Safe Living, Personal Health Choices and Active Lifestyle. There are also five essential skills that students should also develop from PDHPE. They are: communication, decision making, interacting, moving and problem solving.

Resources:

Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation (ACHPER)
ACHPER is a professional association representing professionals working in the fields of health, physical education, human movement studies, sport, recreation, dance and community fitness. This site has close links to the educational system and schools. Teachers can utilise ACHPER locally and nationally for support in terms of new curriculum resources, new ideas to promote active and healthy living and professional training and development.

Sports Media: Physical Education and Sports for Everyone
The Sports Media site is a meeting point for all organisations, associations and teams who are involved in Sports and PE. As a member of the World-Wide Internet PE & Sports Organization they guarantee a speakers corner for everyone, everywhere. Sports Media will also assist with lesson plans, coaching tips and sports from all around the world.

Board of Studies: PDHPE K-6 Syllabus
The aim of the PDHPE K-6 Syllabus is to develop in each student for the ages of Kindergarten to Year 6, the knowledge and understanding, skills and values and attitudes needed to lead healthy, active and fulfilling lives. It also provides schools with a curriculum framework for teaching and learning related to the health priorities for young people of drug education, fitness and physical activity, child protection and nutrition.

http://www.healthykids.nsw.gov.au/
Every kid deserves to be healthy
Good food habits and daily physical activity – if your child has these, they're well on the way to a healthy life. But achieving this isn't always so simple. This website shows you how to do it and links you to many other sites on this important topic. Check out Useful Links for more resources in this site.

Purchasing of Resources:

NSW Department of Education and Training: Public Schools NSW
Various books distributed for PDHPE teachers for units of work for K-6 which facilitate the systematic learning of skills and understandings. Fourteen books covering all aspects of the PDHPE syllabus strands.

Education Bookstore: PDHPE Zone
PDHPE Zone Stage 4 is a series of four new booklets written by experienced NSW PDHPE teachers. It is relevant to the Physical Education and Health syllabuses in all states. Each booklet is supported by a Teacher CD that provides models for the integration of the four books as well as a range of worksheets covering literacy, numeracy, technology and practical skills.

Lesson Plans:

Dance Lesson Plans:
PE Central provides a site for teachers to view many dance lesson plans ranging primarily for K-6. You can sort via styles of dance or view primarily all dance plans. The ability to submit dance plans are available as well as converse with other teachers about teaching dance.

Games and Sport Lesson Plans:
A way to increase active time in lessons with a focus on games is to select minor games which require high activity levels. You probably already use a range of minor games in your PDHPE lessons. These are great for getting students involved in the lesson and focus on fun and enjoyment.

Gymnastic Lesson Plans:
An array of Gymnastic lesson plans designed to suit all skill levels and ages. Teachers can choose a lesson on how to teach specialised Gymnastic skills such as the Stadler Handstand, Balance Beam or High Bar drills. Don't forget to visit the site labelled non-traditional gymnastics.

Growth and Development Lesson Plans:
Visit Lesson Plan Central web site and take straight into your classroom lesson plans on Growth and Development. Various lessons looking at the stages of infancy up to early adolescence, systems of the body and how the science of laughter can enhance our social, mental and physical well being.

Interpersonal Relationship Lesson Plans:
Discussion Questions, Writing Assignments, and Student Activities for Character Education and Life Skills. View lesson plans on developing a respect for others, dealing with pressures and getting along with parents.

Safe Living Lesson Plans:
In addition to Risk Watch's age-appropriate lesson plans in every module, we've created interactive activities to use in your classroom. The following lesson plans are categorized by Risk Watch grade levels, but some activities may be appropriate for several age groups, so "click around" and explore all of your options!

Personal Health Choice Lesson Plans:
The Alabama Learning Centre provides a site of lesson plans that define a personal health goal, identify how personal health choices are influenced by peers, media, family and the community as well as recognise activities and behaviours that encourage healthy family living.

Active Lifestyle Lesson Plans:
Lessons to promote personal fitness and a healthy lifestyle. Choose lessons plans for K to Gr 7. Plus various other links and resource suggestions for teachers.

Fundamental Movement Skills

Students need to master certain fundamental movement skills if they are to enjoy the wide range of physical activities, sports and recreational pursuits offered in our communities. The following professional development sections allow you to gain an understanding of each skill and look at practical suggestions to incorporate these skills into your PDHPE and sport programs.

Static balance
Sprint run
Vertical Jump
Catch
Hop
Side gallop
Skip
Overarm throw
Leap
Kick
Dodge
Two-hand strike


Teachers Sharing Ideas:

Teachers Forum: PDHPE Billboard
An online message system enabling PDHPE teachers to converse and share ideas with other teachers or professionals in specialised areas. A list of email addresses with subject of interest and date posted is supplied.

About Me

Name:KC

This has been a great first day of our holiday. It is wonderful to share and discuss our Lorien wealth of ideas about PDHPE.I am looking forward to feeling more enlightened to the different stages of development, the integration into the other KLAs, to be aware of the syllabus properly and to share our experiences for games and exercices. I would also like to know , how to help children with specific difficulties, other than just to keep encouraging and practicing.

The physical benefits of regular exercise are far-reaching. It enhances the feeling of well-being by stimulating the cardio- vascular system, maximising oxygen- rich blood flow to vital organs and extremities, it increases muscle tone, flexibility, coordination and will reduce the risk of heart desease, stroke, obesity and some cancers. The strengthening of interpersonal relationships, the joy of movement and increased self confidence helps people to cope better in jobs and life in general, bringing stress- relief and enhanced quality of life, saving our country,s spending in the area of health etc.
It is extremely important to provide physical education in primary schools, particularly FMS in K-3, as it sets up a good habit for exercise, it enhances body and space awareness, practices movement skills, which are basic to many sports, coordination, gives self- confidence and opportunity to "play and practice"with their empathetic teacher to master these basic skillls, as they are hard to aquire later on. It provides opportunity for children learning with kinesthetic, spatial and interpersonal intelligences. Children are more likely to take up a sport, if they are feeling confident about their capabilities.
Gallahues {1996], 3 stages of fundamental movement skills are
STABILITY MOVEMENT SKILL
· static balance
· bending
· stretching
· rolling
· hopping
LOCOMOTION MOVEMENT SKILLS
· walking
· skipping
· running
· hopping
· leaping
· sequenced locomotion galloping, side step ect.
MANIPULATIVE MOVEMENT SKILLS
· throwing
· catching
· kicking
· bouncing striking
The BOS PDHPE syllabus aims to assist teachers to plan, develop and implement PDHPE learning experiences for students, by having clear Foundation Statements for the knowledge, skills and understanding that each student should develop at each stage of primary school. It supports these statements with a full range of outcomes and indicators. It gives a clear overview of subject matter across the stages, general principals for planning, programming, assessing, reporting and evaluating.

Creating The Future- Howard Gardner

In"CREATING THE FUTURE"-
Intelligence In spinster,Howard Gardner firstly smirks at the lay conceptions of the word "intelligent".He sniggers at the West using the word intelligent to describe only mental information gathering powers, to denote someone seen as eloquent or scientifically astute or wise.' Wisely', in other cultures, intelligence could be translated to many different attributes.
Secondly, Gardner says, the scientific use of the IQ test at the turn of the century as to look at a range of items from sensory discrimination to vocabulary. In the 1920s and 30s it became the way of testing intelligence [IQ] in many parts of the world.
Then arrived a debate about the Pluralisation of Intelligence, especially by L.L.Thurstone and J.P.Guilford and in recent times by many fields, especially psychological and neurological researchers.
Howard Gardner has come forward with the
THEORY OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE
Linguistic intelligence involves sensitivity to spoken and written language, the ability to learn languages, and the capacity to use language to accomplish certain goals. This intelligence includes the ability to effectively use language to express oneself rhetorically or poetically; and language as a means to remember information. Writers, poets, lawyers and speakers are among those that Howard Gardner sees as having high linguistic intelligence.
Logical-mathematical intelligence consists of the capacity to analyze problems logically, carry out mathematical operations, and investigate issues scientifically. In Howard Gardner's words, in entails the ability to detect patterns, reason deductively and think logically. This intelligence is most often associated with scientific and mathematical thinking.
Musical intelligence involves skill in the performance, composition, and appreciation of musical patterns. It encompasses the capacity to recognize and compose musical pitches, tones, and rhythms. According to Howard Gardner musical intelligence runs in an almost structural parallel to linguistic intelligence.
Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence entails the potential of using one's whole body or parts of the body to solve problems. It is the ability to use mental abilities to coordinate bodily movements. Howard Gardner sees mental and physical activity as related.
Spatial intelligence involves the potential to recognize and use the patterns of wide space and more confined areas.
Interpersonal intelligence is concerned with the capacity to understand the intentions, motivations and desires of other people. It allows people to work effectively with others. Educators, salespeople, religious and political leaders and counselors all need a well-developed interpersonal intelligence.
Intrapersonal intelligence entails the capacity to understand oneself, to appreciate one's feelings, fears and motivations. In Howard Gardner's view it involves having an effective working model of ourselves, and to be able to use such information to regulate our lives.
These are attracting considerable attention by educators.
Gardner contextualizes his and his colleague's recent research:
Initially singular or multiple intelligences were thought to dwell in the brain and able to be measured. Even the Theory of Multiple Intelligences was only seen individually- centered. But now most research is showing a connection between the biological potential and the opportunities for learning. An example is given.
Intelligence as distributed as well as being connected to the content, intelligence Gardner says, is also distributed [not just in the head], but even in human and non- human resources eg. books computer files and work collegues. Two examples are given, with assessment of the project, including cooperation, help by others and the reactions to the final project.-
Distributed aspects of intelligence do not need to be in one brain!
Nurturance of Intelligence- The hope for the future- How to achieve it?
The challenge for the future is to find a technique that works in a particular educational setting.
Humanising Intelligence
It is still not enough to understand the human mind and how to develop it. One needs to be able to use these gifts for the benefit of our planet.
Gardner recognizes the importance of motivation, personality, emotions and will and knows they need to be seen combined to form a picture of the whole human being. He asks for a distributed collaboration and feels optimistic looking at the achievements so far.
Reflecting on Gardner's Intelligence in 7 steps:

It seems to me to be very simplistic to look at the complexities of individuals as only 7 types. Hopefully, as research continues, Gardner, with the help of distributed collaboration will include spiritual ways of intelligence.
I would like to include the following 3 as important steps.
In Steiner education imagination plays a vital role in developing the intellect.
In the preface for Rudolf Steiners book " The Child's Changing Consciousness", Douglas Sloan states:" Whenever we want to explain, understand, or integrate our experience, we must have recourse to our images. Our images give us our world, and the kind and quality of our world depends on the kind and quality of the images through which we approach and understand it. During the school years when the child lives and knows the world through an imaginative feeling life, a powerful image-making capacity is either developed or not. It is this vital picture-making capacity that gives life and insight to logical and conceptual thinking. The primary task of education in the primary school years is, therefore, to educate and nourish the imaging powers of the child, and to lead him or her into the development of strong, flexible and insightful conceptual capacities, which only developed imagination makes possible."
Students in Kindergarten intuitively know or perceive the thoughts and feelings of the people around them and often know at the same time as me, what the outcome of a story will be.
Children left in freedom to choose their own games find inspiration without toys. New ideas bubble out of them like a waterfall and they ride on the waves they create. We should not try to constrict them with too much focus time.In Steiner education, in the younger years especially, the whole class works in real togetherness. Everyone has a sense of belonging and finds their own and each other's strength. With the ongoing care of the teacher, each child is allowed the freedom to develop at their own pace without the pressure of tests or competition. This helps to establish a strong and positive sense of community, as one child will help another with a difficult task, that they are good at and vice versa in the next lesson. Along the way, experiencing the greatly varied curriculum, catering for the development of thinking, feeling and willing, the children become self confident ,they feel trust and have a sense of belonging, they are extended in all so called intelligences slowly finding their own path. In high school with the inspiration of their teachers and peers, they will work in different groups at times, sharing their growing strength, confidence, their good will, enthusiasm, creativity and empathy in an open, balanced, intuitive, responsible and many- faceted way.
Following are some of the many varied ways I can see the 7 intelligences addressed in Steiner Education:
Linguistic intelligence:
Story listening, story telling, poetry speaking, news, discussions, presentations, communication, free play ,creative writing, drama, performances, role play, class trips.
Logical mathematical:
In the early years play helps the discovery of gravity, friction etc. Technics, science, maths, computers, projects, gardening, animal care, being asked questions rather than being given answers, encouragement to find more than one solution to a problem.
Musical intelligence:
Singing, instrument playing, listening to music, learning songs about lessons, learning maths through rhythms. Everything is interconnected,see Roy Wilkinson Man and the Universe.
Bodily kinesthetic intelligence:
Creative play, building cubbies, castles, or cities, climbing trees, jumping on the trampoline, body geometry creates maths intelligence, Eurythmy, plays ,sports, dance, bush walking, camping, abseiling, caving, scuba diving, surfing, canoeing, skiing, snorkeling, swimming, ice skating, as well as all the daily hands on will activities eg. knitting and crocheting help math apprehension.
Spatial intelligence:
They get to know their own body through inside and outside creative play, Eurythmy, being together, measuring themselves, their room, school, geometric patterns, form drawing, maths, bush walking, nature experiences, ocean, bush, cave, desert, canyon and computer work.
Interpersonal intelligence:
Creative free play aids the development of problem solving, sharing, pretending, being able to be the leader or a follower, intuitively understand others, working in a group, helping each other, friendships, good interactive relationship with teachers.
Intrapersonal intelligence;
Stories, good role models in the teachers, cycles in lessons, peace to reflect, trust in the cohesive group, art.
Critical thoughts on Gardner's Theory:
Other people, such as the philosophers Alfred North Whitehead and John Macmurray, have recognized the centrality of the imaging, feeling life of the primary school child, and have urged that an artistic sensitivity and approach characterize all teaching during these years. Even John Dewey, in one of his more recent books, Art as Experience, and in some later essays ,speaks of art as the primary model for all knowing, and of the importance of conceiving of education as an art. In these writings Dewey saw how essential an artistic education is to all thinking. Dewey wrote: "... the production of a work of genuine art probably demands more intelligence than does most of the so-called thinking that goes on among those who pride themselves on being intellectuals". But Dewey never developed the educational implications of his own recognition of the centrality of the artistic-imaginative experience, and American education although it has been enamored with Dewey's other, narrower stress on problem-solving skills has totally ignored his later emphasis on artistic imagination and education as an art. Only now are there signs, as in the work of Elliot Eisner, that some educators are beginning to recognize how essential an artistic, imaginative approach in education is.

Distributed Learning Environment

Vygotsky compared

Vygotsky compared to Piaget sees learning continue in the human being. Instead of a biological explanation of knowledge [Piaget], Vygotsky saw the soul content in the acquisition of knowledge. He was later supported by Bandura in professing that children benefit most of all from imitating , which forms a secure guide for actions. Lave saw the learner "involved in a community of practice", in which learning requires social interaction and collaboration, enabling the beginner to slowly become more active and engaged and grow to be an expert and move from the periphery to the center of the learning community. For Vygotsky as for Rudolf Steiner thinking was born out of speaking.
Free play, where the imitated culture could be played out, was the perfect source of development. Play in Steiner's pedagogy has even more far- reaching benefits, as it builds in the child the foundations for the ability to form true judgments in the young adult. In play the child will extend itself to a higher level by learning autonomy within a sensitive , sharing, ever- changing, concentrated, yet free interaction, fostering the imagination.
Vygotsky saw the child learning the culture through interaction [internalisation].He believed that voluntary attention, logical memory and the formation of concepts fifst appeared between people [interpsychological], then on the individual level [intrapsychological]. He stressed the importance of guided discovery with scaffolded learning through the Zone of Proximal Development. He viewed the teacher as critical for effective learning, whereas Piaget saw as teacher's involvement as inhibiting learning.Bruner extended Vygotsky's view and saw 4 major aspects of instructional scaffolding and professed the curriculum should be organised in a spiral manner. Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences aims at bringing differing means of teaching into our schools to cater for all students. This theory validates educators' everyday experience: students think and learn in many different ways. It also provides educators with a conceptual framework for organizing and reflecting on curriculum assessment and pedagogical practices. In turn, this reflection has led many educators to develop new approaches that might better meet the needs of the range of learners in their classrooms.
It is a fact that in Steiner schools all the above theories are combined and enriched by a spiritual understanding of the growing child. Albeit the education fosters the development of a free individual and does not implement Bruner's idea of pacing rewards and punishments.

robynreflections

• Piaget's "Constructivist Learning Theory" acknowledges 4 different stages of child development.Stages of Cognitive Development:
  Sensorimotor stage (Infancy). In this period (which has 6 stages), intelligence is demonstrated through motor activity without the use of symbols. Knowledge of the world is limited (but developing) because its based on physical interactions / experiences. Children acquire object permanence at about 7 months of age (memory). Physical development (mobility) allows the child to begin developing new intellectual abilities. Some symbollic (language) abilities are developed at the end of this stage.
  Pre-operational stage (Toddler and Early Childhood). In this period (which has two substages), intelligence is demonstrated through the use of symbols, language use matures, and memory and imagination are developed, but thinking is done in a nonlogical, nonreversable manner. Egocentric thinking predominates
  Concrete operational stage (Elementary and early adolescence). In this stage (characterized by 7 types of conservation: number, length, liquid, mass, weight, area, volume), intelligence is demonstarted through logical and systematic manipulation of symbols related to concrete objects. Operational thinking develops (mental actions that are reversible). Egocentric thought diminishes.
  Formal operational stage (Adolescence and adulthood). In this stage, intelligence is demonstrated through the logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts. Early in the period there is a return to egocentric thought. Only 35% of high school graduates in industrialized countries obtain formal operations; many people do not think formally during adulthood.
  Many pre-school and primary programs are modeled on Piaget's theory, which, as stated previously, provides part of the foundation for constructivist learning. Discovery learning and supporting the developing interests of the child are two primary instructional techniques. It is recommended that parents and teachers challenge the child's abilities, but NOT present material or information that is too far beyond the child's level. It is also recommended that teachers use a wide variety of concrete experiences to help the child learn (e.g., use of manipulatives, working in groups to get experience seeing from another's perspective, field trips, etc).
  Piaget's research methods were based primarily on case studies [they were descriptive]. While some of his ideas have been supported through more correlational and experimental methodologies, others have not. For example, Piaget believed that biological development drives the movement from one cognitive stage to the next. Data from cross-sectional studies of children in a variety of western cultures seem to support this assertion for the stages of sensorimotor, preoperational, and concrete operations.
  It is very interesting to read that the Piaget Society had speakers only days ago argueing the benefits of including art and imagination into learning.This year’s meeting, Art and Human Development, will explore themes of creativity, invention, and the world of the imagination. Contributors to the invited program will challenge realist epistemologies that view the products and processes of imagination as exotic departures from development’s more serious course of adaptation and acquisition of “objective” knowledge. Instead, they will advance the argument that understanding human development may be furthered through an analysis of creative activities such as stories, paintings, music and myths. In addition, they will suggest that interpretive perspectives common to the disciplines of history, art, and literary criticism, can provide appropriate source-models for the developmental sciences.
• Rudolf Steiner thought that schools should cater to the needs of children rather than the demands of the government or economic forces, so he developed schools that encourage creativity and free-thinking. Electronic media are believed by Waldorf teachers to seriously hamper the development of the child's imagination - a faculty which is believed to be central to the healthy development of the individual. Computer use by young children is also discouraged. Waldorf teachers are dedicated to creating a genuine love of learning within each child. By freely using arts and activities in the service of teaching academics, an internal motivation to learn is developed in the students, doing away with the need for competitive testing and grading.