4423 personal philosophies_2012

Education

Philosophy of Physical Education and your Personal Philosophy of Teaching Physical Education

4423 Physical Education

A Personal Philosophy1

A personal philosophy allows you to clearly articulate your practice as a teacher in the future.

Many teachers do not believe that this is really important

Kretchmar (1994) suggest 2 ways to develop this:– write a comprehensive philosophy of the profession– Developing a philosophical position for YOUR purpose

1 Green, K. (2002) Physical Education Teachers in their Figurations: A Sociological Analysis of Everyday ‘Philosophies' in Physical Education, Sport, Education and Society, 7 (1), 65-83.

A Personal Philosophy cont …

Personal philosophies should be individualised, grounded in reality and based on personal objectives founded on experiences

Used to guide action while maintaining the required flexibility to be contextual

Your practice (as a PE teacher) is intrinsically worthwhile, as such you live your own sessions vicariously and emotionally

Trent’s personal philosophy of teaching PE Physical education is an important and wonderful subject. I want

prospective physical education teachers to be passionate and enthusiastic about the educative value and richness that it possesses.

Challenge assumptions, assertions and thoughts on prospective physical education teachers understandings and meanings of physical education

I am a learner; I want prospective physical education teachers to consider themselves as learners always. I do not think that I will ever stop learning.

As a physical education teacher educator I want to be able to develop prospective physical education teachers who enable and facilitate ‘meaningful lived experiences’ through movement with their students.

Trent’s personal philosophy of teaching PE I want to support prospective PE teachers develop their ‘own’ ways of

teaching; I do not want them to teach like me.– Methods classes will present opportunities to openly discuss

issues (classroom management, planning etc) where solutions are generated by YOU, with support from my own practice/research/teaching.

Be open and sensitive to the ways that individuals learn. Demonstrate, ‘model’ approaches and behaviours that will lead

prospective physical education teachers to engage successfully with the profession

Present knowledge that is holistic; overlay experience and examples and then support prospective physical education teachers make decisions

Let’s pause for a minute and reflect Our discussion up until this point has focussed very much on the

personal (or at least I hope!)

Additionally I am hoping that it has related to concepts such as lived experience, doing (prac; the teaching), identity, teaching, learning, etc.

In our reflections though, we have drawn on the personal-social-cultural-political-historical-ecological to answer these questions. We need to keep these thoughts with us as we move throughout the study of this unit.

Time for some philosophy

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)Cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am)Cartesian dualist

John Dewey (1859-1952)Educational reformerPragmatism (praxis; theory and practice are not separate

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)Existentialism (individual is solely responsible for giving his or her own life meaning; emotions and feeling)Importance of the selfSubjectivity is important here.

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)Question of Being

Edmund Husserl (1859-1938)experience is the source of all knowledgephenomenology

Education and physical education

Before we endeavour to know what is physical education we need to philosophise about what is education?

– What is it to be a person?– How can what is being suggested help the person to

actualise himself along lines that are in keeping with a good life?

So before you can develop curricula, your pedagogy and engage students perhaps it is wise to ask yourself:

– What do I want physical education to be? Why do I think this? Is it in keeping with all that I have learnt over the past 3 years?

Trent’s ‘philosophising’ on the profession That physical education, and physical educators have not succinctly justified

physical education’s inclusion within the curriculum

– Perhaps thinking about embodiment, ‘physical literacy’, meaning-making

That the overt focus on scientificism within physical education is a dominant discourse and possibly leads to individuals being miseducated or not deriving meaning from participation in physical education – creates dualist thinking, body as machine; physical education-as-sport-techniques

– we need to move towards holism

Also need to find common ground between the so-called biophysical and socio-cultural elements of physical education; more explicit teaching of these

Sports role within physical education needs some important theoretical and pragmatic philosophising – relates to the culture of youth in today’s society

Trent’s ‘philosophising’ on the profession We need to know our ‘history’ so that when we go into the future (Penney and

Chandler, 2000; Kirk, 2010) we don’t make the same mistakes

Practical activity versus theoretical knowledge (note debates about VCE PE) and pedagogical differences between 7-10 and 11-12)

That the dominant paradigm model (multi-activity curriculum) does not and has not EVER worked

Physical education-as-profession OR physical education-as-discipline?

– Sport & Outdoor Recreation

– Other programs Hoffman’s (1987) & Tinning’s (1992) ‘future’ for physical education – from Kirk

(2010)

Towards a justification of movement in education

For full development of human beings ‘requires education in a variety of realms of meaning rather than in a single rationality’

Holism rather than a collection of parts, eg mind/body dualisms

Meaning– Experience– Rule, logic, principle– Selective elaboration– Expression

Arnold, P. (1979) Meaning in Movement, Sport and Physical Education, Heinemann; London, UK.

Introducing the 3 dimensions of the concept of movement

Historically physical activity in the curriculum has been called:

– Drill, training, physical education, human movement, sports science, kinesiology.

– These mean different things to different people.– Often there is confusion about the types of movement from the

community and from within the profession.

Arnoldian dimensions of movement We can conceptualise movement in some different

ways:– About

• We can learn what movement does; – eg “muscles exercise gain in size”

– Through• As a means to an end;

– Eg by exercising we get healthy; increase productivity– In

• Engage in movement for its own sake as part of being human; it is not an objective viewpoint; movement has inherent value and is worthwhile in itself.

These are overlapping and interdependent

Arnold, P. (1979) Meaning in Movement, Sport and Physical Education, Heinemann; London, UK.

Education about movement Rational form of enquiry Draw on the areas of anatomy, physiology, history,

sociology, anthropology, psychology plus others Sport, dance, movement, physical activity should be seen in

the same light as music, poetry and painting because they are likely to provide rich sources of meaning and expression.

Rational movement knowledge → objective; analytical

Education through movement

This term is most currently linked to physical education as it is practised today in schools.

Concerned with the extrinsic or functional values

– Spin offs, by products, outcomes Outcomes suggested:

– Cognitive development, aesthetic education, moral education, social relationships, fitness, physical activity for leisure/life

Education in movement That movement activities, especially when looked at from

the ‘inside’ or participatory view of the moving agent, are in and of themselves worthwhile.

Educationally they are valuable as it allows the agent to learn a great deal about themselves and in the world where they live.

To be in an educative situation is to be caught up in the qualitative process of becoming.

Neither education ‘about’ or ‘through’ movement is concerned with meaning.

Plausible complementarities in PE1. Person’s fitness and health will be improved

2. Range of physical skills will increase as well as knowledge and understanding about them

3. Kinaesthetic perception will be extended and refined, enriching his consciousness

4. Become more aesthetically aware and more sensitised towards their own movements

5. Appreciate the range, intricacy and subtlety of non-verbal interpersonal perception and communication

6. Because of need for choice will become more aware of their identity

7. Engaging in actional projects will experience herself as a total, holistic, acting-thinking-feeling-willing-being: unitary embodied consciousness

8. Touched by ‘sportsmanship’ and quality of relationships; will become more morally conscious and socially responsible

9. When a person is absorbed by what she is doing will be open to possibilities of ‘peak’/’rush’ moments, discovering what it is to be self-actualised and thereby experience new and value-laden forms of existential meaning.

Arnold, P. (1979) Meaning in Movement, Sport and Physical Education, Heinemann; London, UK.

Penney & Chandler (2000) Thematically oriented, rather than activity-based curriculum.

– Movement and physical literacy– Physical activity, health and fitness– Competition and cooperation– Challenge

Bailey, Armour, et al (2009) Four domains:

– Physical, social, affective, cognitive– it can be concluded that many of the educational benefits claimed

for PESS are highly dependent on contextual and pedagogic variables

– Is there any gleaming omission from such a review?

Tinning (2006) ‘Aliens in the Gym’

– Uniqueness of PE in the school curriculum– Do we really know what interests kids with relation to ‘physical

activity’, movement/physical culture?– Need PL to participate in movement culture– Competence as capital– Pedagogical encounter

Whitehead (2010) Physical Literacy ‘Physical Literacy’; Appreciation and understanding of embodiment

i. embodiment understood through the lens of existentialism and phenomenology is fundamental to human life;

ii. that movement and its development was being ‘lost’ in early childhood;iii. there is a drift away from physical activity as part of our lifestyles, andiv. within physical education the focus has become high level performance

and elitism at the expense of notions of participation where it is seen as valuable in and of itself.

Writing your personal philosophy Informal task to complete – what you put in is what you get out.

Email to Trent ([email protected]) as soon as possible.