TEACHING

STRATEGIES

FOR

PHYSICAL

EDUCATION

Why Different Strategies

for Different Curriculum

Areas?

“Strategies are primarily concerned with how

subject matter is presented.” Learning teaching

strategies for different curriculum areas is a key

component to a developing teachers education.

Teaching strategies play a key role in educating

students, without strategies or a range of

strategies, students are left to educate

themselves. A good definition of a strategy in a

physical

education sense can be taken from Dowell (1975)

where a teaching strategy is an “overall design or

procedure a teacher uses to transmit subject matter

to students, it may include one or more techniques

and methods of teaching process.”

Teaching strategies is a very broad topic, to teach

anything there has to be a strategy. Physical

education is a unique subject because of its physical

component, this uniqueness has a profound effect

on teaching strategies used.

HOW STUDENTS LEARN

MOTOR SKILLS, AN

ESSENTIAL PART OF

PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

Motor skills are skills associated with actions

the body performs, for example writing is a

motor skill. Physical education focuses on motor

skills that are based around sports, leisure and

physical education curriculum because all

practical is based on fine and gross motor skills.

1. THE MOTOR PROGRAM THEORY

This theory believes there is a stored

program for each activity, it is the role of the

teacher to manipulate the program to bring

results.

2. THE MOTOR SHEMAS THEORY

This theory believes there are stored

program for skills but they are not specific

and the teacher has to build upon the initial

foundation to improve the skill.

3. THE DEVELOPMENT MODEL THEORY

This model or theory believes motor learning

and physical education are developmental

and sequential. It is the child that teaches

themselves motor skills it is the teachers role

to refine and improve skills at a faster rate.

4. THE DYNAMIC SYSTEMS MODEL

This model or theory believes motor learning

and physical education are developmental

and sequential. It is the child that teaches

themselves motor skills it is the teachers role

to refine and improve skills at a faster rate.

5. THE DYNAMIC SYSTEMS MODEL

This model incorporates the motor program

and motor shemas theories. The theory

believes movement patterns are inborn and

it is the role of the teacher to massage the

skills out of the child.

TEACHING STRATEGIES

ASSOCIATED WITH

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

THE LECTURE STRATEGY

This strategy is mainly used when teaching

the theory of physical education. The lecture

strategy is useful when introducing a new

unit of work, it can introduce the rules and

cover basic skill and techniques.

THE DISCUSSION STRATEGY

The discussion strategy should be used as an

immediate follow up to the lecture. Students

are given the chance to ask questions and

put forward their ideas related to the topic.

To do this the strategy is most useful in small

groups so each student gets a chance to

voice their opinions.

THE LECTURE-DEMONSTRATION STRATEGY

Another strategy that is closely related to the

lecture strategy is the lecture-demonstration

strategy. This strategy uses all the

techniques of the lecture strategy and

incorporates a physical demonstration. The

demonstration can be taken by a teacher,

student or a group of students. The

important issue with choosing

students to take demonstrations is that they

are doing

the activity correctly and providing a good

example for other students to base their

learning on.

THE PRACTICE STRATEGY

A strategy that is commonly used in physical

education is the practice strategy. This

strategy utilizes the useful tool of feedback

to improve development in students

learning. The practice strategy is where

students get to physically do the skill put to

them in the lecture or theory.

THE INQUIRY STRATEGY

This strategy gives students the chance to

become involved in the teaching of the

learning process. It tries to promote

reflective thinking and self refinement.

THE PROGRESSIVE-PART STRATEGY

The progressive-part strategy is a strategy that

is used with mainly younger students.

THE PART- WHOLE STRATEGY

This is similar to the progressive-part except

there isn’t as major emphasis on each stage

and two or more stages can be combined to

one stage.

THE WHOLE- PART- WHOLE STRATEGY

The whole-part-whole strategy is a strategy

that is greatly used by teachers of physical

education. As the name of the strategy implies,

students do a skill as a whole, they then learn

the basic in parts and then do skill as a whole

again.

PUTTING

STRATEGIES INTO

PRACTICE

THE PART-WHOLE STRATEGY

Part 1 – the grip: teach students how to grip the ball.

Part 2 – the arm movement: the arm is

brought behind the back so the

hand is behind the head, the

arm then moves forwards and is

extended out in front of the body.

Part 3 – the release: the ball is released as the

arm and wrist are fully extended.

Part 4 – weight transference: the weight is

shifted from the back leg to

the front leg,

simultaneously with the arm.

Part 5 – leg movement: as the weight is

transferred to the back leg to the

front leg, simultaneously with the

arm.

Part 6 – doing the skill as a whole.

THE WHOLE- PART- WHOLE STRATEGY

Organize an activity where students can

throw at a target. This is the only instruction

that should be given. The teacher observes

the students from this decides what part of

the skill they will begin their instruction.

The teacher then follows the part-whole

strategy. Depending on the classes previous

experience of

throwing and their ability the teacher will

instruct from a part that matches their

ability with one of the parts described in

the part –whole strategy above.

Once the students have attempted the

skill and been through the skill in

parts they do the skill as a whole again,

this time with the benefit of feedback and

refinement in the part strategy.