MODULE 1 Physical Education and its educative value

1) What’s the difference between weak and strong meaning of practical knowledge?

When it comes to practical knowledge, we distinguish between weak and strong meaning.
The key to understand the difference is in the ability to create a mental image of what is
done.

The weak meaning is the one that defines that someone cannot explain how he makes it, but
he could exemplify it, repeating it many times and even being successful.
It can seem as if the weak meaning were casual or fortuitous knowledge. It is not, but
intentional (according to the level of the person who does the action).
There isn’t a mental reconstruction of action done but there is an intention to do it.

The strong meaning is the one that defines that the person who does the action is able to
explain what and how he does it, apart from having more or less success. In this case, there
is a clear mental construction of how the action is done.The strong meaning is more about
complexity and intelligent decision making.

An example to explain this difference could be when a child is swimming while playing. He
will swim as an instinctive reaction without thinking if he/she is doing it properly or if he/she is
doing it as it is supposed, but it works as he can play without drowning. On the other hand,
the strong meaning would be when he/she is conscient of the movements he/she is doing
and he/she takes them to the practice to improve his/her technique.

2) “Physical education is part of every child’s entitlement to a good education’’

(Wilshaw, 2013). How does this statement reflect the value of physical education?

I consider that among all the capacities the children have, the physical one is important. And
also, as a human capacity it deserves to be educated in order to get the best from it. That is
the idea Wilshaw expresses.

Then, Physical education gets value because it allows children to express themselves, be
creative, solve problems, etc. Movement stimulates the child and makes him/her stronger so
that the CNS (Central Nervous System) progressively matures. Movement contributes to skill
acquisition through repeated practice of an activity. Although at first the child does not know
what he or she is doing, he or she is learning to do a certain activity. Physical games and
their rules help the child’s socialization and the abstraction of movement.

Moreover, PE helps to improve useful actions for life. It contributes to the consolidation of
habits in an unconscious way (weak learning), so, being aware of the importance of these
habits (as the healthy habit), the child will be able to improve their quality of life (strong
meaning).
MODULE 2 History of Physical Education

1) Which game or sport do you know from the past? Describe it and state some of the
characteristics and important aspects of the period it belongs to.

In this module I saw the physical education history in Germany, in the Nordic countries and
in England. But I’m going to talk about another topic.

The sport I know from the past comes from Ancient Rome. It is about the chariot races. a
popular form of contest between small, two-wheeled vehicles drawn by two-, four-, or six-
horse teams. They were the main events of the Roman public games that took place at the
Circus Maximus. Such races were also a prominent feature of the ancient Olympic Games.
From four to six chariots competed in a single race, normally consisting of seven laps around
the circus. The racing chariots were light, fragile affairs, easily smashed in a collision, in
which case the driver was often entangled in the long reins and dragged to death or
seriously injured.

Rome was one of the biggest empires that have ever existed. It was well-known as powerful
and successful because they won a lot of battles due to their strength and endurance. Their
army was composed of citizens from 17 to 60 years old. They trained sportsmen who loved
playing sports like battles or races to improve their skills.

2) Which are the three main differences between collaborative and cooperative work?

These are the main three differences between collaborative and cooperative work:
1) Collaborative work is thought to be used sooner in the education level, for younger
learners (Primary and Secondary schools), whereas cooperative work is used in
Universities for older children.
2) In collaborative approach leadership and responsibilities are shared among students
and teachers, whilst in cooperative approach, leadership is more focused on the
teacher and the responsibility is divided.
3) Cooperative approach is more focused on the result, is goal-oriented whereas in
collaborative approach the process has more value than the result.

MODULE 3 Curriculum of Physical Education in PE

1) Analyse the image, relate it with a curricular theory and provide

arguments that support this matching.

In the image, two types of scenes are shown. In the first one, we can
see how, although they have the same resources (equality), the three
children do not have the same possibilities to see the game that is being played since each
of these has different characteristics to the rest. In the second scene, we see how the
resources they had have been distributed and adjusted to the characteristics of each child
(equity), therefore everyone has a vision of the game without any difficulty.
So, I believe that the picture shows the fact that we must find balance with everyone
(teacher, students, but also students with disabilities or that simply e.g. need more time).
Maybe sometimes we can see that the teacher doesn’t help the students that might need
some extra care. As shown in the left picture, the teacher actually wanted to help all of them,
but it wasn’t appropriate for their “level”. Teacher has to be flexible because each student
might need a different approach.

This relates to the critical curricular theory as we can see how the teacher has become a
transforming agent of the system. One can see how he or she has made the necessary
adaptations to make the kid with special necessities feel included in the task their
companions were performing. This then reflects how his or her task is aimed at social
change, to facilitate autonomy of those with these necessities inside the educative process.

2) What do you think the hidden curriculum is? Why do you consider this is an
important didactic content?

I think that a hidden curriculum is everything that is not defined in the curriculum itself. It
might mean transmitting cultural views and academic and social messages to others. It is
called hidden because it is not usually acknowledged by both teachers and students.
And precisely that’s the reason why I think it is an important didactic content. Because it
goes beyond the curriculum that is taught to us. We can use the best methodology but it
might still not be enough for the students. We might need to use something else.

MODULE 4&5 Didactics & teaching program of Physical Education in

Primary School

1) What is the difference between teaching styles and methodologies?

On the one hand, methodologies are a set of methods that have been designed by
pedagogs or philosophers after doing a research, it is a designed teaching and learning
process, in other words, the path you need to follow to achieve learning.
On the other hand, teaching styles are not methodologies, they refer to the relationship that
students and teachers maintain during the teaching-learning process.

The methodologies are more defined, they don’t really vary compared to teaching styles.
Also, the teaching styles are more subjective, they depend on the teacher, while the
methodologies depend more on the contents that are going to be taught.

2) What’s the meaning of “pedagogical model” and “teaching style”? Can you put an
example of each one?

As it has been stated in the previous question, teaching style refers to the relationship that
students and teachers maintain during the teaching-learning process. It is basically the way
teachers decide to communicate with their students when explaining or teaching contents.
Some examples are the following ones: direct command, guided discovery and self-learning.
On the other hand, pedagogical models are related with the actions or steps carried out by
the teacher in order to challenge students and improve the student’s learning outcomes.
These steps are based on theories that have been already tested and can be adaptive for
each school and class. Some examples of pedagogical models could be the attitudinal style
or the ludotechnical model.