SKILL-BASED PHYSICAL EDUCATION

PSIII PIP PROJECT

PARKER ALLEN
INQUIRY QUESTION

“How does skill-development focused teaching

impact student con dence and competence in
Grade 6/7 Physical Education?”
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RATIONALE

I believe this question is relevant because physical literacy and skill development is crucial for
student success in sport, recreation, and tness pursuits.

Using con dence and competence as metrics allows us to gauge student-perceived success as
well as instructor-perceived success.
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INITIAL RESEARCH EXPLORATION
Educating the Student Body1

“Because it is guaranteed to reach virtually all children, physical education is the only sure opportunity
for nearly all school-age children to access health-enhancing physical activities such as sport.”

Carleton University Study2

“Two-thirds of Canadian children aged 8-12 have not achieved adequate levels of physical literacy.”

Relationship Between Student Competence and Teacher Support3

This study found evidence that PE teachers have a tend of giving preference of support to more
competent (ie. already skilled) students.
STRATEGIES

• Whiteboard diagrams

The most important component to this • Powerpoint Presentations

project will be maintaining a focus on
developing student skills during each of • Sport-skill-speci c drills
my units. Strategies involved may include,
but are not limited to: • Peer teaching

• Self Evaluation
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FINAL PRODUCT

It is my hope that the nal product of this inquiry is that my PE classes nish their semester
demonstrating increased competence and con dence compared to other classes, or the
average PE class of their age.

This should be evident when watching their skill progression as a group from the beginning to
the end of a unit. It should also be evident in self-reporting that they enjoy PE class more and
are more con dent in PE-related endeavours outside of school.
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INQUIRY PROCESS

Method (How I chose to inquire)

Findings (Evidence of bene t from inquiry)

Results (How this inquiry process has impacted my teaching)

Final Discussion
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 METHOD

Prioritizing skill development & fostering game sense during unit introductions

• I always started new units on Monday during my internship, and my students know that
Mondays will usually involve more instruction time. Instead of just explaining the game rules
and starting the activity ASAP, I try to also provide tips for success during the activity and also
explain why those tips lead to successful outcomes.

• When starting my Floor Hockey unit, I began with 2 days of Pillow Polo. I demonstrated to
the students that because it is much harder to be accurate with pillow polo bats, it is a
great chance for us to improve good spacing and movement. By starting the unit with 2 days
of this slower activity, I gave my low-skill students a chance to prepare for the faster game
of oor hockey.
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METHOD

Prioritizing opportunities for students to take risks

• When playing team games (ie. soccer, hockey, handball) I will most often let the students
choose between a competitive and semi-competitive game, but will sometimes split the
games by identi ed-gender. I rarely combine my students into one game because the high-
skill students will inevitably end up getting the majority of touches and the low-skill
students don’t get as much chance to participate. When I split the games by
competitiveness, the high-skill students are able to create more challenge for one another.
This also creates a much safer environment for the low-skill students, where they are
much more likely to apply themselves and take risks (such as calling for a pass or trying
to score).
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 METHOD

Prioritizing mindful communication

• I knew going into this internship that my relationship skills are one of my strengths, and I
should attempt to utilize them to improve con dence and competence in my students. I
would often focus more on the “semi-competitive” game instead of the “competitive”
game during the beginning of class, so that I could actively narrate the game and help
guide students towards successful outcomes. This also gave me the opportunity to point
out successes or improvements for any students, and I believe these conversations greatly
in uenced con dence development.
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FINDINGS
Recognizing Improvement

• One of my ndings during this project was that people don’t enjoy being bad at things - which causes us to
stray away from new activities and stick to what is “safe”. I noticed this a lot during our pickleball unit,
which we started after badminton was nished. We did badminton for 3 weeks, which included lots of time
for skill development, but only scheduled one week for pickleball due to equipment constraints - which
means the average student did not reach the same skill level in pickleball that they did during badminton.
After the pickleball unit I gave my students an exit slip to gauge how they felt about the unit, and was
unsurprised to see that the students largely preferred badminton over pickleball. However I was slightly
surprised that the most popular reason for preferring badminton was “I’m better at it” or a similar
sentiment. Even though almost all students noted that they felt like they improved at pickleball throughout
the week, their skill-gap between badminton and pickleball got in the way of them enjoying pickleball. I
noted this to the class during the following Monday and it started some great conversations about valuing
improvement over ability.
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FINDINGS

Modi ed games create great opportunities for C+C development

• My favorite favorite unit from this semester was undoubtably the week we spent on
scooter-board handball. This was a game I learned about from another Phys Ed teacher at
SJF, and I wanted to try it with my class because of how well it promotes passing and
spacing. The students being on scooter boards takes away the speed advantage from the
more athletic students, and creates a slower-paced game within a smaller court which
bene ts the low-skill students. During this unit I even had a few students try playing in the
competitive group for the rst time and they were really proud of themselves, which is
exactly what I want to promote.
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RESULTS

Promoting a growth-mindset (in all capacities) to my students

• If I could re-do my pickleball unit today, I would have taken time on the rst day to
preemptively discuss the experience of learning a new sport versus playing a sport we are
familiar with. While I may have never consciously discussed the “growth mindset” with my
classes, I would de nitely like to start discussing it with my future classes. When
interacting with certain students who struggled to raise their con dence or competence
during an activity, the most common complaint was that they “aren’t any good” at the
activity. When I am creating classroom cultures in the future, I want to establish a growth
mindset as one of the foundational values.
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RESULTS

Being mindful of my speech

• Being mindful of my own speech was something I worked on a lot when I was at SJF last
year during my PSII. I often talk a bit fast, use too much slang, or don’t pronounciate my
syllables enough. While this has continued to improve, during this internship I have started
being more mindful of my phrasing as well. Whenever possible, I always try to reframe
failures or disappointments in class as opportunities to learn and improve. One of my
favorite phrases to encourage a growth mindset is “so what’s next?” This phrase
immediately shifts the attention from the present moment to a future moment, which
presents the opportunity for success. I have found a lot of value within “what’s next” and
similar language, and I have found that my Grade 6/7 students are quick to reset and try
again once they get their mind off whatever disappointed them.
 RESULTS

Find what every student does well and promote their positive example

• One outcome that I was not expecting from this inquiry was the way I have started using all my
students for modelling. During my PSII I used peer modelling a lot for technical purposes; pairing a
high-skill and low-skill student together for an activity, or using a high-skill student to do an activity
demonstration. But throughout this internship I have started frequently relying on my low-skill
students for social modelling. The most common issues I have with my “competitive" group are too
much physical contact, a lack of communication, and unsportsmanlike behaviour. I realized within the
rst month of my internship that my students who typically play in the “semi-competitive/
recreational” group are fantastic models regarding these behaviours. They are polite to one another,
value their relationships over competition, and their #1 priority during any game is having fun. Using
these students as role models regarding social behaviour has not only improved their con dence
during class, but has signi cantly improved their engagement during those activities.
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FINAL DISCUSSION

I chose to focus my PIP project on skill-development focused teaching because I believed it

would improve the quality of learning in my Phys Ed lessons while simultaneously improving
my students’ outlook on Phys Ed. I believe that both of these outcomes were achieved, and my
teaching has bene tted greatly.

As a new educator I hope to continue exploring the bene ts of skill-development focused

teaching, and plan to incorporate growth-mindset language into my unit and lesson planning
much more intentionally.

I want to thank my Teaching Mentor, Peter Rajcic, and the rest of the Phys Ed team at Senator
Joyce Fairbairn for being amazing role models and helping me throughout this inquiry project.
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RESOURCES

1Educating the Student Body (Book)

2Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy (Study)

3TheRole of Perceived Competence in Determining Teacher Support in Upper Secondary

School Physical Education (Study)