Spectrum of styles

Based on who makes decisions Pre-impact: who makes decisions about the content

preparation Impact: who makes decisions about the execution of the

content? Post-Impact: who makes decisions about the content

evaluation after the lesson?

Style of teaching

A continuum from teacher-centered to student centered

Different styles allow a shift in decisions from teacher to student

Command>>>>>>>>> Self-teaching All teacher on left, all student on right

Command

Teacher makes all pre-impact, impact, and post impact decisions Students are expected to comply with directions and do

activity as desired by teacher Demonstration is most efficient way to let students know what

is expected

Pros: efficient, teacher can control the rate of information Cons: not sensitive to individual differences, no student

creativity, students who deviate are considered off task

Practice

Teacher makes all pre-impact, including task sheet Teacher allows students to make some impact Teacher makes all post-impact Decisions allowed:

Where they will do tasks Order of doing tasks Speed of doing tasks Starting and stopping time of each task

Practice pros/cons

Task sheets list all items to be practiced and the quantity of practice Could be individualized Could be small group

Pros: efficient use of equipment, more participation, works regardless of class size, students aren’t visible, frees teacher to give feedback

Cons: students can hide, more planning time, appears chaotic as students are making decisions and may not all be at same place

Reciprocal

Evaluation shifts to peer Teaching is limited to correction of errors You as teacher give feedback only to peer teacher

(unless safety is a concern)_

Pros: one to one student teacher ratio, immediate feedback, peer teacher does some cognitive work

Cons: partners may be over-critical, incorrect performance may be reinforced

Self-check

Teacher makes all pre-impact decisions Student makes some impact and some post impact Teacher’s role: delineate performance cues so the

students can assess themselves accurately, cues should focus on criteria external to the body Students must be led to the point where they can do this

style Teacher must have good subject matter knowledge to

break the skills down for students to self-assess

Self-check pros/cons

Pros: students develop responsibility for own skill achievement, Students learn to self-motivate and self-assess

Cons: takes a lot of planning time to break skills down, teacher must ‘teach’ responsibility before using this style

Inclusion

Multiple levels of performance options are presented to students Students select their own level of difficulty based on their

perception of their ability Students receive feedback on their decision-making choice

rather than their skill performance

Designed to allow students the opportunity to choose activities for success

Increments should be easy enough for low skilled students and high enough for high skilled students

Inclusion pros/cons

Pros: more individualization, student choices, no one stands out as ‘bad/good’, helps develop success

Cons: time consuming to plan the gradual increments, subject matter knowledge must be good

Guided Discovery

Convergence of general ideas to a specific solution to a problem Learner discovers the answers

Teacher does pre-impact, but may modify questions based on student responses during impact, post impact may be made by students as answers to questions are interwoven with the impact Teacher gives reinforcement on responses with the next

question

Guided Discovery pros/cons

Students have to think more, line of questions may make learning more relevant because of the in-depth discovery> learned better, student feeling of accomplishment

Cons: time consuming, must have good subject matter knowledge, large groups may have trouble staying on task

Divergent

Opposite of guided discovery: go from specific to general movement response with many answers

Students explore their own creativity, after exploration of how the body can and should move, specific skills are more readily acquired

Pros: promotes creativity, problem-solving, higher order thinking

Cons: not appropriate if you have a specific result in mind, no uniformity, students may not be able to handle exploration

Learner initiated

Students desire to utilize knowledge in a discovery process of his/her own idea

Student does research, develops presentation with teacher acting only as facilitator

Pros: critical thinking skills used by student, freedom experienced by student

Cons: what do other students do? No set schedule of teaching or regular curriculum May be more used for advanced placement or ‘senior’ level

elective class

Closing thoughts

No one style is better; consider what your goals are and ability of students to make decisions

If style doesn’t work the first time, rethink the process before you say the style stinks

Mix and combine different styles, even within a lesson Give yourself a repertoire that shows you are a

professional