The Value of Reflective Practice in Physical Education Teacher Training

Reflective practice is a method of looking back on your own experiences and looking at the positives (what work well) and the negatives (what didn’t go as well). It is an opportunity to develop sessions/skills and make yourself an overall more professional and top-level Physical Educator. Through reflection, we are able to improve the quality of our sessions as a PE teacher and subsequently this can boost our confidence in terms of teaching because when we reflect, we work on the areas of teaching that we need most work/help with. ‘Reflective practice is a process that facilitates teaching, learning and understanding, and it plays a central role in teachers’ professional development’. (Mathew et el, 2017)

Being able to critically analyse your performance is a key quality of a person who is always looking to learn and develop their teaching style and performance. It is easy to point out things that may have gone wrong or things that could’ve gone/been better but on the other hand you need to be able to show you can fix your own problem or change the order so that you get the desired result. When evaluating there are many things that need to be considered, like ‘Am I being too critical? Not critical enough?’, and to make sure your being critical enough it may be an idea to have someone evaluate your session separately and then compared the results and come to a joint conclusion of things that you may need to work on.

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There are 2 main models that I have looked at in terms of my reflection from the adapted physical education:

• Kolb Model (1975)
• Gibbs Model (1988)

These reflective models are essential for continuous professional development (CPD) and it leads them to be more efficient in their jobs and is a major boost in terms of confidence for teachers in their teaching environment. (Anderson et al, 2004), KOLB (1975)

“Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” (Kolb, 1984). Kolb and Fry is based upon 4 stages:

1. Concrete Experience – new situation/experience faced, or an old experience seen from a different point of view
2. Observation and Reflection – reflecting on the elements of importance from the experience that you observed
3. Forming abstract concepts – this is where you use the elements observed get a new idea or make altercations to the existing idea in order to get the desired result
4. Testing – trying out the new idea or the altercated idea to see if it delivers the desired result (Hickcox, L.K., 1990)

Kolb sees learning as the above 4 stage process where each stage feeds and supports the next stage and there is a certain sequence involved. ‘Effective learning only occurs when a learner can execute all four stages of the model’. (McLeod, 2017)

Although this model is proven and highly regarded, I believe that the Gibbs model is more accurate, and I think that I would benefit more from using it as any of the papers I have looked at about the Gibbs model has been based around teachers and their desire to improve. GIBBS (1988)

The Gibbs reflective cycle is a model that has 6 stages:

1. Description – breakdown of the experience (who, what, where, when, why).
2. Feelings – how you felt before, during and after and how you thought it went.
3. Evaluation - what went well and what could be improved/changed and how did you react.
4. Analysis – comparison to other experiences (self, literature etc.) and what could have helped or what could have hindered you.
5. Conclusion – what you have learnt, potential changes, how you could have stop negative results and how you can recreate, if positive.
6. Action plan – requirements for improvements, seek advice or shadowing a professional. (Dye, 2011)

Gibbs’ model encourages you to reflect is a systematic style and it is also essential that each and every step is filled with essential relevant detail and to the point. (Finlay, 2008)

Reflections on my experiences of teaching adapted physical activity

For my own analysis of the experience of coaching Adapted Physical Education, I have decided to use the Gibbs model as I feel like it is the best of the 2 models that I looked at and I feel like I would get a better evaluation using the model. It is similar to that of Kolb, but Gibbs has 6 components compared to Kolb’s 4, but Gibbs’ model seems to be more popular and after consideration and research I decided to use Gibbs’ model. As a Physical Educator it is easy to be conscious of your performance & ability and whether or not it went well or not. The Evaluation stage makes you analyse the positives while also helping concentrate on what can be worked on. Using the Gibbs model below, I have completed a thorough examination/analysis of my experience of coaching the children in the adapted PE environment. It has been a very rewarding experience and I have enjoyed every moment of the coaching.

Description

The session took place on Thursday 5th December in An Danlann in LYIT. There were 16 students from St. Bernadette’s school. We had a simple session lined out to help the children develop their motor skills as well as their co-ordination while also having fun. The warm up was an easy exercise called ‘Through the Jungle’ that was designed to help the children get their heart rate elevated and prepare them for the remainder of the session. Following that we had one more warm-up game called ‘Corners’ that consisted of a range of different movements that got the children active. Next, we split the group into two smaller groups. One group took part in different relay games, meanwhile the other group took part in a game called ‘angry birds’, which concentrated on hand-eye co-ordination and certain motor skills. After that we moved onto a dancing game called ‘Stop and Go’ and to finish off the session we played a game of ‘Duck, Duck, Goose’ as we felt it was a good way to settle the children and have them sitting in a circle at the end, so it was easier for to organise them. Games were very easily modified so when it came to making games harder/easier for certain children that were further developed compared to others. In relation to the Gibbs model it is clear to see that the above description covers the requirements of what is required in this stage.

Feelings

The Gibbs model highlights the importance that honesty is key, and it is significant to the rest of the model to be critical as each stage leads into one another, so highlighting the positives and negatives will provide better results and therefore lead to better/more improvement. Before the session I was confident enough as I feel like I am a good PE teacher but the more I thought about the session I began to become nervous as I had little experiences dealing with children with special needs and I wasn’t sure about how they would react to the games we had chosen, and I didn’t know how I’d deal with them if they were react in a negative way. Once the session began, I settled in well and felt confident to take the lead in most things and feel like I dealt very well with their reactions to our games and I contained them very well. Afterwards, once I received the feedback from the examiner, I was very happy with how things went and thought the experience with the children was very fulfilling and would have no problem doing this on a day to day basis.

Evaluation

As I mentioned above, the Evaluation stage makes you analyse the positives while also helping concentrate on what can be worked on. It is crucial that you figure what went wrong and why, while also choosing a different way to deliver that part of the session so that desired result becomes more achievable. On a couple of occasions games broke down, and creative thinking was imperative. Every child seemed to be enjoying the session and none of the children were excluded due to ability or disinterest in a game. Organisation and time management within the group was superlative as we used the whole hall and had very little down time between games.

Analysis

In this stage a teacher must make meaning from their experience. They must determine what techniques worked and what could be done to help better the negatives. Reference to literature is essential in this stage of the cycle. My performance throughout the session was staggered at the beginning but became more and more smooth as the session went on. Once I learnt how to deal with the behaviour of the children, by finding ways to keep them interested and talking to them in a clear and concise tone while also projecting my voice, I began to settle into the session and become more confident. As a result of this, I was able to build a good relationship with children and allow them to also become more settled and confidence. I thought I experienced good communication, with both my colleagues and the children. I was constantly involved whether it was in the lead role or in the background assisting. If the children had any problem with anything, it was important to get to their level and use a gentle tone while also using little complicated words/phrases. Having good communication and relationships with the children was key to keeping their discipline on a good level that worked for everyone. Lastly, I noticed that maintaining a positive and fun environment was key to the session and this was the main reason as to why the session went as well as it did.

Conclusion

According to Gibbs, this stage is where the teacher takes all their ideas together and use these insights to improve the negatives and use the research to come up with different methods in a better attempt to make a more positive impact on each session. In conclusion, I have developed a better understanding of what it takes to be successful in an adapted PE environment. I learned that parts of the session is unpredictable and will require creativity to deal with certain problems. It is all about analysing the session as it happens and dealing with issues as soon as possible. Using all equipment that may be available is a key part of making the session unique and enjoyable. Week on week there were different games, and this is one of the main reasons that all 4 weeks of coaching APA sessions were such a success.

Action Plan

The teacher, in this stage, takes time to evaluate the previous stages. Once evaluated, it is important to create a detailed session incorporating all the new ideas discovered and created, which will be the description in the next evaluation. You need to decide on what to use again, what will need to be developed/progressed and what will need to be removed. In any future teaching of children with special needs, I will recall on this experience to help that future session succeed. I have decided that I will volunteer for special needs sports while also shadowing the experienced and professional teachers/coaches and taking ideas from their sessions and adapting them into my own. It may also be an idea to get info ahead of the session off parents/teachers etc.

References

1. Mathew, P., Mathew, P. and Peechattu, P.J., 2017. Reflective practices: A means to teacher development. Asia Pacific Journal of Contemporary Education and Communication Technology (APJCECT), 3(1), pp.126-131.
2. McLeod, S. A. (2017, Oct 24). Kolb - learning styles. Simply Psychology.
3. Hickcox, L.K., 1990. An historical review of Kolb's formulation of experiential learning theory.
4. Dye, V. (2011) ‘Reflection, Reflection, Reflection. I’m thinking all the time, why do I need a theory or model of reflection?’, in McGregor, D. and Cartwright, L. (ed.) Developing Reflective Practice: A guide for beginning teachers. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Education (pp. 217-234).
5. Finlay, L., 2008. Reflecting on reflective practice. PBPL paper, 52, pp.1-27.
6. Anderson, A.G., Knowles, Z. and Gilbourne, D., 2004. Reflective practice for sport psychologists: Concepts, models, practical implications, and thoughts on dissemination. The Sport Psychologist, 18(2), pp.188-203.
7. Tsangaridou, N. and O’Sullivan, M., 1997. The role of reflection in shaping physical education teachers’ educational values and practices. Journal of teaching in physical education, 17(1), pp.2-25.
8. Standal, Ø.F. and Moe, V.F., 2013. Reflective practice in physical education and physical education teacher education: A review of the literature since 1995. Quest, 65(2), pp.220-240.