Introduction
Regular exercises provide various health benefits from lower blood pressure, leaner bodies, and improved cognitive functioning and mental health. Even though people are aware of these solid facts, statistics are an indication of the rising obesity levels and illness associated with reduced physical activities. Schools can promote the practice through physical education initiatives that teach fundamental skills and change or form active behaviors. The learning institutions hold a powerful key that can influence the well-being and health of people throughout their lifespan. To enhance the fitness of learners, educators need to re-engineer the delivery of the school-based programs on physical activities. This article deduces how pedagogy improves the students’ engagement in physical education through learning and teaching theories.
Participants in recent surveys in different countries say that students should learn about health because it is more important than history, science, mathematics, arts, and other subjects. Despite the huge interests presented by the studies concerning physical education, schools still devote a little time to educating learners on how to improve their health. Physical inactivity introduces adverse medical consequences such as high blood lipids, obesity, high blood glucose, and pressure. The conditions increase the chances of acquiring chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular illnesses. Guidelines suggest that children should have a minimum 30 minutes of exercises in all or almost all the days. Pedagogy comes in to improve the engagement of students so that they can enjoy the lessons on physical education and boost their health outcomes (Armour, 2011, 260).
Main Body
Pedagogy is a representation of what the teachers should do to increase the capacity of learning amongst the pupils. Student engagement has historically directed its attention towards developing positive behaviors, creating the feeling of belonging for the learners to stick in the learning institutions, and improving their performances. Over time, strategies that enhance engagement have been utilized to construct methods that assist classroom management practices. Recently, the focus of student engagement has been to ensure that pupils become lifelong students in a knowledge founded society. The technique is now a strategic procedure for accountability and learning. Every tutor hopes that his or her learners will achieve success in their subjects. Therefore, they set out to acquire skills to maintain the engagement with their students throughout the learning process (Tinning, 2008, 416).
There are various forms of student engagement. They include intellectual, academic, behavioral, emotional, psychological, social, cognitive, institutional, and social. The basic query is whether the pupil should function in all the areas for successful learning to occur. The differences in levels of engagement make it challenging for teachers to educate their students using similar techniques. The use pedagogy tries to improve the learning and engagement abilities of learners in physical education. One of the most effective pedagogical texts in the subject is Muska Mosston’s Spectrum Model. Most teaching techniques in physical education have found their prominence in the theory. The spectrum is logic and successful since it underpins the conceptualization of tutorial skills on the practices of the Western learning systems (Fitzgerald, 2005, 38).
Mosston’s Spectrum consists of eight teaching approaches. The styles include teaching through tasks, commands, groups, reciprocals, creativity, individual programs, problem-solving, and guided discovery. The structure was based on two assumptions. One was that teaching physical education was an evolutionary process that had an idealized ultimate goal. The students were guided by independent choices and open-mindedness towards receiving information. Secondly, tutors were viewed as pivotal elements in the learning process. They were idiosyncratic and subjective creatures that were learning how to become better educators every day. Physical education is the only chance that school-going kids have to access healthy practices. The discipline is a formal study area that dictates assessments and standards on benchmarks and proper guidelines (Evans, 2004, 95).
Physical education is a content-based program of instruction and curricula formulated to develop knowledge, behaviors, and motor skills of active living, emotional intelligence, sportsmanship, physical fitness, and self-efficacy. As a subject, PE aims at educating children in the methods and science of healthy living. The discipline was incorporated in the curriculum in the 19th century when its usefulness to human health was identified. The 20the century led to the incorporation of exercise and personal hygiene into the study. The distinct focus on health was criticized by Thomas Woods, an educator, who said it was too shallow to develop a child holistically. He came up with an inclusive method whereby the physical and fundamental skills for sports and games were used as instructional information (Dyson, Griffin & Hastie, 2004, 233).
Motor skills have been the foundation of physical education since the 18th century. Early scholars focused on the learner’s ability to utilize his or her body as a form of expression. Later on, the approach shifted from conscious of the mover to the application and function of every movement. The intention was to apply four fundamental movement ideologies to three forms of learning, that is, affective, psychomotor, and cognitive. The four concepts include space, body, relationships, and effort. Another prevalent model of physical education is the sports learning curriculum created by Daryl Siedentop. The paradigm teaches the learners to be players in their deepest sense and enables them to become enthusiastic, literate, and competent sports individuals (Goodyear & Casey, 2013, 16).
Evidence concerning the sports learning curriculum suggests that it leads to active engagement during the PE lessons, increased competence, and stronger cohesion amongst the learners. Pedagogy involves an informed and framed system that consists of a structured and shared body of data. The knowledge consists of transparent values, evidence, experience, and moral purpose. It thrives through the virtue of mastering information and acquiring expertise progressively through continuous development, regulated practice, initial training, and reflection. The tutors deserve to be treated as scholars. They should be willing to evaluate and scrutinize their practices using relevant theories, evidence, and values. They should make judgments that transcend the ideological concerns and pragmatic constraints that can be defended and tested (Coakley & Pike, 2014, 20).
The expertise of pedagogy is an interconnection of art, craft, and science that helps in comprehending the complementary requirements of personal capacities, professional skills, and innovative wisdom. All the principles are founded on moral commitment and ethical principles. The challenge emanates while trying to distinguish the creative and scientific elements of teaching. The appropriate tutoring needs strategic decisions based on the succulent information. It also requires instantaneous and implicit choices and judgments. The community the instructor belongs can shape the response given in the classroom. They are also depictions of the relationship he or she has with the students through the establishment of positive surroundings and taking advantage of sudden learning and teaching opportunities (Tinning, 2012, 124).
Instead of having the learners log in the exercise time, pedagogy emphasizes on teaching them the science that explores the relevance of being physically active. The curriculum is formulated in a way that the children can engage in practices that demonstrate the scientific wisdom they possess. Pedagogy thus acts as an injection of new concepts that accompany the provisions of environments and experiences that support and prompt transformative orientation. The physical education programs have adopted and embraced model-based instructions. They also examine the theories and use the most suitable one to carry out teaching activities. The discipline has struggled to free itself from the constraints of physical training and traditional notions concerning physical competencies (Tinning, 2008, 418).
According to Fitzgerald (2005, 45), the supremacy of motor skills in PE has restricted the knowledge outline of the subject over the years. Learning was limited to psychomotor performances. Scholars reflected on the curriculum and decided to employ pedagogical emphasis on the technical expertise to capture the interests of those who do not perform in the motor skills exceptionally. The learners acquire the declarative knowledge, that is, a technique that enhances the acquisition of motor skills. Fulfilling the requirements of the students is a legitimate purpose, but some of them need different approaches compared to others. The instructors have to strike a balance to sustain the diverse interests and needs of learners and maximize the chances of engaging in the discipline to facilitate success. Moreover, if the enjoyment of the pupils is the core objective of the course of physical education, successful accomplishments and engagement should be closely related to the satisfaction.
The broad directives of PE can be attained if the tutors are committed entirely to the pedagogies that improve education using equitable measures. Inequitable performances are the ultimate consequences of teachers who harbor preferences and prejudices that are probably associated with their personal outcomes. Considering the remarks of Inez Rovegno, an influential scholar in the pedagogy especially is physical education; the most significant difficulty people encounter is how to modify their beliefs. Undergraduates who develop a homophobic, racist, or sexist stance are adamant when it comes to overweight. They are only directed towards dealing with the exceptional athletes in the initiatives that benefit the able-bodied individuals. It is possible to recall instructors who hold similar notions. It is also critical to identify personal stands concerning the matter (Goodyear & Casey, 2013. 21).
According to reviews regarding physical activities, the actions of the teachers are value driven and difficult to change. Inclusive expert values are an essential precondition for the educators in PE if equitable learning chances are to be offered to the learners. The tutors should remember that during the physical activities the students’ needs can be significantly divergent. An example of the implications of a particular PE teacher can further the knowledge concerning enhancing learning and engagement. Natalie took a training course that led to her first placement in a special school where she had to deal with thirty-six disabled kids. Two suffered from autism, four were in a wheelchair, and the rest had ADD. The experience was difficult to handle, but through the application of differentiation, it became easier (Evans, 2004, 98).
The range of disparities is a significant challenge that the tutors face in the PE classes. The differences go beyond physical aspects, For instance, divergence in the learners emotional needs, dialect, motivation, and cultural backgrounds. Participation in the physical activities is compulsory in most schools; however, the level of motivation to take part in the lessons varies amongst the learners. Effective pedagogy recognizes the different needs of the pupils and places them at the center of the study. Despite the physical factors, PE is also used in developing personal development and learning goals. They include acquiring teamwork, cooperation, and responsible skills (Dyson, Griffin & Hastie, 2004, 234).
Nine principles can assist the incorporation of pedagogy to improve the students’ learning and engagement in physical education. They include creating an atmosphere that exudes intellectual excitement, intensive knowledge and study of learning and teaching activities, embracing a vibrant social context, a culturally diverse and global surrounding, and explicit support and concern for individual developments. Others are providing vivid academic standards and expectations, an adaptive syllabus, quality learning resources, and educational cycles of assessment, feedback, and experimentation (Coakley & Pike, 2014, 28).
Conclusion
Quality PE programs are essential in enhancing the learning and engagement of the students. The learners acquire the confidence and competence to participate in different movements such as fitness activities, dances, sports, and recreational activities. The theories and models presented in this essay dictate the national standards that govern pedagogy in physical education (Green and Hardman, 2005, 51). They provide a stable framework for the construction of the assessments and programs that assist the pupils demonstrate and learn movement skills and intellect as well as values and habits related to physical activities. Teachers and learners should use constructivism to adjust their mental structures to accommodate new concepts and experiences in PE that will enhance academic performances (Bailey & Kirk, 2009, 100).
Effective pedagogy is essential in breaking down the traditional barriers of physical education to incorporate new skills that can motivate children to learn. Instructors should not focus only on the motor aspects of the subject. They should establish a psychological setup amongst the students that develops the urge to learn and acquire more skills in the physical activities (Armour, 2011, 262). They should provide the appropriate resources and surrounding to facilitate the learning process. Through this, the knowledge given to them can be preserved throughout their lives. They will learn to appreciate the essence of being physically active to maintain healthy lifestyles. The subject should not be limited only to the schools. Rather it should become an embedded behavior in the students. That is the true meaning of being an effective teacher.
References
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