From Theory to Practice: Discovering the educational benefits of Sport Education in a UK primary sch

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From Theory to Practice Discovering the
educational benefits of Sport Education in a UK
primary school

• Jennifer Wall Keynote Address
• Association of Physical Educators of Quebec,
  Annual Conference, November 2006
• McGill University, Montreal, Canada

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Acknowledgements

• This presentation is the outcome of a long term,
  collaborative project. Team members include
• Rob Jarram and Sue Kirk (Mountfields Lodge
  School, Loughborough)
• David Kirk and Toni ODonovan (Leeds Met
  Carnegie)
• Ann MacPhail (University of Limerick)
• Louisa Webb (Loughborough University)

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Video clip

• A teacher talks about the educational benefits of
  Sport Education for her Year 5 class

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Pictures

• Of Sport Education in action, highlighting
  modified game forms, the Gala Day, team
  affiliation, celebrating success

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Sport Education Origins

• Developed by Daryl Siedentop and colleagues at
  the Ohio State University, 1980s
• Introduced and developed by Siedentop doctoral
  students in New Zealand (eg. Grant) and Australia
  (eg. Alexander) in 1990s
• Introduced and developed by second generation
  Siedentop student in UK (Kinchin) and colleagues

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Educational rationale for Sport Education

• Sport education has as its main goal, to educate
  students to be players in the fullest sense, and
  to help them develop as competent, literate and
  enthusiastic sportspeople (Siedentop, 1994,
  p.4).

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Values behind this rationale

• Sport education aims to contribute to a sound,
  sane and humane sport culture, fostering sport
  in all its forms for all people
• Sport can be a vehicle for childrens educational
  development
• Sport should primarily be of benefit to the
  participants
• Sport should be accessible to all, regardless of
  race, class, disability and gender

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Key learning outcomes

• A competent sports person is someone who has
  developed skills and strategies to the extent
  that he or she can participate successfully in a
  game.
• A literate sports person is someone who
  understands and is knowledgeable about the rules,
  traditions, and values associated with a specific
  sport, and one who can also distinguish between
  good and bad sport practices.
• An enthusiastic sports person is someone who
  plays and behaves in ways that preserve, protect
  and enhance the sport culture.

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Subject matter of Sport Education

• The subject matter is .. Sport
• The key characteristics of sport
• Seasons
• Affiliation
• Roles
• Formal competition
• Culminating event
• Record keeping
• Festivity

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Seasons

• In sport
• Are long enough to allow for a significant
  experience
• Encompass practice, competition and (usually) a
  culminating event
• In Sport Education
• Typically consist of 10 lessons
• Provide students with time to learn

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Affiliation

• In sport
• Occurs through team membership over time, leading
  to identification and a sense of belonging
• In Sport Education
• Students remain in the same mixed-ability team
  (persisting group) for the course of the season
• Students learn to work through social-interactive
  issues with team-mates, and this experience forms
  a basis for personal growth

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Roles

• In sport, there are
• In Sport Education, students are
• Players
• Timekeepers
• Scorekeepers
• Equipment officers
• Referees
• Sports Panel members
• Coach etc

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Formal competition

• In sport
• Round-robins, league schedules, cup competitions
• In Sport Education
• A competition schedule is set early to allow
  teams time and incentives to prepare
• As the season progresses, competition-specific
  practice increases
• Competition is never elimination type (eg. cup)

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Culminating event

• In sport
• Eg. play-offs, grand-finals, etc. to provide a
  climax to a season
• In Sport Education
• Inclusive, non-elimination style finals (such as
  rugby 7s cup, plate, bowl, etc.)
• One day swimming gala, athletics meeting

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Record keeping

• In sport
• Many forms, set standards, develop traditions
• In Sport Education
• Simple or complex depending on age
• Provide feedback
• Establish traditions
• Set standards for future

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Festivity

• In sport
• Special occasions such as finals
• A celebration
• In Sport Education
• Festivity can occur throughout a season eg. team
  colours, team names, team chants
• Awards and prizes at culminating event such as
  best and fairest most improved player best
  referee most improved team

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Developmentally appropriate competition

• The down-side of competition
• Win at all costs
• Cheating
• Disrespecting your opponent
• Sport Education promotes appropriate competition
• Play hard but fair
• Honour your opponent
• Accept when the contest is over, it is over

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Modifying the sport

• Use small-sided games
• Developmentally appropriate to the learner/s
• Create friendly playing conditions
• Smaller balls, softer balls, shorter equipment,
  easier to hit targets, safe environment
• Games of short duration
• Focuses intensity and assists concentration
• Allows more participation by more players

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Does the model work?

• Over 60 published, peer-reviewed studies of Sport
  Education since early 1980s, 25 since 1995.
• Mostly use qualitative methods (interviews,
  naturalistic observation, childrens drawings) a
  few used quantitative methods (questionnaires
  tests) or mixed methods
• Most studies have taken the form of teaching
  experiments

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Reviews

• Kinchin, G. (2006) Sport Education, in Kirk, D.
  et al (Eds) Handbook of Physical Education.
  London Sage
• Wallhead, T. OSullivan, M. (2005) Sport
  Education physical education for the new
  millenium? Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy,
  19(2), 181-210.
• Kirk, D. and Kinchin, G. (2003) Situated learning
  as a theoretical framework for Sport Education.
  European Physical Education Review 9(3), 221-235.

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Research findings 1 Motor Skill Development

• Students skills and play improved more with SE
  than with their previous curriculum programme
  (Alexander, Taggart and Thorpe, 1996 Grant,
  1992)
• Teachers were sceptical of the development of
  motor skills as an outcome of SE (Alexander,
  1994 Alexander, Taggart and Medland, 1993)
• Skill development noted with lower skilled girls
  (Carlson, 1995)
• Practice time increased (Pope Grant, 1996)

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Research findings 2 Tactical Awareness

• Students became interested in game tactics as the
  season progressed (Grant, 1992)
• No differences found between SE and traditional
  approach (Ormond et al, 1995)
• Significant improvement in team game play
  performance (Hastie, 1998a)
• Cognitive outcomes such as better student
  understanding of rules and strategies were
  evident (Alexander et al., 1996 Clarke Quill,
  2003)

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Research findings 3 Physical Activity/Fitness

• Few studies on fitness outcomes
• Only 50 of teachers believe SE was an effective
  model for promoting physical activity (Alexander
  Luckman, 2001)
• Both high and low skilled students averaged
  greater than 50 moderate-to-vigorous physical
  activity during SE lesson time (Hastie and Trost,
  2002)

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Research findings 4 Personal and Social
Development

• Students develop qualities such as leadership,
  teamwork, peer support and active pursuit of
  socially responsible and equitable participation
  (Alexander et al., 1996)
• Increased level of interaction and cooperation
  between students (Hastie Sharpe, 1999)
• Developed social responsibility and trust through
  the persistent group (Hastie Buchanan, 2000)

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Research findings 5 Student attitudes

• Development of teacher and student enthusiasm
  (Siedentop, 1994)
• Higher level of student engagement due to inbuilt
  accountability systems (Hastie, 2000 Wallhead
  Ntoumanis, 2004)
• Team affiliation was attractive to students, who
  made investments in their persisting groups
  (MacPhail et al, 2004 Bennet Hastie, 1997
  Hastie Carlson, 1998)

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Research findings 6 problematising SE

• Peer leadership is problematic in terms of
  content knowledge development and securing
  equitable participation (Hastie, 2000)
• SE challenged social hierarchies among students
  to provide opportunities to transform PE cultures
  (ODonovan, 2003 Brunton, 2003)
• Opportunities for and resistance to teaching
  about social justice (Kinchin OSullivan, 2003
  Ennis et al, 1998) and potential for inclusivity
  (Kinchin, 2001)
• High compatibility between students conceptions
  of sport and experiences of SE showing
  possibility of transfer of learning (MacPhail et
  al, 2003)

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Mountfields Lodge Primary SchoolLoughborough
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Description of Mountfields

• Average of 30 pupils per class
• Approximately 530 pupils on role
• 2 playing fields and one tarmac courtyard
• Number of teachers involved 6 teachers, 5 class
  1 specialist
• Project began in school year 1999/2000, has been
  running for 6 years due to openness of school to
  be involved in innovation and a supportive head
  teacher

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Factors Shaping Mountfields Sport Education

• Y6 modified floorball game
• Y5 - modified netball game
• Inclusion for all disability and behaviour
• Sports unfamiliar (no football)/ new to children
• Important to have all weather playing areas,
  influencing sport selection
• Available equipment key factor

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Video Clips

• The year 5 (netball/ basketball) and year 6
  (floorball) games in action

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The Mountfields Year 5 Sport Education Season
2005-6
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Affliation Mountfields selection process

• Teams selected by teachers from pre season
  activities
• Size of teams determined by number of pupils in
  year
• Teams consist of pupils from all classes
• Transfers only as a last resort
• Had to make 1 change (transfer) in year 5
  parental intervention

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Y5 Sport Education Team Names 2005-2006

• A -Blue Lightening
• B Tigers Terror
• C Lightening Stars
• D Golden Jaguars
• E Swinging Stingers
• F Racing Stripes
• G The Volcanoes
• H Diving Dolphins
• I Dare Devils
• J Mad Monkeys

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Formal competition Mountfields league

• Round robin competition of 10 teams per age group
  results recorded in league ladder
• Points Vs Goals encourage scoring over winning
• Difficulty of running league around annual school
  events
• Team coach led skills practices differences in
  yr 5 to yr 6 (area for improvement)

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Competition Promoting positive competition at
Mountfields

• Inclusion/ mixed ability teams
• Impact of peer regulation referee and sports
  panel (Yr 6 only)
• Most valuable player all teams vote for most
  effective member from every other team (area for
  improvement)
• Fair play best and fairest
• Elements of sportsmanship e.g. cheer at end of
  game, encourage appreciation of officials

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Festivity and culminating Event Mountfields
Gala Day

• Celebration of a whole year achievement
• Team affiliation through team logo and t-shirts
• Get parents involved informal reporting process
• Banners
• Trophies - rewards

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Year 5
Sport Education
Gala Day
2006
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Programme of Events Yr6
Match (1) Group 4
Devils v Incredibles Time Keep Maxine
Scorer Davinia Match (2) Group 3
Kool Kids v Seven
Sporties Time Keep Tian Ren
Scorer Matei Match (3) Group 2
Sneaky Snakes v No-Namers Time Keep Leah
Scorer Liam Match (4) Group
1 Chocolate Mooses v Invincible
Dragons Time Keep Stuart
Scorer Keeley Match (5) GRAND FINAL
Cup Climbing Koalas v Tiger Sharks Time
Keep William Scorer Davki
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Roles

• Year 6 roles
• Team manager
• Coach
• Reporter
• Statistician
• Scorer timer
• Referee
• Sports panel member

• Year 5 roles
• Team representative
• Warm up officer
• Coach
• Reporter
• Timer
• Scorer

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Video Clips

• The children talk about their roles in Sport
  Education, including referee, portfoilio manager,
  reporter, timekeeper, sports panel member

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Pictures

• Of timekeeper, warmup officer and referee in
  action

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Year 6 Sport Education Duty Team
Responsibilities Collect portfolios and hand out
to teams Collect all kit and bibs ( Sticks,
goals, balls) Set out kit in courts before
matches begin Collect whistles and stop
watches Hand out whistles and to all team
referees during warm up Provide score sheets and
pencils for scorers Collect all kit at the end of
the day and return to appropriate places Return
all portfolios
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Portfolios

• Depository for all documents
• Match reports
• Team organisation
• Keep track of player involvement
• Form of teacher assessment
• Pupils allowed to add extra documents e.g. fact
  file, section divider, tactics board

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Cross curricular activities in Mountfields

• Literacy
• Art and design
• Citizenship
• ICT
• Maths

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Teachers experiences of educational benefits

• Cross curricular - Helen
• Literate sports people Matt
• Team building - Vanessa
• Inclusivity and progression - David

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Video clips

• The teachers talk about the educational benefits
  of Sport Education, including cross-curricular
  learning, literate sports people, team building,
  inclusion and progression

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Conclusion

• Sport Education can deliver valuable educational
  benefits to all children
• Educationally sound way to provide children with
  an introduction to sport
• Requires a supportive school environment,
  committed and able teachers
• Benchmarks and authentic Sport Education
• Researchers can help