Motivation in Physical Education |
Reflection
As I look back upon my work over the past year, I have two different thoughts. My first thought is about how much of a difference one assignment can make in a unit. My second thought is what I need to do next year with the knowledge that I have gained. I will discuss both thoughts in the next few paragraphs.
Analysis of Data
As I talk to other teachers about my action research this year, they often ask how do I know that the changes in your classroom actually led to increased learning. Each piece of data really doesn't tell the whole story. When you put the data together, I think that it speaks for itself.
When I look at my data, I see many different things happening in my class that I was very pleased with. I think that these different observations that I used for data are all characteristics that most teachers would like to see in their classrooms. I also believe that most students would like to be a part of a classroom with the following characteristics. Students were engaged with their learning. So much so that they stayed in class longer than they were required. This happens occasionally, but after assigning the video assignment, students stayed after for much of the following week. Students were so involved with what they were teaching for the video and with their workout programs, they stayed after class was over. I don't think that you can get a better gage of student motivation.
Another characteristic that told me that students were motivated and learning was the way that they asked questions. At first, many students came to me and tried to get the answers or correct information for their lift. I asked them to find another source, so they went back to books, manuals, and other reference materials. After a few days with this process continuing, the students came to me with much more in depth questions. They were no longer asking me "What is the answer to this question?" Instead, the students came to me with questions more like "As I do my bench press lift, should the bar come straight over my chest, or should it move more above my head?" While I still failed to give them the answer to their question, the change in the depth of question their questions was very significant in relation to the engagement and understanding level of my students as the assignment progressed.
The survey that each member in my action research team distributed, also gave me important insight into my students' beliefs about my class. A very high percentage of my students were motivated, for my class, enjoyed my class and valued my class. The lowest rating came in regard to the challenge of my class. There may be many reasons for this response. One reason may be the fact that students are basically grouped into my class due to their schedule availability. Many other classes are leveled based on their achievement in their prior classes. In Physical Education, you could have high level students in the same class with lower level students. In an attempt to make everyone successful, this class may not be challenging enough for many students.
The grades that the students achieved on their quizzes were very positive influence on my analysis of whether the students were learning more. As you look at the data gathered surrounding the students quiz scores, the students' improvement from the first quiz given to the second quiz is impressive. First semester, the semester in which I taught the class in the same was as in previous years, The students scores moved from 79 percent to 81 percent. There was an increase in knowledge gained from the beginning of the unit to the end of it and it is shown in the increase in scores. In the second semester, the semester in which the students completed their instructional video assignment, the improvement increased from 79 to 84 percent. While this improvement may not have been entirely due to the assignment with a real world audience, I can't help but think that this assignment did help with both motivation and with retention of knowledge.
Next Steps
With all of the data that I collected from the 2000-2001 school year, I need to decide where to go from here. In the 2001-2002 school year, I want to continue to focus on motivation and its relationship with students learning. As with every lesson plan, I will change next years instructional video assignment, so that the students will be able to use their time better during the unit. I will also try to collect more data from the students gain more understanding about their learning during the assignment. I look forward to the weight training unit next year to fine tune the unit and assignment even more.
On a broader scale, I would like to look at motivation and learning during the rest of my curriculum. I've struggled to create real life situations and assessments for all of the other units of study in the freshman Physical Education curriculum here at Highland Park High School. I would like to brainstorm to try to create more meaningful experiences for my students. Doing so will help students to gain a better understanding of the curriculum as a short term goal. As a long term goal, I hope to encourage students to have a better understanding of the myriad of health concepts that can help each student improve their own quality of life as they leave Highland Park High School.