Approaches to Teach Athletics - Article Example

Approaches to Teach Athletics Introduction Athletics plays an important role in the life of the youth especially those who are interested in sport activities. It helps in developing body balance, agility and confidence in people. It is therefore vital that schools integrate athletics in their curriculum to enable young people to learn the basics of athletics from an early age. In many countries, participation in athletics has become part of their culture as it provides many ways for development of the youth. The teaching strategy needs to focus on cultivating skill development through self-assessment in order to instill confidence and passion for athletics. A. Playing for Life Playing for Life is a program that is strategic teaching method for athletics. It emphasizes on games rather than drilling sessions to introduce skills and techniques required for each event. The games being the core concept the participants learn to think and develop by participating in the games. The coaches rather than providing physical training to the students, set specific goals and encourage the students to achieve the goals. Thus the students monitor own performance to develop skills by observing the others. The program also encourages students to ask questions and based on their feedback games are modified to alter the difficulty level in order to ensure participation of maximum students (Athletics Play, 2010, p.2). Athletics Athletics helps in developing strength, speed, balance and agility of students. Competitions are arranged to develop respect for the events and other participants along with the teachers and volunteers who take every effort to ensure safe and enjoyable environment. Athletics develops team spirit since individual performances affect the overall team performance especially in relay where each team member has to work in coordination with the others. Athletics is all about human effort since even the tiniest error can make huge difference in the outcome (Athletics, n.d.). Importance of Schools and Clubs It is important that young people experience high quality sports in both schools and clubs. For this there are Teaching Primary and Secondary Schools Athletics resource packs, and also English Athletics offers workshops for volunteers and athletes to act as guidance for children mainly in clubs. Moreover, to encourage students to constantly develop their skills, Athletics Awards Schemes are made part of this program. Also, clubs can arrange different sports for children after school so as to link teaching to their achievement. There is also Leading Athletics workshop that encourages students from 14-18 age group to act as guide for younger students. In affiliation with clubs, schools can arrange indoor and outdoor competitions to enable students to hone and display their skills. Older students, depending on their achievements, can work with coaches for specialization (The Importance of Schools and Clubs, 2015). Athletes 365 Athletes 365 is a program mainly designed for 8-15 year olds to help them develop their fundamental athletic skills. The program does not only record the achievement level of students but emphasizes on teaching the students about the techniques needed to perform to the best of their abilities. Moreover, the program monitors the physical, emotional and social development of students. The program has nine different stages, each one more challenging than the previous and is based on the skill development of students. The goal is to educate young athletics about all the skills required for athletes, and the importance of overall good skills (Athletics 365, n.d.). Elevating Athletics Elevating athletics is a program that is directed towards both teachers and coaches to guide them to make strategies according to students’ abilities. The goal is to educate about the necessity of athletic as the basic physical exercise needed for any kinds of sports by using safe and inclusive techniques. The program is written by experts having international level physical education (PE) teaching, and is included in the curriculum of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. With Olympics giving particular interest in athletics, schools are now striving to modify their approaches to give proper opportunities to the best talents. The program allows students to get a positive experience from sports (UK Athletics : Elevating Athletics, Primary Resource Pack, 2015). II. Athletics Teaching Challenges Teachers need to adopt innovative techniques to teach students about athletics. In this section the focus is on running, sprinting and relays. The skill development is based on the age and physical abilities of students. The goal is to educate students about the best techniques of running by creating an enjoyable ambiance for the young students. The events are designed so that students can learn the technical body movements for running, jumping or throwing so that they improve their performance. Different events are organized with varied levels of challenges with students participating in small groups. They are also allowed to make decisions and monitor personal performance based on feedbacks from teachers with the latter striving to promote maximum participation. This program has designed many ideas for running, sprinting and relay based on school research (Morgan, 2000[a], p.10). Athletics Throwing Challenges This section focuses on throwing events like shot, discus and javelin. For each one, there are six different versions aligned with the event format in Olympics. Each group of students consists of mixed aptitudes, and the students are allowed to move between stations of same event. It is the responsibility of the teachers to supervise proper use of equipments, and emphasize on the important techniques. Since these events require open space, teachers need to ensure safety procedures are in place. The challenges are designed in the manner so that students can monitor self performance and set future improvements (Morgan, 2001[b], p.15). Athletics Jumping Challenges This article provides idea for jumping events like long, triple and high jump lessons. Modern lessons encourage maximum students to perform in groups and are able to move between different stations of each event. They are required to evaluate own performance in each station, and try to develop skills during the lesson. In this way, students are prevented from getting eliminated if they fail to achieve the required height in initial sessions. Also, the concept of small group means there is less public view of performances thus saving the weaker performers from embarrassment (Morgan, 2001[a], p.14). Modern School Athletics Today, the focus is on teaching athletic students to understand the techniques to improve their skills and to develop a positive approach towards sports so that they are encouraged to pursue it in adult life. The idea is to integrate PE with sports. It is more important for students to focus on specific sports based on their abilities rather than participating in a variety of sports since it becomes difficult to learn the techniques of each sport. The event models are designed based on the age and gender of students. Appropriate models help young students to get satisfaction from their performance and can encourage the uncommitted students. Also, by arranging competition students can be motivated to improve their performance. Primary schools need to take responsibility of integrating PE in their curriculum so that children can learn the basics of sports at an early age (Modern School Athletics, 2000, p.24). Focus on Athletics The CGU shine:awards is a scheme that has been developed by the UK governing body of athletics with a motto “From Fun to Fulfillment”. The goal is to encourage development in young athletics. This scheme provides platform for children from age 3 onwards to participate in athletic activities by encountering physical challenges, and rewards them for motivation towards skill development through four levels of activity. There are several objectives like encouraging children of varied skills to participate in athletic activities in local clubs. The scheme also encourages teachers to initiate athletics in schools and clubs (Focus on Athletics, 2000, p.10). Developing key skills The development of key skills is important in all curriculums of England and Wales. PE helps in developing social skills of students. In Key Stage 2 different examples are chosen from various athletic activities to encourage communication and social skills, self-learning skills, and skills for solving problems and application of numbers. The environment created is suitable for maximum learning and awards are based on individual performance rather than group performance. Therefore, participants are motivated to compare own current performance with past performance, and improve through effort (Morgan, 2004, p.10). Motivation in Athletics Lessons Research has proved that students learn athletics effectively if the teaching environment encourages the students to improve own performance through individual effort. Designing teaching strategies, award schemes, group activities, and timing can encourage students towards athletics and develop a positive approach towards difficult tasks. For PE teachers, it is a challenging task to create motivation among students especially when the latter learns to discern effort and ability, and considers ability as capacity. PE teachers strive to motivate students to exert maximum effort and avoid failure. To develop students’ perspective regarding motivation two environments are created – competitive climate where students’ performances are assessed based on that of others, and individual climate where awards are given based on individual improvement (Morgan, 2000[b], p.16). III. Literature Review The National Curriculum of England for PE focuses on encouraging students to assess own performance keeping in mind the fact that in PE lessons exhibition of skills and maintaining excellence are key factors. Based on this, Kevin Morgan and Paul Carpenter (2002) for their article “Effects of manipulating the motivational climate in physical education lessons” conducted a seven-week study on 153 secondary school pupils of both gender. The purpose was to explore the mastery oriented motivational climate on pupils’ perception of the motivational climate, goal achievements, and cognitive and affective responses. The students were divided into groups based on mixed ability, and boys and girls were in separate groups. To maintain consistency in the mastery program the teachers were asked to conform to a single teaching approach in every class. The pupils participated in a main task along with other challenging tasks for each event. They were allowed to make decisions and their efforts were appreciated by the teachers. They were encouraged to do self-assessment based on mastery of the task. The study concluded that students are more inclined towards challenging tasks, gain satisfaction and develop positive approach in a mastery program. Kevin Morgan et al. (2005) in their article “Effects of different teaching styles on the teaching behaviours that influence motivational climate and pupils’ motivation in physical education” have conducted a study on four initial teacher education students and 92 pupils from two schools in UK. The purpose was to study the effects of different teaching styles on the teachers’ approach that affect the motivations and cognitive responses of pupils in PE class. Another purpose was to compare the effects of teacher-centered styles and pupil-centered styles of teaching. The teachers were asked to teach three PE lessons with different teaching styles, and all the lessons were recorded on video. It was revealed that pupil-centered teaching styles resulted in more mastery-focused teaching behavior than performance-focused. Athletic challenges and sport education Sport education requires intensive training and competition to enable the students to achieve high standard of competency. Since, same level of training and competition is also needed in athletics therefore it is advantageous to combine athletic challenges with sport education. Conclusion It can be concluded here that most athletic training programs focus on encouraging young students towards self-assessment and focusing on improving performance through maximum effort. The objective remains to cultivate positive approach in students so that they sustain their athletic activities during their adult life. Motivational climate is created by awards based on individual based task improvement rather than comparing tasks between different students. In this way students with different levels of skills are encouraged to participate in athletic classes. References Athletics (n.d.) England Athletics Athletics 365 (n.d.) England Athletics retrieved on March 9, 2015 from: http://www.englandathletics.org/athletics-clubs/i-help-to-run-a-club/young-athletes-section/athletics-365-resources Athletics Play (2010) Australian Sports Commission Focus on Athletics (2000) The British Journal of Teaching Physical Education, 10-11 Modern School Athletics (2000) The British Journal of Teaching Physical Education, 24-27 Morgan K. (2001[a]) Athletics Jumping Challenges. The British Journal of Teaching Physical Education, 14-16 Morgan K. (2000[a]) Athletics Teaching Challenges. The British Journal of Teaching Physical Education, 10-12 Morgan K. (2001[b]) Athletics Throwing Challenges. The British Journal of Teaching Physical Education, 15-17 Morgan K. (2004) Developing Key Skills. The British Journal of Teaching Physical Education, 10-12 Morgan K. (2000[b]) Motivation in Athletics Lessons. The British Journal of Teaching Physical Education, 16-18 Morgan, K. & Carpenter, P. (2002) Effects of manipulating the motivational climate in physical education lessons. European Physical Education Review, Vol.8, No.3, pp.209-232 Morgan, K. Kingston, K. & Sproule, J. (2005) Effects of different teaching styles on the teaching behaviours that influence motivational climate and pupils’ motivation in physical education. European Physical Education Review, Vol.11, No.3, pp.257-285 The Importance of Schools and Clubs (2015) England Athletics, Vol.6 UK Athletics : Elevating Athletics, Primary Resource Pack (2015) youthssportdirect, retrieved on March 9, 2015 from: http://shop.youthsportdirect.org/product_p/rp-ukapp-ysd.htm Read More