THE ROAD TO TEACHING EFFECTIVENESS: WHERE DO I TURN AFTER PRESERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION?

written by Amber D. Phillips, Ball State University

The road to becoming an effective physical education teacher is like an old wooden roller coaster; it is bumpy, curvy, noisy, and full of highs and lows. If it were a straight and flat road, anyone could do it. Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) programs are the starting points. Once we leave our PETE programs, we should have a road map that shows us how to reach our destination: Teaching Effectiveness.

The component inservice teachers often lose is accountability. Many physical education teachers create their own system of accountability, although they may not be aware they are doing so. Some inservice teachers may seek graduate degrees, attend conferences, inservice education meetings, or look to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards for this accountability. The purpose of this article is to describe other practical methods of continuing to develop effective teaching skills, post preservice teacher education, through the creation of an accountability system.

What does it mean to be an effective teacher? Effective teachers produce student learning in the psychomotor, cognitive, and affective domains. The skills used by effective teachers develop as a result of time, practice, and experience (Phillips, 2008; Phillips, 2010). Differences in planning and teaching skills among novice and expert teachers, as well as inexperienced and experienced teachers, have been well documented (see Housner & Griffey, 1985, for an example). Consistent findings from this research have informed the practice of physical education teacher education (Phillips, 2010).

Phillips (2008) described the development of planning and teaching skills of preservice teachers as they progressed through two methods courses and student teaching. The preservice teachers in this study were at a level deemed competent in the literature (Gusthart, Kelly, & Graham, 1995) before completing their second methods course and field experience. One major finding was that a system of continuous accountability was needed to encourage the demonstration and development of individual planning and teaching skills. When an individual item was not on an evaluation form, in many cases, it was not demonstrated. This could present a problem for inservice physical education teachers.

A valid system of continuous accountability is usually absent for inservice physical education teachers. Often physical education teachers fall victim to drive-thru window observations. If and when teachers are observed for a full class period, it is usually by someone with little-to-no experience with physical education, and the instrument used is generic. On the other hand, teachers were most likely given the tools necessary in their PETE programs to create their own system of accountability and continue on the road to teaching effectiveness. The following recommendations can help teachers develop such a system:

1. Request third person observation
2. Use self analysis
3. Set teacher objectives
4. Plan carefully

Request Third Person Observation
Teachers can request observations from almost anyone who is willing to observe. Principals, assistant principals, and colleagues can observe the teacher in action. They can be asked to stop in, announced or unannounced, and to complete a systematic observation form or simply take field notes. Field notes may be beneficial coming from observers with little-to-no experience or knowledge related to physical education. Teachers can also provide guided questions to observers. Keep the questions focused on one or two areas of concern to enhance the likelihood of receiving valuable feedback (see Table 1). An alternative is to provide systematic observation forms specific to physical education for observers to complete (Rink, 2009, pp. 333-349).

Many school districts have physical education coordinators that can be helpful in observing and providing feedback. Teachers can also enlist the help of teacher educators at local colleges and universities. Many professors would be more than happy to offer their services. Furthermore, each of these professionals has access to schools for live observations.

The benefit of having staff, family, and/or friends observe lessons and provide feedback is they may pick up on bad habits. A habit of saying "ok" frequently may stand out to a friend because they will not be watching your task presentation. A first year teacher recently told me his wife watched a videotape of his lesson and said to him, "You only help the girls." He said to me, "I had no idea! I was so ashamed." He never realized his own bias, but once it was pointed out to him, he could focus on it and work to improve his feedback distribution.

Use Self Analysis
Videotaped lessons allow the teacher to analyze his/her own lessons. Many forms exist to use in the evaluation of teaching, and are introduced in PETE programs. Teachers can also make use of the same self-evaluation forms used in their preservice teacher education, or simply take field notes to identify strengths and weaknesses. The inservice teacher mentioned above continued to videotape his lessons, and tallied the number of feedback statements given to male and female students. He did this several times to ensure he had improved in this area.

Set Teacher Objectives
If teachers were to perform video-analyses of their instructional skills, they could identify strengths and weaknesses and set goals to improve. It is important for teachers to remember to focus on only one goal at a time. If teacher objectives are included with lesson plans, the teacher not only has something for the students to achieve, but also for the teacher to achieve. A teacher objective, like student objectives, needs to include behavior, conditions, and criteria so it is measurable (Rink, 2009).

For example, if a teacher wants to improve her management skills, there are many things a teacher can work on (i.e. start and stop signals, positive pinpointing, back-to-the-wall). However, the teacher should only work on one skill at a time until she is competent at that skill. She needs to pick the most critical skill first. Let's say she noticed in her video analysis that she was not using start and stop signals consistently and/or effectively. The teacher objective may be: TTWBAT use "go" and "freeze" to start and stop all activities, and hold students accountable for following these protocols 100% of the time.

The teacher may need to focus on this teacher objective for more than one lesson. Some teachers have used students to help them achieve their goals by having students tell them when they are not meeting their goals. In this example, the students would say, "You didn’t say go." This is a particularly effective method because it is not fun to have students calling you on your mistakes. I used this method once because I had a habit of saying "ok." I had students repeat the word every time I said it. The habit was broken after one class period.

Plan Carefully
Research has shown that experienced teachers plan in more detail, and with more attention to quality student performance than inexperienced teachers (Graber, 2001). Inservice teachers should continue to plan, teach, and reflect as if they were being evaluated, especially in the first few years of teaching. During my first year of teaching, I planned with the same level of detail as I did as a preservice teacher. In subsequent years, I printed each plan and wrote any modifications made in a different color pen on the plan. I would make the necessary changes to my electronic copy at the end of the week and save it for next year. I advise my preservice teachers to do the same.

The key to reaching your destination of teaching effectiveness is accountability, regardless of where the accountability comes from, but it also depends on how it is used. It is up to the recipient of the feedback to do something with it. Often, inservice teachers must create their own system of accountability, which can include feedback from administrators, colleagues, PETE faculty, family, themselves, and/or students. It has long been known that teaching effectiveness is a product of practice and experience, but practice has to be focused. Otherwise, the road is a dead end.


REFERENCES (link)

Figure 1. Sample Guided Observation Form (clickhere for printable download)

biography: Dr. Phillips is a professor in the physical education teacher education (PETE) program at Ball State University. Her research has focused on the development of teaching skills across time and National Board Certified Teachers. Dr. Phillips has published in national physical education journals and has presented at more than 20 state, district, and national conferences. She serves as a reviewer for a national physical education journal and is on the Advisory Board for PE Central Best Practices.

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