Preparing Tomorrow’s Physical Educators - Readers Respond         

Last month I pondered how to better prepare future physical educators. The topic drew a surprisingly large response from readers around the country. Below, is a selection from the many comments and suggestions received. Thanks to everyone who responded.

Clarify the purpose of teaching physical education

In many instances, new physical education majors are not entirely certain about their career choice. According to Johnny Mack, initially at least, it’s probably for the wrong reasons. But, he continues,

What I have learned, is that the physical education teacher is the one teacher who has the opportunity to make the greatest impact in young peoples lives. Not just because it is a fun class, but also because we get the opportunity to teach them life lessons through what we teach.

Many readers felt it vital that future physical educators clearly understand our mission and especially our goal of impacting the lives of all students and not just the already athletically gifted. Jeanette Brownfield writes,

As they [our students] grow, they will find what activity they are interested in pursuing, but if I turn them off to Physical Education in elementary school, I've turned them off to PE for the rest of their lives.

Howie Weiss reinforced this idea by emphasizing,

We need to convince physical education majors that the most important difference they can make is in the life of average to below average PE students. These are the kids who will become couch potatoes if we don't make a difference. We need to judge our success on how much these students prosper in our class.

Kathy Racine emphasized greater empathy for all students.

Not all of your students will love Physical Education class. Take care of them too. Make it so that they look forward to your class and not dread it. ENJOY your students. They do want to feel good about themselves, and you can make their day so easily just by showing them you care.

Understand that teaching today isn’t what it used to be…

Several readers pointed out that today’s physical educators face challenges vastly different from the past. Shauna Briggs writes,

New teachers need to recognize the changing world in which today’s students live…different cultures, customs, and many language barriers. One of the first days of class I discovered that many students did not know what softball or baseball was. I have a large population of Muslim students and they were fasting for the first month of school (Ramadan). I had to re-think how to grade/assess these students during that time period. Also, PE clothing for the Muslim girls is very different, as they must remain clothed with skirts and head dressing during class.

Increased emphasis on academic accountability has had many consequences for public school physical education. In some schools, administrators and teachers are concerned with only academics, and physical education is not supported. Positions, budgets, and time for physical education have been reduced or entirely cut.

We seem to be treating students like "brains on a stick," not like whole human beings who need a balance of academic, physical, musical, artistic, and emotional preparation. (Kathy Rose)

Effectively responding to this lack of support is not easy. There is some - but not substantial - evidence to support the connection between good health and academics. Movement experiences can certainly reinforce learning. But there is also risk (and professional disagreement) in justifying our existence on the basis of health promoting or academic supporting arguments. And, as Pamela Rasmussen points out, for physical educators the expectations can become overwhelming.

Welcome to MY world and those of many of my elementary school colleagues! How we are supposed to teach all of this cognitive work inside a 30-minute session, twice every 6 days with a warm-up, skill development, practice application (forget cool down/stretching) AND wrap up the learning, apply our science, math, and reading standards, and set up for the next PE class… Oh, and that is ONLY if the children are here on time from the classroom, and there is no passing time for transitions, coats on and off, for coming in or exiting. It is getting crazy out here in the reality of a PE class setting! Our kids are working so very hard to meet standards, deal with huge language barriers, and then they are getting less time to be active.

Several readers urged that new physical education teachers receive better mentoring, and regular opportunities to work closely with master teachers. Others lamented at the unrealistic expectations often placed on new teachers.

Our future professionals graduate from college and are very excited to be the best teachers in the world. Then they run into the bad teachers who sit in a chair and throw out the ball! They are hired by principals, and are told that they need to change the physical education curriculum at the school. They need the tools to be able to go into a school and make changes in a positive way. (Crystal Gorwitz)

Address the challenges of combining teaching and coaching

The motivation for many college physical education majors is a desire to coach. Critics argue that many teacher-coaches tend to ignore teaching responsibilities, and devote most of their energies to coaching. But as Garrett Miller points out, coaches can have a huge and positive impact on student lives.

Coaching is important to me. Coaches love to connect with kids. One could argue that coaches have a stronger impact on an athlete’s life than a teacher does. After all, helping and making an impact on a young person’s life is a major reason why most people become teachers. Isn't it?

In the past I’ve attempted to dissuade new teachers from assuming high profile coaching positions early in their careers because of the obvious time conflict: There simply aren’t enough hours in the day to plan and teach a quality physical education program, coach effectively, and have time left for any sort of quality personal or family life. Marilyn Laidlaw writes,

By the end of the day I am so exhausted from giving my all to devising learning situations that benefit all my students, including my mainstreamed students, I need to go home and recover. I have no energy left to last another 1-1/2 to 2 hours in coaching a sport.

However, given that many new physical education teachers will be hired based on their ability to coach, maybe college educators need to do a better job of preparing students to be able to do both successfully. Rose Bonanno suggests that more needs to be done to point out the differences between athletics and physical education.

The goals of athletics and physical education are different. PE promotes activity and encourages all to be active for a lifetime. High School sports are for skilled athletes to compete to win. Often the chosen sport is not conducive to a lifetime of activity. Think old wrestlers or football players. Athletics and outside sports should not be a substitute for PE.

The previous experience of our physical education majors also needs to be remembered. Many of them chose this career because they loved and excelled in athletics. It’s not easy for them to understand the need and value of modifying sports to increase participation and success, or reexamining the purpose of athletics in school settings. Writes Ann Martin,

I am a competitive athlete and so are my own children, but as I watch the parade of students who we encourage to BE ACTIVE try out and get cut from all kinds of team sports in 7th grade, or who make it and sit the bench, it makes me wonder if the model is all wrong! As physical educators and coaches, perhaps we can help change this model, which is not only detrimental physically but also emotionally for kids. All this occurs at a time in their young lives (junior high) when belonging is so critical! It's no wonder they turn to other avenues for acceptance!

Improve college preparation programs

Several readers offered suggestions for improving the college preparation of physical educators. Getting student out early into schools to observe good teaching and work with children was strongly recommended.

Students need authentic experiences such as: site visits to observe effective teachers, interactions with quality teachers, opportunities to field test lesson plans, opportunities to learn about and design differentiated curriculum based on interactions with actual school age students. (Shelly Smith)

Early experiences with children would provide the additional benefit of helping new physical education majors reflect on their career choice.

Young college students are sometimes unsure if physical education is for them. If you require these students to help with physical education classes, they will learn quickly if this is for them or not. Have the students participate with the young students, help demonstrate, help keep control of the classes, etc. (Ryan Anthony)

Several teacher preparation programs enjoy a connection with a university-based “laboratory” school. Lori Smith at the University of Northern Iowa notes that her students “spend extensive periods of time in the university’s laboratory school working with children.” Where this isn’t possible, Carrie Gosselin suggested teacher educators should spend less time in the classroom talking, and more time in the gym modeling what they want new teachers to learn.

Put students immediately into elementary physical education lessons. Debrief them weekly and use the lessons as talking points. Now you can talk about procedures, rules, standards, the vocabulary that the state expects students to learn, pinpointing, slanty rope (adaptations), why a lesson plan is important to your substitute, etc.

Improved student advising would increase the likelihood of ensuring future physical educators were truly suited to our profession.

If they don’t “make the grade,” give them the direction and guidance until they do. If they can’t make it, they move on to “something else.” Standards/expectations for undergrads need to be tightened. We want the BEST and we want young adults who are serious and committed (Karen Bagby).

A concern was expressed about the limited time physical education majors spend student teaching. In some programs this time was split between the gym and the classroom, and sometimes between different grade levels (elementary, middle, and high). The resulting combination was inadequate for students to successfully develop and apply their teaching skills. Paul DeHaven felt that there had been a decline in the skills of today’s student teachers. He observed,

Many of them do not go out and gain teaching experiences before they student teach, and they lack fundamental skills… It seems that many programs spend so much time on lesson plan development, how to research, and other skills that are not as vital as the actual skill of teaching.

And Marilyn Laidlaw and Randy Fuller felt that more needed to be done in colleges to help students learn how to adapt and modify various lessons for disabled students who will be mainstreamed into PE classes.

New teachers need to engage the non-handicapped students to take some responsibility in helping their classmates to be successful. This really improves the outcome, as well as the class climate. When you can achieve buy-in from the non-disabled to lend a helping hand (or word) to those with limitations you really can generate a "family-like" atmosphere (Marilyn Laidlaw).

Not surprisingly, some readers questioned the qualifications of university teacher educators to advance physical education.

First educate the university teachers. If we (teacher educators) are to design and implement more effective and meaningful curriculum, we must not only know the tenets and principles that will enable us to do so, we must model effective teaching.

And…

Some of the college professors that I have met haven't taught physical education in twenty years and don't know what is going on in our schools today. I think that college professors need to take responsibility to get outside of their campuses and visit real schools and see what is being taught today, and not just lecture about what physical education should look like!

Finally, on the topic of role modeling, readers urged colleges to invite more exemplary role models - especially teachers from our public schools - onto campus to demonstrate effective teaching and add legitimacy to the practices teacher educators are attempting to advocate. And to encourage future teachers to role model a “healthy and active lifestyle,” Cathrine Himberg at Chico State includes a “Personal Fitness Project” in her majors’ capstone course. Not only does it increase their personal health but it provides a model they can modify and use with secondary students once they begin teaching.

Increase professional involvement

One of keys to sustaining public school physical education is effective advocacy. Unfortunately, so many - the vast majority - of today’s physical educators show little interest or support for professional organizations attempting to advocate on their behalf. Complicating this situation is the difficulty in many districts of finding substitutes for teacher wishing to take time off for professional development. And for new teachers, it may be less a lack of interest and more a lack of time.

A lot of first year teachers are overwhelmed by the amount of meetings and time it takes to be a good effective teacher. I have not attended any conferences yet due to a busy schedule and the amount of after school meetings I already attend. (Shauna Briggs)

Orienting student majors towards involvement in our state and national organizations does however probably need to begin at the collegiate level.

College students need to see themselves as professionals early on, and they need to understand why we have professional development. (Lori Smith)

At some institutions, students are required to attend professional workshops. For some, this “coercion” is resented, and consequently when attendance is no longer required resist future participation. However, it was also pointed out that it’s not enough to simply require student attendance.

New students need guidance when attending workshops and conferences. It’s frustrating and not motivating to be new and not know where to go, what to do, or what to see.

Steve Jefferies, Publisher pelinks4u