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The Interdisciplinary PE Challenge
The Interdisciplinary section of PELINKS4U is one of the hardest
to create. Why? Because, frankly, most of us don't do a particularly
good job at integrating PE with other academic content.
Too often we claim to be integrating when in reality the resulting
activity is meaningless. For example, is it integration when we
run relays and have team members complete a math problem before
running to join their team? I think not.
Team relays typically involve excessive inactivity and the kind
of math challenges offered rarely improve math skills.
True interdisciplinary learning involves more that simply adding
some kind of academic teaser to a physical activity. It requires
careful thought and planning. It requires genuine cooperation between
teachers with clearly defined learning goals. In short, it requires
time.
Unfortunately, time is something physical education teachers rarely
have in abundance. Faced weekly with hundreds of students and a
constantly changing curriculum, it's hard enough to teach physical
activities well, let alone include academic content.
Some good examples do exist. We've heard of high school teachers
from different content areas teaming together and developing truly
meaningful movement oriented learning experiences to reinforce scientific
content. We are also sharing in this section some of the ideas Jean
Blaydes has developed to reinforce elementary level content And
our section editors continue to seek ideas to reinforce interdisciplinary
learning.
This is not enough. We all know that through movement our students
could learn much more than just physical skills. So what can be
done?
One solution is for our teacher training institutions to train
future physical educators as both teachers of physical skills AND
facilitators of interdisciplinary learning. PE teachers could become
responsible for helping classroom teachers integrate movement into
their lessons. They could become the movement resource people in
our schools rather be personally responsible for instruction.
Unfortunately, at this time we are a long way from this scenario.
Resources and time are limited to help us prepare students this
way. And of course school budgets (and school climates) would need
to accommodate to this change.
Is there another solution? Finding a solution would ease the pressure
on our already overburdened PE teachers, increase the credibility
of our profession, and most important of all - improve student learning.
We'd be happy to share your ideas on these pages. Meanwhile, we'll
continue to do our best to share ideas that could promote interdisciplinary
learning. But we won't deceive you. This is an area in which we
as a profession are struggling.
Steve Jefferies
PELINKS4U Publisher
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