Description

BACKGROUND
The earliest teachers of physical activity defined “how they taught” as the physical education method, a direct and formal approach that called for teachers to follow accepted procedures closely and which gave students a limited role in the operation of classes. Essentially, the teacher gave directions and the students followed them. Most activities, regardless of context and grade level, were instructed with this approach. In the 1960s physical educators expanded the concept of method to include some innovative teaching strategies and teaching styles, the latter set forth in Musska Mosston’s (1966) Spectrum of Teaching Styles. Both of these developments served to open up the possibilities for how teachers could plan and implement instruction in our field. A third movement began in the 1980s that viewed effective teaching as a constellation of decisions and actions that led students to increased levels of learning. Teachers developed a repertoire of effective teaching skills that they applied within strategies and styles. So, after the use of the physical education method for more than a half century, suddenly there were many innovative ways to instruct students in the growing content in P–12 programs.

Over the past 40 years a fourth movement has arisen in the search for ways to teach physical education and other subjects. Although that movement has taken longer to grow, it has been argued by Metzler (2011) that its time has come as the best way to conceptualize how we teach physical activity to all students. Bruce Joyce and Marsha Weil published their first edition of Models of Teaching in 1972. In it, they made a case that instruction should comprise “structured, logically consistent, cohesive, and lucidly described patterns of teaching” (p. 1). Each distinctive set of those patterns is called a teaching model, which ties together theory, planning, classroom management, learning activities, and assessment. The scope of each model’s perspective on instruction is much larger, and more holistic than our current notions of method, strategies, styles, and skill. A models approach is meant to address long-term learning outcomes—those intended for entire units and even programs.

We now have many well-articulated and effective instructional models. Most of them have been developed in other subject areas and adapted for physical education, such as Cooperative Learning, Personalized Systems of Instruction (PSI), and Direct Instruction. A few of them have been developed exclusively for teaching students physical activity and related concepts. Sport Education, Tactical Games, and the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility models presented in Metzler (2011) book were developed by physical educators for use in elementary, secondary, and college/adult instruction. What we now have is a group of models that have been developed separately, and which appear in isolated books and journals. What we need in PE curriculum development is a model-based perspective for instructing physical education that will help teachers to learn about, select, and practice these comprehensive patterns of teaching. It is my hope that reviewing these models will sow the seed for you to explore them further as you advance through the PHE major and PE minor/teachable area program. This will help to us a physical educators to develop our capacity to plan PE programs (Adapted from Metzler (2011, pp. xv-xvi).
Additional reading - https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315213521

Overview of PE Instructional Models This page is part of the collection 'PE Models of instruction'.

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