TRANSFORMING HPE

“We started to think about what we wanted our students to be able to do, what we wanted them to know and the kind of people we wanted them to be when they left our program,” explained domain leader Jess Wade.

Working collaboratively with us, the team created a futures-focused program, which allowed individual students to choose how they were assessed. This, together with a number of other strategies, resulted in participation rising from 75% to 100%.

“It’s a really different way of teaching. We are 'on' all the time. We are trying new things. We are working really hard. But it’s worth it, because we can identify really specific areas where we are having an impact on students.

“And that’s what teaching is, having an impact.”

Key changes

Beyond using high-impact teaching strategies, here are some of the key changes that were made.

Shift away from large-sided competitive sports

Moving away from large-sided sporting competition to an innovative, broad and balanced curriculum was a major step. The teaching team introduced small-sided games and aimed to support students in developing ‘Game Sense’.

To kick off, three different units were developed:

• Create a Game: students worked in small groups to create a new game, teach each other and to give and receive feedback.

• Beats and Bodies: a contemporary rhythmic and motor skill unit that included video choreography and linked to concepts such as body image.

• Moving communities: a unit that focused on the opportunities for movement that existed in their local communities.

All units, to varying degrees, employed the five propositions of the HPE Curriculum.

• Educative Focus

• Critical Inquiry

• Value Movement

• Health Literacy

• Strengths-Based approaches.

See our resources section at the end of this article for a practical advice on each proposition.

Activities were broken up into small groups

Small groups are now a regular feature of the HPE Curriculum at the school. Students work together to achieve a particular goal or respond to a set challenge (e.g. develop a new game never seen before, using only the equipment provided and inline with a list of parameters).

This means all students get more practice and more opportunities to make decisions, contribute and own their learning. Students also have more choice over the constraints of the task — such as the rules, space and equipment used — to better match their level of challenge.

Students can choose how they are assessed

For each unit in the new HPE program, students can choose the focus of their assessment, to give them an opportunity to demonstrate growth and learning.

For example, in the unit ‘Create a Game’, students could demonstrate their growth and learning related to either:

• Leadership

• Team-work

• Skill

• Officiate (umpire/referee)

These options have allowed students some choice around the focus of their learning, and what standards they wanted to show growth in. Over the course of the year, it was expected that students would tackle all four of the standards, but this flexibility enabled them to showcase their greatest growth and be rewarded for effort.

Year 7 student Alyssa, said this approach was much more empowering for students. “I think it’s good that the students have a voice in what they’re doing. It gives them a choice, so they’re not being forced to do something they don’t want to do.”

Teachers had a clear vision for the learning intentions

The HPE teaching team developed a clear vision for what the students are going to learn in their classes.

The curriculum was developed to span social, technical, tactical and physical domains. Data was collected to showcase student learning with a focus on what has been developed in class rather than what talents the students already had.

“While we held a value to the fundamental motor skills and the tactics that can be transferred across different sports, we also wanted to draw upon the personal and social capabilities as well.

What can other schools learn about the changes at Elisabeth Murdoch College?

The change process at EMC came with a number of challenges that needed to be addressed. Here are a few factors that could help prepare you for a similar experience.

Have ongoing support from school leadership

All too often, innovation is thwarted because the school or ‘system’ does not support it. From the outset, the school leadership at EMC invested time and money to support their HPE teachers as they created a more educative and inclusive program.

HPE teachers were given time to plan with the provision of casual relief teachers. The school also invested in ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the new HPE program.

Be ready for the ‘pit of despair’

The ‘pit of despair’ was the term the teachers gave to the lowest point in the curriculum renewal and implementation process.

After introducing many simultaneous changes, teachers felt out of their comfort zone and were being challenged. They struggled to balance student ownership with structure and control, sometimes giving too much control to learners who didn’t yet have the tools to respond in ways the teachers had planned for.

The teachers pulled together as a team, and realised how far they had come and decided there was no going back to rolling out the ball and ‘doing sport’.

They continued to hone the skills needed to facilitate more effective student-led learning.

Have a clear vision

As mentioned above, the teachers had a very clear vision about what they wanted their students to ‘be, know and do,’ once they completed their HPE at the school. This clear vision became a touch-stone when the going got tough.

The vision for the HPE program: to provide the opportunity for all students to pursue a healthy and active lifestyle through personalised learning and links to the wider Langwarrin community. Our program will encourage students to become physically confident and health literate in order to build resilience and embed values such as respectful relationships, pride and life-long learning.

To work in partnership with the HPE teachers at the school was very rewarding, particularly seeing research translated into evidence-based practice.

We would like to thank the EMC staff and students who have invested so much in making their HPE program more educative and inclusive.

Resources

In this five-part video series, Dr Karen Lambert and Dr Justen O'Connor explore the five propositions of the Australian HPE curriculum and how they might be adopted by educators:

• 1. Why critical inquiry can be a game-changer for health and physical education teachers

  2. Why PE teachers should flip their thinking when adopting a strengths-based approach

  3. How a focus on educational outcomes in HPE benefits both teachers and students

  4. How to develop health literacy in the classroom

  5. How focusing on the pleasure of movement helps HPE teachers create lessons that last a lifetime

References

Hellison, D. R. (1995). Teaching responsibility through physical activity. Champaign Il: Human Kinetics Publishers.

Meyer, J. H. F., & Land, R. (2005). Threshold Concepts and Troublesome Knowledge: Epistemological Considerations and a Conceptual Framework for Teaching and Learning. The International Journal of Higher Education and Educational Planning, 49(3), 373-388. doi:10.1007/s10734-004-6779-5

Mosston, M., and Ashworth, S. (2002). Teaching Physical Education (5th Edition ed.). San Francisco, CA: Benjamin Cummings.

Sanchez, B., Byra, M. & Wallhead, T.L. (2012) Students’ perceptions of the command, practice, and inclusion styles of teaching, Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 17:3, 317-330, DOI: 10.1080/17408989.2012.690864

Shelley, K and McCuaig, L (2018) Close encounters with critical pedagogy in socio-critically informed health education teacher education. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 23 5: 510-523. doi:10.1080/17408989.2018.1470615

Quay, J. & Peters, J. (2012). Creative Physical Education: Integrating Curriculum Through Innovative PE Projects: Human Kinetics.

What does the evidence say about fitness testing?

There are a few things that we know about fitness testing in HPE:

• most Secondary HPE teachers carry out fitness testing at least once per year with each class/grade (Alfrey & Gard, 2014).

• some children enjoy participating in fitness testing (Alfrey & Yager, 2020).

• some children find fitness testing painful, embarrassing and shameful (Alfrey & Yager, 2020; Garret & Wrench, 2008), and these feelings can persist into adulthood, to damaging effect (Sykes & McPhail, 2008).

• children’s experiences of fitness testing are not always meaningful or educational (Mercier, Phillips & Silverman, 2016).

• there is no evidence that fitness testing is successful in promoting healthy lifestyles, physical activity, or develop the required knowledge and skills for lifelong physical activity (Cale & Harris, 2009).

In addition, school-based challenges, mental health and body image are of concern for approximately a third of young Australians (Carlisle et al., 2018).

With these points in mind, this blog post shares some evidence-based thoughts related to why so many of us use fitness testing as a context for learning, and how we might work towards inclusive, safe, educational and relevant/meaningful fitness education for all students within HPE.

If we know that fitness testing is a negative experience for some students, why do we do it?

Research with 130 Victorian HPE teachers suggested that there were multiple reasons why we teach through fitness testing.

1. “It could be really good for motivation” - it is probably not surprising that we carry out fitness testing on the assumption that it will motivate the students to develop their fitness and health. One teacher suggested,

It could make them more aware of their own health. I can’t see how it would really

drive them to push harder unless it was something that they really wanted to achieve in

their football club or something; they wanted to get a certain score on the ‘beep test’...

it could be a really good motivation for that but I don’t see that it is maybe as powerful

as other people think.

2. “We’ve always done it” - For most teachers they taught through fitness testing because it was a permanent feature of their school HPE curriculum. One teacher said,

I carry out fitness testing twice per year. I do the beep test, basketball throw, sit and

reach, 1.6 km run, height, weight, shoulder stretch, sit ups. I do it because it is set out in

our schools curriculum that students should do fitness testing at the beginning of term 1

and beginning of term 4.

3. “It’s easy” - Two teachers suggested,

Well it’s easy to administer in large groups, a history teacher could do it. Here’s a tape,

line them up, measure a tape of 20 metres, it’s easy to do, it doesn’t cost much.

I think it’s really easy to implement, and it’s just kind of a slack way to take a class. It’s

an easy class to take because you’ve got all the rules set out. I don’t think it’s great personally.

As part of these conversations with HPE teachers, one shared that

I think we rush the fitness test unit. We do all of the tests...then what? Students don’t

analyse their data or compare it to norms. They don’t set goals or give strategies on how

they can improve. Fitness testing would be better if teachers were more informed, and

taught it more thoroughly.

Similarly, another teacher said,

I think that’s the biggest problem with us is that we try to get through it, we get through

as much as we can... It’s pretty full on and fast. It’d be better to be able to reflect more

and have the time to sit down and say ‘right look at your things, this is what it means’.

These quotations show that when given the time and space to reflect on fitness testing, we as HPE teachers have some valuable ideas about how we could ensure fitness testing is inclusive, safe, educational and meaningful for all students.

The future of fitness testing?

If we start by linking to some of the suggestions shared by teachers above, we can begin to envisage fitness testing that:

• has a clear learning intention and educative purpose;

• is relevant and meaningful to all students’ lives;

• is not rushed, and students have the time to explore, critique and learn in, through and about fitness testing;

• provides opportunities for students to reflect on the process and identify what they have learned, how they feel, how the experience is meaningful and useful to their day-to-day-lives etc.

In addition, it is also important to think about whether, for example:

• students will carry out the testing as a group, in a circuit, at home/individually?

• the fitness testing is carried out as an isolated practice or if it is linked to other learning experiences throughout the term/year?

• students have choice over the tests they participate in?

• students have to participate in validated tests or if they can develop their own?

• the data will be collected and, if so, by who? And for what purpose?

• the data will be shared and, if so, for what purpose?

• you have a mechanism for knowing how the fitness testing process is making your students feel?

This post began by stating where fitness testing ‘fits’ in the VCHPE context, and we will end by sharing the ‘5 Key Ideas’ of the VCHPE as a means to prompt some further questions about what fitness testing, and fitness education more broadly, could look like in your school.

1. Focus on educative purposes - is fitness testing part of a developmentally appropriate and explicit learning experience within HPE? Are students are provided with learning opportunities to practise, create, apply and evaluate the knowledge, understanding and skills related to fitness?

2. Take a strengths-based approach - is there an explicit focus on student strengths related to fitness and fitness testing? Does your fitness education curriculum recognise that students have varying levels of access to personal and community resources depending on a variety of contextual factors that will impact on their decisions and behaviours related to fitness?

3. Value movement - will your fitness education curriculum encourage ongoing participation across your students’ lifespan and in turn lead to positive health outcomes? Are fitness and physical performance explored from a range of perspectives, including scientific, social, cultural and historical? Does fitness education provide challenges and opportunities for students to enhance a range of personal and social skills and behaviours that contribute to health and wellbeing?

4. Develop health literacy - does your fitness education curriculum allow for students to research, apply, understand, and critically analyse information related to fitness (as a sub-component of physical health)?

5. Include a critical inquiry approach - does your fitness education curriculum engage students in critical inquiry processes that assist students in researching, analysing, applying and appraising knowledge related to fitness? Do students have opportunities to critically analyse and critically evaluate contextual factors that influence decision-making, behaviours and actions, and explore inclusiveness, power inequalities, assumptions, diversity and social justice as they relate to fitness and health more broadly?

This post has posed many questions. Once you have time to think about them, you will be in a position to decide if your fitness education curriculum, and fitness testing practices in particular, are ‘fit for the test’. Like some of the teachers whose opinions were shared in this post, you may feel that your fitness education curriculum could be more inclusive, safe, educational and meaningful for all students. If that is the case, and if changes are going to be made in your school, you are going to need support from a range of sources, including your colleagues, principal, professional organisations offering professional development (see ACHPER) and others.

If you have any questions, or would like some support in transforming your fitness education, then please contact laura.alfrey@monash.edu

Reference this article:

Alfrey, L. (2020) Putting fitness education to the test in HPE. Retrieved from: https://sites.google.com/monash.edu/transforminghpe/home

According to the Department Education and Training, Victoria, assessment is the ongoing process of:

• gathering, analysing and interpreting evidence

• reflecting on findings

• making informed and consistent judgments to improve student learning.

Assessment for improved student learning and deep understanding requires a range of assessment practices to be used with three overarching purposes:

Assessment for learning:

• occurs when teachers use inferences about student progress to inform their teaching (formative assessment)

Assessment as learning:

• occurs when students reflect on and monitor their progress to inform their future learning goals (formative assessment)

Assessment of learning:

• occurs when teachers use evidence of student learning to make judgements on student achievement against goals and standards (summative assessment - this is arguably the least exciting use of assessment).

Differentiated Assessment

Differentiating assessment occurs when learners with teacher support target their assessment in ways that account for the learning of every student in every class, regardless of their starting point. The objective of differentiated assessment is to support growth in all students. Differentiation benefits students across the learning continuum, including students who are highly able and gifted.

When differentiating assessment to suit the needs of individual students, teachers use a variety of strategies to help students become personally invested in and take ownership of the assessment and their learning. Differentiated assessment allows students at risk of disengagement to receive feedback and demonstrate growth with effort.

Creative possibilities for assessment

• teacher-centered practices, often employing a ‘command’ teaching style (e.g. ‘stand opposite your partner and kick the ball to one another’);

• a disproportionate focus on adult versions of competitive, large-sided team games, with many students on the side-lines, both literally and figuratively;

• an exposure model of 3-4 week cycles of different introductions to sports, leaving no time to learn much at all and;

• a limited focus on educative purpose (i.e. what are the students learning and why?).

Combined, these elements can contribute to PE that:

• positions learners as passive, empty vessels which will be ‘filled’ by the knowledge of the teacher;

• usually only provides athletic, strong and coordinated (often, male, white and straight) learners with the opportunity to experience success. The large-sided games which are often synonymous with PE mean that many learners either choose not to engage or do not have an opportunity to do so;

• provides only cursory introductions to a range of activities in the hope that something will stick with someone;

• does not always have a clear learning intention communicated to the learners, leaving the question ‘why?’ lingering on the tips of their tongues.

With the context set, we can now shift to the intention of this post, which is hopefully much brighter in tone than what has come thus far. The intention here is to highlight some of the opportunities that lay before us for transforming how PE is taught and perceived. We are going to share some observations and practical examples about what we could do to allow young people to continue engaging with meaningful PE within remote or socially-distanced PE.

Opportunity 1 - Collaborate, Connect and/or Share

Thanks to social media we are able to collaborate, connect and/or share ideas with people all over the globe. This is a tremendous opportunity to learn, for example, how H/PE is enacted in other countries, share resources that support learning, and develop critical friendships to enhance our teaching practice. With the aforementioned closure of schools, people are creating, connecting and sharing resources to support students in learning through remote or socially distanced PE and whilst also working within the restrictions set in their locality (i.e. social distancing, quarantine, self-isolation). These people include PE teachers, teacher educators, governing bodies, and personal trainers. All efforts in this regard are admirable and well-meaning. That said, as PE teachers there are some questions we need to ponder before we ‘share’ a #PEathome video/activity/resource with our students:

1. Does it help me achieve the learning intention/educative purpose of my planned lesson/unit/subject?

2. Do ALL students have an equal opportunity to learn, be sufficiently challenged and experience success (e.g. do all students have the resources they need to complete the task set)?

If the answer is ‘no’ to either of these questions, then we might think about how we can complement the video/activity/resource with some reflective questions or guidance. For example, your students might participate in an online workout, assuming it would prompt them to learn, value movement, and the experience would have meaning now and into the future. Depending on your learning intention, we could ask students to respond to questions such as: ‘How did you feel before, during and after the exercise? Why?’ ‘Was this fun to do on your own or would you prefer to do it with someone else? Why?’ ‘What exercises did you or could you adapt to make them harder or easier for you?’ ‘What energy systems were being used over the course of the workout?’ ‘What muscles were contracting during the plank?’ ‘What kinds of muscle contraction did we experience when doing the push-ups?’). These questions would obviously be determined by the age and stage of the students you are working with.

*Collaborate, connect and share, but ensure the video/activity/resource is or can be educative and aligned with your learning intention*

Opportunity 2 - Go beyond ‘Traditional’ PE

Many teachers have strong ties to traditional approaches to PE, and it is easy to understand why. Most PE teachers experienced traditional PE as a student, they succeeded at it, they therefore chose a career that allowed them to allow young people to experience the same successes, and that career can progress very well without another version of PE being witnessed or grappled with. There are of course exceptions (e.g. see this article). In this era of COVID-19, with many young people not allowed to go to school, we have an opportunity, whether we like it or not, to do PE differently. Perhaps we can move toward a PE:

• with a clear educative purpose?

• that is more student centered, allowing learners to play a more active role in their learning (e.g. design their own game/activity instead of playing a traditional one). Create a challenge course that involves 4 different movement forms - how many practice trials did it take to see only small improvements in your time? Create a new challenge with a piece of equipment you have at home (bike, ball, bat…). Organise a street game of tag, rounders, or hide and seek - what interpersonal skills were needed to get this game going?

• with a focus on aspects of PE that go beyond competitive team games (e.g. knowledge and skills related to promoting personal, social and community health, rhythmic and expressive movement, challenge and adventure activities, local pick up games)?

• that provides students with an opportunity to develop critical inquiry and health literacy skills (e.g. identify the resources available to you and others that support personal, social and community health/physical activity/movement)

*Forced out of our usual context, we have to look beyond traditional PE and plan for learning in different ways*

Opportunity 3 - Change the perception of PE

PE has always been a marginalised learning area with limited status in the broader school and education context. We just chase balls...apparently. I state this here because assuming we take advantage of Opportunity 2 (Go Beyond Traditional PE), we have the additional opportunity of changing how PE is perceived by people beyond our learning area. This can only happen if we are careful about how we respond to Opportunity 1 (Collaborate, Connect and/or Share), and be cautious about who we collaborate and connect with in the name of PE. A key question for us to ask ourselves here is: Is the person who developed this video/activity/resource focusing on Physical Education or just physical activity. If there is no education involved then it is not physical education it is physical activity. Getting the nation moving and healthy is admirable and brilliant, but it is not education. If we allow a celebrity Personal Trainer to replace PE then we are sending a very clear message about our learning area; that PE is only concerned with physical activity in the moment, not about learning how to support personal, social and community health now and in the future.

*Create #PEathome that goes beyond physical activity, and seeks to educate in, through and about health and movement. Parents/carers might learn, perceptions might change, and our value as PE teachers might be seen*

Opportunity 4 - Encourage student voice and choice

A shift to remote PE means that by necessity we have had to re-consider our position as the main decision-maker in this context. We now have an ideal opportunity to embrace a PE where we continue to use our expertise to create the (remote/online) learning environment, but at the same time provide opportunities for students to make decisions about the route they take to attaining the assigned learning intention. Assuming alignment with the learning intention, through remote PE, students could decide, for example:

• the kind of movement they engage with, thus making the experience more meaningful;

• the mode through which they share evidence of their learning (e.g. written on a Google Doc, video on FlipGrid);

• ways to move and be physically active, alone and with others, whilst navigating the constraints that accompany COVID-19;

• how they feel about movement and their remote PE more broadly.

*When planning remote PE, be mindful of opportunities to invite students to make decisions and to have their voice heard. This may enhance student engagement and learning.*

Whilst this time is characterised by crisis and chaos, and many teachers around the world are feeling anxious about the task of teaching PE remotely, we have an opportunity to transform how PE is taught and perceived, for the better. We are not suggesting do more, but we are suggesting doing PE differently.

This is our chance to show people beyond the PE profession how much we contribute to society, let's not waste it!

#HPEathome Resources

Originally we were going to share some suggestions, but we have decided to instead prompt you to go to Twitter and search #PEathome, #HPEathome or #PETEathome and then ask yourself some of the questions we shared in this post to help you decide if you should or could use what you find in your remote teaching.