EPHE 452 - Strategies for teaching games in physical education
EPHE 452 - Strategies for teaching games in physical education
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Methods of teaching game activities to students in middle and secondary schools and related groups.
Through the class discussions, activity sessions, projects and assignments EPHE 452 focuses on the following competencies (see equivalent UVic teacher education competencies in brackets):
EPHE Competency #4 – Managing People and Projects – By developing an understanding of how learners learn able to cultivate effective learning environments in a school culture (UVic #12),
EPHE Competency #6 - Community engagement and inter-professional collaboration - Engage with your wider community and professional groups promoting energy from implementing and sharing ideas, and exploring solutions to challenges in promoting socially just practices (UVic # 8),
EPHE Competency #10 - Scientific and discipline knowledge – through experiential learning develop a deeper understanding of discipline concepts (UVic #9).
EPHE Competency #12 - Instructional techniques and assessment - implementing pedagogically context-appropriate and sound practices linking assessment and instructional strategies to engage all students (UVic #11).
Adopting an indigenous approach to learning and our interactions with each other, we will also be engaging more deeply with the following Lil'wat principles:
Celhcelh (each person being responsible for their own learning and the learning of others, always seeking learning opportunities)
Kamúcwkalha (acknowledging the felt energy indicating group attunement and the emergence of a common group purpose)
Cwelelep (recognizing the need to sometimes be in a place of dissonance and uncertainty, to be open to new learning)
A7xekcal (valuing our own expertise and considering how it helps the entire community beyond ourselves)
Emhaka7 (encouraging each of us to do the best we can at each task given to us)
Competency Goals
Competency Goals
What are your learning goals for this course in relation to the competencies?
What are your learning goals for this course in relation to the competencies?
EPHE Competency #4 – Managing People and Projects: Get better at running groups and roles so lessons feel organized and everyone stays involved. I want to be more intentional with how I group students, how I rotate teams, and how I assign simple roles like captain, equipment manager, scorer, or coach so the class runs smoother. The goal is fewer bottlenecks, less waiting, and more time actually playing, while still keeping the environment safe and fair. (focus on grouping and roles)
EPHE Competency #6 – Community engagement and inter-professional collaboration: Build a stronger habit of collaborating by sharing ideas, swapping resources, and using feedback to solve real teaching problems. I want to connect more with classmates, teachers, and PE communities so I’m not planning alone, and so I keep learning better ways to support inclusive and socially just practice. (focus on collaboration)
EPHE Competency #10 – Scientific and discipline knowledge: Strengthen my discipline knowledge in a way that shows up in my teaching by understanding the big ideas behind games. I want to keep improving how I connect tactics, decision-making, and skill learning to what students are doing in the activity, so my cues and task descriptions align with the goals of the lessons.
EPHE Competency #12 - Instructional techniques and assessment: Make my assessment and feedback more useful and motivating by keeping it clear, fast, and connected to the task. I want students to know what success looks like, get feedback that points to one or two next steps, and feel like effort and progress matter, not just who is naturally the best.
What do you understand from the Lil'wat principles of learning? How would you incorporate these into your learning practices?
What do you understand from the Lil'wat principles of learning? How would you incorporate these into your learning practices?
Bring the Lil’wat principles into how I learn and work with others by taking real responsibility for my own learning while also helping the people around me (Celhcelh). I want to be more aware of group energy and help the group lock in on a shared purpose (Kamúcwkalha), stay open when I’m in that uncomfortable “I don’t get it yet” zone (Cwelelep), use what I’m good at to support the wider group and community instead of keeping it to myself (A7xekcal), and show consistent effort and care in each task even when it’s messy (Emhaka7).
Assignments
Assignments
This assignment shows my growth in discipline knowledge through the way I worked with journal articles and NotebookLM to better understand ideas connected to teaching and learning in PE. Writing the summaries and reflections helped me break down research in a way that felt more practical and connected to real teaching situations, especially when thinking about my missed Lesson 5 class reflection. The artifacts from this assignment connect strongly to Scientific and discipline knowledge because they show my ability to engage with research and course concepts, and to Instructional techniques and assessment because they helped me think about how those ideas could actually inform my teaching practice. This assignment also connects to Community engagement and inter-professional collaboration because it involved learning from the work of others and thinking about how research-based ideas can be shared and discussed with peers and other educators.
My peer teaching experience showed me that planning a lesson is very different from actually teaching it. It made me more aware of how much clarity, timing, and communication matter in the moment, especially when trying to keep students engaged while still making the purpose of the task clear. It also helped me reflect on the gap between what I intended students to learn and what they may have actually experienced, which pushed me to think more carefully about how I design and explain activities. Working through this process with a partner and then reflecting on feedback also reminded me that teaching develops through collaboration, adjustment, and being honest about what worked and what still needs improvement.
My work experience with Smashball helped me see how much teaching depends on noticing and responding in the moment, not just having a plan prepared beforehand. It showed me the importance of designing tasks that are simple enough for students to enter successfully, while still creating opportunities for decision-making, teamwork, and skill development. It also made me reflect on how much student learning can improve when activities are modified in ways that increase engagement and clarity, rather than focusing only on technical perfection. Overall, this experience helped me better understand how thoughtful task design, observation, and adjustment all work together in real teaching practice.
Exit Interview Reflections
Exit Interview Reflections
Reflection: What were the key insights you gained from the interview?
One key insight I gained from the interview was that a lot of my growth this term came from learning to slow down and pay closer attention to what students actually needed in the moment. I realized that when I was too focused on moving the lesson along, especially in a short middle school block, the learning foundation was not always there. The feedback helped me see that smaller games, clearer structure, and more intentional pacing led to better engagement and better learning outcomes.
Another big insight was that motivation and inclusion are a lot more complicated in a full class than they are in one-on-one support work. I found that I could build strong learning communities with most students, but there were still a few who were harder to reach, and that showed me where I still need to grow. The interview reinforced that assessment can also be a tool for inclusion by giving students different ways to participate and show engagement.
Goal: What are your specific goals to grow as a teacher in the next term?
My specific goals for next term are to get better at building assessment and reflection into my teaching earlier, instead of adding it at the end. I want to use those tools from the beginning of a unit so I can better see student growth over time and adjust my teaching as I go. That feels like an important next step for me.
I also want to keep improving at adapting the one-on-one strategies I learned through inclusion work into a full class setting. A big goal for me is getting better at reaching students who are reluctant, disengaged, or need a different entry point into the lesson. More than anything, I want to keep building my awareness as a teacher so I can respond better to both the overall group dynamic and the individual students within it.
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