Weeks 11, 12, & 13 Assignment:
Assignment: Teaching Analysis Project (20 points)
You can complete this assignment in two ways based on your present situation.
A) If you are now teaching physical education, you can complete it more as an action research project or as a self-study if you would like.
In action research, you would implement something NEW (a different strategy that you haven’t used before or a new curricular unit) and collect data to see how well it works. The implementation should take place over at least 4 lessons. Many of the questions/topics below would apply to gauging the effectiveness of your new action(s). You would use data collection methods (selected from our text) to collect appropriate data to answer your questions. Some would come from your analyses of video taped lessons, some perhaps from your journaling, some perhaps from your students (questionnaires, interviews, etc.) to see how they feel as consumers of the new strategy, curricular unit, etc.
If doing more of a self-study, you would need to video tape yourself and analyze them in a variety of ways to be able to answer questions identified as important to your own development as a teacher.
B) If you aren’t teaching physical education, you will need to complete the project by observing in physical education classes and following the guidelines as described in the assignment. Conduct 4 observations in a K-12 school setting. You can observe the same class 4 times (4 different days) or observe different classes each time (4 class observations that could be done in one day). It’s your choice. During your observations, you should use some of the methods outlined in Chapter 14 of Rink’s (6th edition) text or others learned in the course. Select the best techniques to fit the information that you are attempting to gather to answer the questions you are trying to answer.
For each observation, select two questions from the list below as your observation foci and plan accordingly. Make sure that you have different foci for each class observation (observe 4 classes and answer a total of 8 questions).
Regardless of the choice you make above (A or B), use the following guidelines for your project.
It is critical that you respond to 2 different questions for each observation.
It is also critical that you select the appropriate data collection technique to be able to answer each question.
For example, if you are trying to answer the first question below, you would need to use the duration recording form to measure instruction, management, and activity time. All methods selected should allow you to specifically answer the questions by providing data (not just opinion).
Guidelines for the Project:
Questions to answer during the observations (2 questions/each class observation):
1. How is class time being used?
2. How many students are actively engaged in the learning process throughout the class and who are they?
3. What are the teaching strategies used to accomplish this?
4. What are the physical and emotional learning environments like?
5. What are the teaching strategies used to prevent disruptive behaviors?
6. When disruptive behaviors occur, what does the teacher do to effectively handle them?
7. How does the teacher create an inclusive learning environment?
8. How does the teacher assess for learning and re-teach, if necessary?
Summary Report Format (Both A and B):
1. Description of the Setting(s) (Grade level(s), number of students, school environment, curriculum content, lesson content, objectives, etc.)
2. Description of Each Observation (4 separately if B above) or Description of Implementation of New Strategy (at least 4 lessons if A above) (Questions asked in each, how data were collected for each, what were your findings for each)
3. Summary of Primary or Major Findings (across all 4 observations (A) or all 4 lessons (B))
4. Recommendations (changes you would make in teaching behaviors, class organization, curriculum content, etc. based on Rink text and other readings).
Use APA to reference sources to support your observations (B), innovations (A), and recommendations (in paper text) throughout your project and in a reference list at the end (A & B).
