Contemporary Issues in Physical Education
Individual Reflection
Deni Darvill
10180938
Introduction
In this reflection I will identify and describe a critical incident which occurred during my volleyball placement/festival at St Peter’s and St Paul’s school. I will also identify and describe the subsequent strategy that I employed in order to overcome the issue. I will contextualize the problem and strategy by discussing relevant literature and research. I will also critically reflect on why I believe this problem occurred and the effectiveness of my chosen strategy/solution. As a result of my reflections I will finish this reflection by identifying detailed, tangible actions I would put in place to prevent the problem arising in the future.
Critical Incident
My volleyball coaching placement at St Peter’s and St Pauls’ overall ran very smoothly, I thought, with everyone learning new techniques and skills each week whilst having fun on their lunch break each Monday afternoon. However, there were a couple of individuals in the group who misbehaved each week and made it harder for me as a coach, to coach. There could be a number of reasons as to why a couple of children misbehaved however Denham and Burton (2003) stated that children usually misbehave when they lack knowledge and experience. I believe this could have been one of the reasons I had issues with behaviour within my volleyball group as many children were new to the sport, therefore lacking knowledge and experience. With this said however, there was not a great deal of either aspect needed, as this was a lunchtime activity purely based around fun where the children took part in tournaments against each other each week and played games, whilst learning the basic skills and techniques in order to do so, safely.
Habenicht and Burton (2004) stated that factors such as physical conditions and emotional climate can be reasons behind children misbehaving. As this placement was inside in the sports hall each week I do not think it was possible for physical conditions such as weather change or temperature to cause individuals to misbehave. However it is possible that emotional climate may have had an effect. Although I always remained kind and caring to the group, Habenicht and Burton (2004) state that tension, unfairness and impatience are all seeds that grow into problem behaviour. I noticed an individual in the group would get angry if he was not always put with all of his friends and deem it as unfair. However I had to make the teams fair due to the different age ranges. Another individual also got very impatient at times with other members of his team who were of a lower ability, causing their team to sometimes lose points against their opponents, which resulted in him misbehaving and refusing to take part or play within certain teams. I therefore think emotional climate was the main reason behind the behaviour problem. This issue amongst a minority of the lunchtime group was the only issue I feel I had throughout the duration of the placement. The reoccurring problem first began in the second week of the placement. At this stage, I was coaching the group the correct techniques and skills within volleyball i.e. digging and setting, by giving them demonstrations and getting them to demonstrate back in order for me to amend anything they were doing incorrectly, if necessary. A couple of the children may have got bored with doing this, which may have been a result of their bad behaviour, however I felt it was important to re-cap as new participants joined each week and had to be aware of how to play correctly in order to avoid injury. As the weeks went on the bad behaviour was still occurring and I therefore had to act on it for the sake of myself, and everyone else in the group.
Strategy/Solution
Physical education experts agree that a lack of behaviour management skills is the most significant barrier to effective teaching (Rink, 2006; Siedentop and Tannehill, 2000). Cook et al. (2000) stated that there are numerous methods to maintain, increase and reduce behaviours. The behavioural approach includes methods that involve manipulation of the environment, such as reorganising the physical or social environment or using positive reinforcement. Cook et al. (2000) also stated that participants must know what to expect from you and what you expect of them. When looking at literature, I discovered different behavioural methods which are put in place in order to tackle the issue. When attempting to change student behaviour, teachers may choose from a variety of strategies (NASPE, 1995). Literature such as Lavay et al. (1997) established that punishing procedures will not teach proactive behaviours, they will only teach students which behaviours to avoid, and, in some cases, actually serve as rewards because they bear attention-eliciting qualities (Kazdin, 2001).
At first, I tried the premack principle. This states that you can use highly reinforcing activities to promote less popular behaviours (Premack, 1959). An example of this is when individuals successfully complete five volleyball digs in pairs (less popular activity) during the first ten minutes of practise, then they can play a volleyball game (more popular activity) for the remainder of the session. During the first couple of sessions when the bad behaviour began this is the example I used. The group got in pairs and completed the digs, and only when they were done sensibly and correct, where they allowed to begin playing against each other. The premack principle is effective because you can use activities that the individuals desire as an incentive (Lavay et al., 2006). With that said however, this did not prove to be a very successful behavioural method for me as the same individuals within the group still misbehaved and did not complete the beginning tasks as shown. I therefore researched into other methods to see if another would make a difference.
I decided to then try public posting. This method involves publicly posting the names of individuals who have successfully performed the desired behaviour (Lavay et al., 2006). Throughout the sessions I gave positive feedback, mentioning specific participant names, to the rest of the group in order to see if this would have an effect on those misbehaving, to show them that they were more likely to get attention if they were behaving like the rest of the group. This seemed to work but only for a short period of time and a couple of the boys within different teams in the session continued to misbehave and start arguments with their peers, especially when losing.
As a supportive, structured, consistent and proactive approach to behaviour management is important to student success (Winnick, 2010), I finally tried the extrinsic reinforcement strategy, following the unsuccessful intrinsic strategies beforehand, hoping that this would have the greatest positive effect. Studies have provided mixed results on whether extrinsic reinforcement undermines intrinsic reinforcement (Lavay et al., 2006). Different types of intrinsic and extrinsic reinforcement exist along a continuum ranging from unmotivated to extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation (Weinburg and Gold, 2003). In order to try and overcome the issue of behaviour with certain individuals within the lunchtime club, I made it clear at the beginning of each session that each session was building up to the volleyball festival and the winning team at the festival, provided they were all behaved throughout, would win a trophy that would have their team name on. I also told the group that I would mention all good behaviour to their teacher who would provide them with a stamp in their school book. To my surprise, this seemed to have an instant positive effect on the group and for the final few weeks the behaviour improved massively. Every child within the group became more competitive and worked a lot better within their teams each week (no arguing or aggression) against each other in the mini tournaments, as they knew they had something to play for. I made notes during the following few sessions about the improvement in behaviour in order to stick to my word and be fair when handing out the trophy to the team at the festival.
Tangible Actions for the Future
As a result of this reflection of my placement, there are a number of actions I would put in place in order to prevent a behaviour issue in the future. The first action would be the extrinsic reinforcement strategy due to it working extremely well with the volleyball group I coached at St Peter’s and St Paul’s. I believe it motivates the group more than the other behaviour strategies as it gives them something to work towards in which they can receive if they put the effort in, for example a trophy or medal, or stickers, depending on the age range of the group. In order to put this in place before there is a chance for behaviour issues to occur again in the future, I would mention this extrinsic reinforcement strategy at the beginning of my coaching placement. I would inform everyone in the group that good behaviour throughout gets recognised and tangible reinforcers can be received. Depending on the age range would depend on the reinforcers I would use. However, if after a while this strategy began to wear off a bit I felt people within the group had maybe forgotten, I would use prompting. Prompting can be given before or during the behaviour (Lavay et al., 2006). So, in this case I would prompt during bad behaviour or disruption, in order to give a reminder which would hopefully put the children back on track. Lavay et al. (2006) state that prompts can be verbal, physical or environmental. For the future during my coaching sessions I would choose to use verbal prompts. For example, instead of saying “stop misbehaving and causing disruption” I would say “those who are misbehaving are less likely to win the trophy at the end of this session”. I would then reinforce those individuals who perform the desired behaviour.
Another action I would use for the future would be the token economy system, as it is a delayed method of reinforcement (Lavay et al., 2006) and therefore can be used over a longer period of time, which would be a good action to use if I was to use it from the beginning of a new placement in the future. The token economy system consists of individuals immediately receiving a token for a successful performance of the desired behaviour, and later exchanging the tokens for a reinforcer. The tokens could be stickers or smiley faces on a wall chart, and after an individual has collected a certain amount, they receive something such as a medal or a ‘class member of the week’ certificate. For older participants, Lavay et al. (2006) recommend recording check-marks on a point card. These could build up to something such as house points, or a phonecall home to parents to inform them of the good behaviour. Similar to the extrinsic reinforcers, which the token economy system can build up to, it gives the individuals something to work towards and I believe it would maintain their motivation levels and make them work hard, in order to be recognised.
Conclusion
After completing this volleyball placement, I believe it went well and was well organised each week in terms of the coaching and timing. If I had used extrinsic reinforcers nearer the beginning of the placement maybe the behaviour issues would not have occurred however I have learnt from it and will benefit when I coach in the future. Reinforcing procedures foster positive feelings while punishing procedures promote negative feelings. If reinforcing procedures are used to change behaviours, a child is therefore more likely to develop a healthy self-image, along with a positive attitude toward teachers and school. Punishing procedures will never contribute to positive feelings (Ormrod, 2003). Due to my experience I believe tangible reinforcers have the best effect on bad behaviour and hopefully the actions I have stated that I would use in the future, will work as expected should I need to use them.
Reference List
Cook, B. G., Tankersley, M., Cook, L., and Landrum, T. L. (2000) Teachers’ attitudes toward their included students with disabilities. Exceptional Children, 67 (1), pp. 115-135.
Denham, S., and Burton, R. (2003) Social and emotional prevention and intervention programming for preschoolers. New York: Plenum Publishers.
Habenicht, D., and Burton, L. (2004) Teaching the Faith: An Essential Guide for Building Faith-shaped Kids. USA: Review and Herald Publishing, pp. 107.
Kazdin, A. E. (2001) Behavior modification in applied settings (6th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Thomson Learning.
Lavay, W. B., French, R., & Henderson. H. L. (1997) Positive behavior management strategies for physical educators. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Lavay, B. W., French, R., and Henderson, H. L. (2006) Positive Behaviour Management in Physical Activity Settings (2nd Ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
National Association for Sport Physical Education. (1995) Moving into the future: National Standards for Physical Education. St. Louis, MO: Mosby.
Omrod, J. E. (2003) Educational psychology: Developing learners (4th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill, Prentice, Hall.
Partin, R. (2009) The Classroom Teacher’s Survival Guide; Nuturing Positive Student Behavior (3rd Ed.). CA: Jossey-Bass.
Premack, D. (1959) Toward empirical behavioural laws: I. Positive reinforcement. Psychological Review, 66, pp. 219-233.
Rink, J. E. (2006) Teaching Physical Education for Learning (5th Ed.). Mc-Graw-Hill.
Siedentop, D., and Tannehill D. (2000) Developing Teaching Skills in Physical Education (4th Ed.). Mountainview, CA: Mayfield.
Weinberg R. S., and Gould, D. (2003) Foundations of sport exercise psychology (3rd Ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Winnick, J. (2010) Adapted Physical Education and Sport (5th Ed.). United States: Human Kinetics, pp. 224.