Inappropriate Practices in Physical Education: The Top Eight Repeat Offenders

The National Association of Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) have created three documents (elementary, middle school and high school) to guide physical educators in appropriate instructional practices (AIP) in physical education. The purpose of these documents is to aid physical educators in exposing their students to lessons and activities that will enable them to be successful in physical education classes and physical activity. Unfortunately, many students have been exposed to such activities as dodge ball, having captains picking teams in front of the whole class, and many others. This paper is a review of research dealing with appropriate instructional practices in physical education with a multitude of different populations. From these different populations, eight instructional practices have been repeatedly misidentified. These eight repeat offenders will be discussed.


Introduction
Consider the following conversation that occurred at a local supermarket 25 between a middle school physical educator and a parent, whose son is a student in 26 the physical educator's class. The parent says to the physical educator, " I loved 27 physical education class when I was a young boy". The physical educator is happy to 28 hear this; and asks the parent, "Why was your physical education experience so 29 enjoyable?" The parent proceeds by saying, "I enjoyed participation in dodge ball. I 30 remember the fun I had in throwing the ball and hitting classmates in certain parts 31 of their body that caused pain or discomfort." And then in the same breath the 32 parent continues, "when teams were created during classes I was often selected to 33 serve as a team captain." As the parent discusses the merits of these instructional 34 practices as he remembers them, the physical educator feels uncomfortable. 35 This parent has just described two inappropriate instructional practices in  44 The purpose of these documents is to aid physical educators in exposing 45 students to AIP's in physical education, thus enabling students to be successful in 46 physical activity throughout their lives (Barney, Strand & Prusak, 2013). Each of 47 these documents is organized into five sections: Learning Environment, 48 Instructional Strategies, Curriculum, Assessment and Professionalism. Each of the 49 five sections give specific appropriate and inappropriate practices found in the 50 physical education setting. 51 Theoretical Framework 52 With continued study of the AIP documents, it becomes clear that the 53 physical educator is the person who will implement these instructional practices 54 during class lessons and activities. With the implementation of AIP in physical 55 education there is a link that may facilitate a task/mastery class environment, thus 56 motivating student learning. 57 Task-involved climates are highly associated with adaptive learning 58 strategies and behaviors, such as self-referenced learning, persistence in the 59 activity, effort, good behavior and motivation (Duda, 1996). Conversely, ego-60 involved class climates are associated with maladaptive learning strategies and 61 behaviors, such as normative comparisons, task avoidance, deception and cheating, 62 discounting, bad attitudes, amotivation and withdrawal (Ames & Archer, 1988). 63 Research has demonstrated that the teacher can create a task-oriented class climate 64 that can override a students' ego oriented disposition (Prusak,Treasure,& McGee,65 1998). 66 The TARGET approach (Ames & Archer, 1988) offers a structure for physical 67 educators to create a task-oriented climate in the class. The 'T' represents the Tasks 68 students participate in class, e.g., assignments, homework, and design of tasks. The 69 'A' represents Authority of student participation in the instructional process. More 70 specifically, students "buying in" to activities that may not necessarily be their 71 favorite, but student's believe they are "worth it." The 'R' represents Recognition of 72 student accomplishments. This can be in the form of positive praise or 73 reinforcement, limiting peer comparisons and recognizing the value of and reward 74 process outcomes not just the end product. The 'G' represents Grouping of students, 75 e.g., students working with other students or groups of students.   For all of the surveys in these studies, statements were drafted from the AIP 160 documents and participants were asked to identify if they believed the instructional 161 practice described in the statement was appropriate or inappropriate in physical 162 education. In most instances the same statements were included in the surveys for 163 the various groups. 164

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From the above-mentioned studies, it should be noted that participants 166 within each group correctly identified a majority (80%) of the AIP questionnaire 167 statements as appropriate or inappropriate over the previously mentioned studies. 168 However, it was found that eight survey statements were repeatedly incorrectly 169 identified. These eight instructional practices are being labeled as 'repeat offenders'. 170 What follows is a discussion of the repeat offenders statements.

Teachers should administer physical fitness tests once or twice each year
184 for the purpose of identifying students to receive awards that meet a 185 requirement of the school district or state department. 186 A majority of participants (70%) in four groups (PETE majors, parents, 187 elementary-aged students and school administrators) incorrectly identified this 188 statement as being an appropriate instructional practice. This might suggest that 189 these groups believe that students should receive some type of recognition for 190 reaching some level of physical fitness. The form of recognition might be a trophy, a 191 certificate, or simply a ribbon. 192 One might argue that awards send the wrong message to students in that the 193 students who do not receive an award may be turned off to physical activity. 194 Obviously, this has the possibility of affecting the students' motivation to exercise 195 later in life. Those students who receive recognition may be extrinsically motivated 196 when it comes to being physically active. However, as students get older and do not 197 receive awards or recognition for participation, they may lose interest in being 198 physically active (Nicholls, 1984). 199 It is important that physical educators promote the process of testing rather  The practice of picking teams has caused many students in physical 248 education classes to experience feelings of humiliation, embarrassment, and 249 emotional scarring, has been painful, and damaging to those students who 250 experienced being picked in front of classmates (Williams, 1996). Of the five groups 251 that were studied, three of the groups that found picking teams to be an acceptable 252 instructional practice were the students themselves. It could be concluded that they 253 have been exposed to this practice since such a young age and that it is done 254 frequently. Barney and Strand (2008) found that those students who were captains 255 or those students who were picked first saw nothing wrong with this practice; 256 however, those students who are picked last or toward the end may experience 257 embarrassment or feelings of inferiority. 258 6. Outside Class Assignments are not good. 259 A majority of participants (65%) in only three groups incorrectly identified 260 this instructional practice, and not surprisingly it was middle grade students, high 261 school students, and K-12 physical education teachers who agreed with the 262 statement. There has been a culture that physical educators have not taken 263 advantage of giving homework to their students (Barney, 2010). Simply put, the 264 mind-set is that homework is not assigned in physical education class. 265 With this said, there is a great opportunity for physical educators to 266 implement homework. Giving students homework or outside-of-class assignments 267 presents an opportunity for students to be active and learn while in activity. For 268 example, a teacher can distribute pedometers and assign students to go on a walk 269 with a family member or take the dog for a walk and then have the student report

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Dodge ball is an instructional practice that many students in physical 274 education have been exposed to. For this statement, a majority of parents (84%), 275 PETE majors (67%), middle grade students (64%), elementary-aged students 276 (87%), school administrators (75%), and k-12 physical education teachers (72%) 277 incorrectly identified this game as appropriate. 278 For many people dodge ball was probably the one activity or game that

298
such as dribbling a basketball through cones. 299 A majority of participants in two groups (PETE majors and elementary-aged 300 students) incorrectly identified this statement as appropriate. A goal of physical 301 educators should be to teach skills that students are able to use their entire lives. 302 One method of supporting this idea is to put students in game-like or authentic 303 situations. When was the last time a favorite basketball player dribbled through 304 cones during a game? It doesn't happen. The same applies for assessing students.

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The assessment needs to be in a game-like or in a authentic setting. 306 Graham, Holt-Hale and Parker (2004) Table 1).

317
With the possibility of PETE majors teaching their physical education classes 318 in the same manner they were taught in k-12 settings (Doolittle, et al., 1983), PETE 319 faculties have a tremendous responsibility in the preparation of their PETE majors. 320 Many PETE majors have been exposed to a number of inappropriate instructional 321 practices in physical education as students. There is the possibility these PETE 322 majors have been exposed to inappropriate instructional practices for roughly 12 323 years of their K-12 educational experience. When these PETE majors begin their 324 teacher education classes, PETE faculties have 18 months to two years to retrain, or 325 in some cases reprogram them (the students) to think and implement AIP in the 326 classes they will be teaching. One of the audiences that the AIP documents are directed to is a parent. 339 Parents can be a very influential group when dealing with their child's education.