Assignment:
a) What differentiates ‘curriculum’ gymnastics in the primary school PE curriculum from its more formal cousin ‘Olympic’ gymnastics?
With the aim of the educational system in making students healthier through proper nutrition and activities, most schools nowadays are trying to consider curriculum gymnastics as early as the primary school. This is done as part of the Physical Education curriculum of the educational institutions. Gymnastics is being defined as exercises for the developing balanced of the body. The difference between curriculum gymnastics and Olympics gymnastics are very common. Olympic gymnastics is divided into various disciplines for women and men. Male athletes compete on pommel horse, parallel bars, rings, horizontal bar, vault, floor exercises as well as on trampoline. On one hand, women attempts to become competent on the floor exercises, balance beam, vault, uneven parallel bars, and trampoline and on the rhythmic gymnastics. Usually, the Olympic gymnastics typically emphasized strength and power for men and grace and movement for women (Girls Talk Sports, 2005).
On the other hand, curriculum gymnastics does not usually specify the role of gender with gymnastics. The main goal of this is to be able to promote the context of gymnastics as recreational, educational, competitive and health-related activities, unlike what is being considered in the Olympics gymnastics. Curriculum gymnastics aims informing the students about gymnastics as a whole and introducing to them the health and physical benefits of gymnastics, not as a sport but as a form of exercise.
b) How can gymnastics in the primary school curriculum be made more interesting and relevant for the current generation of ‘cyber savvy’ pupils?
In the educational arena, the concept of student interest on a specific subject is used to explain the degree to which students’ pursuit in focusing their attention to the teacher during the teaching-learning process, classroom tasks or school-related activities. Student motivation depends on the learners’ personal experiences (Brophy, 2004, p. 4). Their willingness to engage in classroom activities and their reasons for doing so vary from one another motivation is subjective. It relies on a person’s interest about the things he does in the classroom. For instance, if the subject matter is mathematics, the teacher cannot expect everyone to actively participate in the lesson because not all students’ favorite subject has something to do with numbers. To motivate others, the teacher needs to integrate the other subjects in order to attract students’ attention no matter how difficult the subject is. A subject matter can be presented in an interesting way if teachers only know how to apply different teaching strategies according to the students’ needs and age level.
To be able to make gymnastics become interesting for the primary school, specifically for those cyber savvy pupils, the instructor must be able to mention the importance of this kind of physical activities to the health of the people. In addition, to be able to make the curriculum more interesting, the instructor should also consider different techniques on teaching gymnastics among students. The first is the explanation of the importance of gymnastics and how it becomes a popular sport in the Olympics. The next is the consideration of different apparatus which can stimulate the interest of the students, since they will become curious on apparatus like trampoline, balance beam and others. The teacher can also let the students research on the internet the value of gymnastics and its benefits to make them gain interest on this subject.
c) What content and teaching strategies would you employ to ensure maximum participation?
One of the challenges educators face in teaching students are the ability to maintain learners’ interest in studying, in this case, in teaching gymnastics and to realize the importance of finishing this curriculum. Most children have different learning styles and personalities but they all need to get involved in classroom or physical education activities and do their tasks before they can proceed to higher levels of educational attainment.
In the school setting there should be some techniques to motivate children in learning or be active in participating in gymnastics classes (Moshton and Ashton, 2003). According to the new perspectives of education “motivation to learn” takes a huge role in teaching learning situation. There are a variety of specific actions that teachers can take to increase motivation during their physical education activities, relevant to gymnastics. They can be guided by the different perceptions in motivation like: means of enhancing the teaching-learning process; a basic necessity in learning; and something to be addressed in pedagogical theories and practice.
The major problem of the curriculum maker and the teacher is in knowing and applying the science and art of motivation. We can observe that, the school teachers in primary grades are using many techniques to motivate their children in the classroom settings. Some are formal and some are informal. As informal techniques most of them frequently use non verbal techniques as facial and body expressions of admiring, agreeing, and appreciating. Verbal techniques are the most common in the Sri Lankan class room setting, as example “very good”, “correct”, “good effort”, and “well done”, etc.
The formal techniques frequently used by teachers in the class room are giving marks, grades or stars, displaying progress charts, and presenting awards for their performances. But there is no definite and well organized plan to motivate children according to their personnel goals, age, skills, performances, attitudes, personality and their achievements. And also there is no formal method of motivating children in the class room during teaching.
The teacher can consider intrinsic motivation to teach gymnastics among students (Werner, 2004). Intrinsically motivated people act on something they are interested in and enjoy to achieve satisfaction. In school, students who are intrinsically motivated usually aim to explore, learn, and achieve things that are challenging beyond their capabilities. They show commitment and persistence regardless of the difficulty of their tasks, reflect satisfaction with their efforts, and show autonomy, competence, self-esteem, and cooperation. Those intrinsically motivated pupils tend to actively involve themselves in academic activities in relation to their natural or innate drives. They develop skills and engage in learning-related activities out of curiosity, enjoyment or their eagerness to attain their personal aims. Hence, if the teacher is using intrinsic motivation, the students may be able to gain interest in gymnastics and participate on the physical activities.
References:
Mosston, M. & Ashton S. (2003) The Spectrum of Teaching Styles, Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Werner, P. (2004) Teaching Curriculum Gymnastics, Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Williams, A. (1987) Curriculum Gymnastics, Hodder & Stoughton: London.
Williams, J. (1987) Themes for Educational Gymnastics, A & C Black: London.
Girls Talk Sports (2005). Gymnastics, Greco/Roman origin of an Olympic sport.
Online available at http://www.girlstalksports.com/Olympic_Report/Olympic_Gymnastics/olympic_gymnastics.html . Retrieve
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