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March / April 2023

 

Strategies: A Journal for Physical and Sport Educators



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  March-April 2023 (Volume 36, Issue 2)

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Table of Contents

Free Access Article
Skateboarding: Relevant, Exciting and Fun

– Benjamin Schwamberger and Mallory Stiff

Skateboarding has become a common means of transportation and physical activity among adolescents and adults going to and from work or across college campuses, further highlighting why its implementation as a physical education unit makes sense. The article gives readers a more robust understanding of skateboarding, why it could be advantageous to include in physical education curriculums, the general cost of equipment, and an example eight-day skateboarding unit. The aim is to encourage more educators to consider including it in their physical education curriculum.

Articles

An International Perspective on Strategies to Increase College Students’ Empathy in Gymnastics Courses

The purpose of this article is to explain an international perspective on strategies to increase college students’ empathy in gymnastics courses. One of the most popular basic physical activity courses in Japan is a trampoline-based gymnastics course that helps college students practice the safe use of the trampoline based on their own developmental interest and skill level. Instructors who teach gymnastics in basic instructional courses must understand the background of their students and should reduce the academic and social uncertainty and anxiety associated with gymnastics performance and practices in their courses. The authors explain four instructional strategies that foster the development of empathy in gymnastics courses in higher education. These strategies are (a) perspective taking through understanding different roles, (b) refraining from judgement and learning how to give empathy-based feedback, (c) recognizing emotion in others, and (d) self-assessment of empathy through communicating the understanding of another person’s emotions.

Sensory obstacle courses to promote movement concepts in elementary physical education

Sensory obstacle courses provide lesson ideas for teachers targeting objectives in both cognitive and psychomotor domains. Specific cognitive learning includes the movement concepts needed to navigate obstacles set up in the gymnasium aimed at developing athletic motor skills competences needed for sports. Sensory courses include using stations and obstacles where success involves using vision, hearing, and touch to navigate the learning environment. Using these senses and combining with movement is supported by embodied learning where broader educational as well as physical education goals are targeted. How to set up the activity for all learners is the focus of this article as well as providing ideas for assessment to help physical educators make use of sensory obstacle courses to promote learning in elementary school children.

Differentiation: a teachers' perspective

This article is adapted from a research study that interviewed physical educators in an urban city located in the Northeast of the United States. This article focuses on the teachers’ perspective around the topic of differentiated instruction in elementary physical education. The key concepts are: understanding the student, assessing on the fly, and adapting on the fly. Understanding the student is rooted in pre-planning curriculum and assessing on the fly is related to both product and process. Finally, adapting on the fly influences all three components of differentiated instruction. Differentiated strategies including, what, where, when, and how to help all students succeed will provide physical education teachers with practical applications to add to their toolbox.

Departments

THEORY INTO PRACTICE

Students’ Experiences and Understanding of Podcasts to Learn about Inclusion and Integration in the Introductory Lessons of Adapted Physical Education Course

The increasing demand for online classes among college students has simultaneously elevated the popularity of podcasts in educational settings. The practice of podcasts in college settings would help correct inadequate teaching practice and emulate students’ proficiency in their academic progress. Podcasts have the potential over traditional learning tools by increasing effectiveness through their user-friendly, ease-of-access, stop-rewind, and social and media-rich features (Drew, 2017).

ADVOCACY IN ACTION

We are Stronger Together: How a State’s HETE/PETE Programs Battle Fires as a Team

This article will detail how a team of university professors representing five PETE/HETE programs in the state of Washington work together for success. At a time when enrollment in higher education is down across the nation (Whitford, 2022), it is crucial for university programs to work together to strengthen their programs in order to recruit and retain future health and physical education teachers (Leng Goh, 2021).

COACH'S CORNER

Efficient Dance Team Practice Leads to Effective Performances

The dance team season, unlike any other high school or collegiate sport, runs year round. Typically, tryouts are held in the late spring, teams attend camp in early to mid-summer, and the first performance takes place at the first home football game at the end of the summer. This schedule means dance team coaches are eager to schedule efficient and effective practices in order to prepare for each upcoming event.

COACH'S CORNER

Teaching Football Players Fundamental Tackle Techniques

Tackle football has the highest number of injuries in contact sports (Gilbert & Johnson, 2011). Certain injuries in the head and neck may severely impact the player’s physical, neurological, and physiological functionality, even sudden death, as well as the quality of her/his personal life in the long run (Kucera et al., 2017). These injuries commonly occur during a collision when a defender is attempting to tackle an opponent, particularly when the defender’s head being down and neck being curved (Stockwell et al., 2020). To reduce and prevent injuries as such from early on, we will break down the essential techniques for two types of tackles and recommend the proper training procedure to coaches.