All That Teacher Talk... is True?

Every teacher has his or her own idea of how a lesson should be taught, and the theories behind that teaching. This week I carefully watched the instruction of a lesson in physical education and Meigs High School. I realized how the different aspects of the lesson would reflect the theories by which I believe Mr. Dunn teaches. Reflecting on the different aspects of the lesson, I made obvious connections to certain theories.
All of the class periods I observe are basically the same. When the students are finished getting dressed, Mr. Dunn tells them to shoot around with the basketballs to get warmed up. They shoot around for approximately five to seven minutes, the whistle blows, and they put the balls up. This followed by some down time because the students take their time putting their equipment away, and Mr. Dunn proceeds to just wait for them without any form of hustle command. Half the class was then sent to the exercise equipment, while the other half was told to go shoot around, throw a football, or play ping pong. These activities use the student’s prior knowledge because they know what they are supposed to be doing. Mr. Dunn walked around to make sure the student on the bikes were using the appropriate program, then went and sat down on the bleachers to scan the class. Ormrod says giving the students control like this builds a good classroom psychological climate, because it shows that he teacher respects his students. After a short period of time, he noticed that the students who were on the stage playing ping pong had all magically disappeared. He left to address their off task behavior, and to find out where the students had gone. They ended up just being behind the curtain looking for the ball. He then proceeded to walk back thought the gym to sit down beside me. He asked a few of the students what they were doing because they were just stranding around. A few more moments passed and he told the students to put away the equipment and get dressed. According to our EDTE 200 lecture, Mr. Dunn’s teacher management style is permissive. The students in his classes also demonstrate the qualities expressed in the lecture of student with permissive teachers. The students have autonomy, but little support of discipline. Due to the fact there are very few consequences, the students are mostly unmotivated and disobedient. Even though the students do not necessarily act up, they are disobedient by just standing around and not doing anything. Throughout the class periods, the students participated in cooperative and individual activities. Over all Mr. Dunn’s teaching intrusion is mostly laid back with very little discipline involved.
Teachers teach different ways depending on how he or she thinks their students learn. I can draw some conclusions about some of Mr. Dunn’s theories according to the way he teaches. I believe that Mr. Dunn believes in Vygotsky’s social constructivism. The students who are not riding the exercise equipment were all engaged in cooperative learning activities. There was no real lesson being taught so the students were working in groups and learning from each other. According to Ormrod, social constructivism is just that; working together and learning from those around an individual. Mr. Dunn also exhibits characteristics of Bloom’s Taxonomy. In a lecture in ETDE 200 we discussed the different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Mr. Dunn’s students are engaging in the level of application. They are using their skills they learned in physical education class and are applying them in a game type situation. These game type activities are known as authentic activities. Ormrod states that authentic activities are learning activities that are similar to activities a student will encounter in the outside world. The students are learning to appropriately participate and behave in a physical activity setting. Sometimes as students are participating in the authentic activities, they either misbehave or participate in off task behavior. Mr. Dunn corrects these behaviors by using negative reinforcement. Ormord says that negative reinforcement is when the cause of the misbehavior is removed. Mr. Dunn demonstrated the use of this when he would ask the students; what they were doing when they were just standing still. He did not want them to be standing still, so when he acknowledged the students, they would start participating again. These theories support the instruction methods used in these classes.
I am not going to lie. I was bored with what I observed this week. Every week it has been the same thing over and over. I was not surprised when Mr. Dunn told me what the student should be doing in class. It is obvious that the students are bored and really not enjoying themselves. I know that not everyone is going to like physical education class. However, the reason why I decided to become a physical education teacher is because I believe every student should get the opportunity to learn ways to keep themselves healthy over a life time. I would like to show students how to do that which they are still having fun. If students dread physical education class, they are going to dread physical activities for the rest of their lives. I am inspired to take my time writing quality lesson plans for my classes in the future. Wither I think this teaching style is quality or not, I still benefit from every moment of being in that classroom. Even if I was bored, everything can be made into a mental note for the future.
This week I really came to realize the importance of everything I learned in the 200 block. I learned that the theories teachers believe in; really influence the style of their instruction. Theories and instruction are so closely connected, that I learned how much they affect each other. I think I am beginning to formulate my own opinions of theories and instruction.