739 days... |
Throughout the last two years I have been exposed to many new ideas about education that have transformed how I think about physical education. The reading and research I have done has opened my eyes to the vast variety of approaches and models for teaching PE. The process of planning, preparing, teaching and reflecting on my practice has become a more thoughtful activity for me. How I interact with my students; knowing their needs, likes, dislikes and values with regard to PE, developing more depth, consideration, and understanding of them as people. What I value in terms of curriculum, leadership, and change in the realm of education, in my school and in my gymnasium has grown to be more inclusive, relevant, and appropriate. Ultimately what all of this learning and research has led to is a new understanding of what I need to move forward in my teaching, to be the best physical educator possible.
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Beginning in the first summer we were asked to constantly reflect on our teaching practice. Over the course of 11 courses and two years that reflection was directed at researching how we could improve what we do. Beginning with our first course we were tasked with reflecting our our own place in the world. Who were we as educators, how we got to this point and what privileges, barriers and events guided us along the way. During this course I recall Professor Dan Robinson talking about a study he had recently conducted. That brought our an interest in me regarding Gender Bias of Educators and how it can affect decisions about students. Our first research course, with Professor Stephen Berg showed us the ins and outs of research methods and in that time I was focused on sharing student learning.
Reflecting back on these first courses I find that my mind and focus was all over the place. Then fall brought on Social Justice in PE and took me back to my days in the MPE program at MUN where my research focus was on Adapted Physical Education and doing action research focused on the autistic students and their PE experiences. Winter 2017's course found me again thinking about and finally researching Gender Bias in PE. This has always been interesting to me and for a long time was in the back of my mind for the capping experience or for a thesis. But it was not to be, taking EDUC 507 Qualitative Research in the summer of 2017 I worked to develop a qualitative research proposal. Starting with gender bias I searched and searched but wasn't really able to find what I was looking for. No researchers or work was grabbing my attention. Then I came across the work of Catherine Ennis which looks at Value Orientation of teachers and how that affects their curricular decision. |