Written by: Michael J. Roskamp, Ph.D. - Grand Valley State University

INTRODUCTION
   The National Association of Physical Education and Sport (NASPE) identifies six content standards that define a physically educated person. Content standard #5 states that a physically educated person, “Exhibits responsible personal and social behavior that respects self and others in physical activity settings.”

   Although most physical educators readily profess the development of personal/social responsibility as an outcome of their programs, over the past twenty-five years, first as a K-8 physical educator and now as a physical education teacher educator, I have come to believe that physical educators can be more deliberate to employ teaching strategies that develop these important affective objectives.  Development of responsible personal-social behavior often seems to be referenced as an assumed outcome as a result of the natural interactions that take place in the rather unique teaching environment of physical education, rather than intentional outcomes that result from carefully planned teaching.  In worst-case scenarios, the lack of deliberate attention to these objectives my lead to the development of an environment that actually becomes a breeding ground for irresponsible student behavior with respect to self and others in physical activity settings. In the paragraphs that follow, I would like to consider deliberate teaching behaviors and strategies that might be used to elicit the development of  responsible personal-social behaviors in physical education settings, encouraging each of us to re-think our goals, our intentions, and our teaching strategies, and perhaps reconsidering some of the traditions we may hold too closely.

STRATEGIES

Taking Attendance

   Many students arrive at the gymnasium eager and ready to move.  In some cases, taking attendance is a necessary first step in physical education classes, and that should not be overlooked. However, it has been my observation that students at all grade levels are often asked to enter the gym, move to some pre-determined location in some sort of squad formation, and stand or sit quietly while the teacher takes attendance. At times, this process may also include the teacher’s careful attention to making sure that each child is sitting in the correct assigned location.  This approach to taking attendance and beginning class does three things. First, it fails to take advantage of the students desire to move when they enter the gymnasium. Second, it takes away from time that students could be moving. Finally, it sets up the immediate potential for tension between the teacher and students if the students are not sitting in the correct location or if the students are not sitting quietly enough, still enough, or being patient enough. What would happen if elementary students entered the gym, where immediately engaged in “instant activity’, and at some point during that activity, the teacher completed the task of taking attendance.  The simple question, “Can anyone tell me who is absent today?” might be all that is necessary to accomplish the desired objective.  This type of procedure promotes social awareness, accountability, and responsibility.  At the secondary level, perhaps students can be asked to enter the gym, find you, the teacher, and say “good morning, I’m here”.  This simple procedure could serve as an efficient way to take attendance, promote positive teacher-student interaction to start each class, and also provide an opportunity to give attention to details that may need to be discussed with individual students.  Once each student has said hello, there might be a daily expectation to move right into some form of self-paced physical activity at the start of each class period.  The use of the aforementioned procedure accomplishes several things. First, it asks students to take responsibility for making sure that their attendance has been noted. Second, it saves time getting class started, allowing that time it be applied to physical activity.  Finally, it asks students to take responsibility to initiate their own physical activity in a way that is consistent with the structure you have provided for them.  Although it may take some teaching and training to get students to the point of accepting responsibility for these beginning-of-class procedures, persistence and consistency in using strategies like these will contribute to developing responsible student behavior and will pay ongoing dividends throughout the year. 

Squads and other ‘formations’

   I am not opposed to the use of squads as a formation to organize or begin activity, however,  far too often it seems as though squads are used as a simply way to control students and prevent undesired interaction.  The optimistic side of me believes that given a choice between acting responsibly in a less controlled environment or having militaristic style rules and procedures, students would choose the former over the latter. A less formal approach to gathering students may require higher levels of management expertise on the part of the teacher, and may also require more training and/or practice with students. However, being deliberate about giving students responsibility for their behaviors ultimately promotes a greater sense of responsibility within the classroom community.  To this end, I would argue that students learn far more about interacting appropriately with others when the artificial boundaries between students are removed and replaced with high expectations desired behaviors.

Instant Activity

   Although mentioned above, this simple strategy is worth repeating.  I have used it, and have seen it used successfully, at every grade level, K-12 and even in my university classes.  Engaging students in instant activity when they enter the gym accomplishes several things. First, it reinforces the message to students that physical activity is the core of the physical education program. Second, it takes advantage of the students’ desire to get moving when they enter the gym. Third, it gives them a reason to get out of the locker room…so they can get started. (As opposed to the often observed sequence; change quickly, get out in the gym quickly, and then stand around and do nothing while the teacher takes attendance.) Finally, instant activity provides a practical and deliberate way to teach students to take responsibility for their personal-social behavior as they begin self-paced individual activity.  Some days the activity may be very specific, while on other days students may be given more freedom to make choices.  In all cases, the teacher brings structure and expectation to the activity and asks the students to take responsibility for its execution. Free time that allows students to do whatever they choose to do at the start of class is not the intent of instant activity as mentioned here, nor does it promote student responsibility. 
   Having specific expectations for student behavior is an important component of this strategy.  With clear and specific expectations that define student behavior, the teacher can monitor the level of responsibility being assumed by the group as well as individual students. The teacher can also take advantage of the opportunity to  provide group or individualized feedback  while students are moving, and take a moment to connect with students who may need a bit of extra attention for any variety of  reasons.

Getting Students’ Attention

   All teachers, at every level, need to get and maintain the attention of their students at various times throughout nearly every class period.  This said, I am a firm believer that teachers who are able to capture your students attention you will have to spend far less time and energy asking for, or demanding, their attention.  In my work as a fieldwork supervisor I have found that teachers use a variety of strategies to accomplish this task, however, a common strategy seems to be to verbally ask students for their attention, ask again if necessary, continue to ask if necessary, raise the voice if necessary, and perhaps, finally, stand and stare at students while saying nothing until the students decide they better be quiet.  In some cases teachers also make comments like, “I’ll wait until you’re ready”, perhaps followed by a rather sarcastic and unrealistic, “I’ve got all day.”  Unfortunately, such comments are often accompanied by a rise in blood pressure.  I would argue that repeated verbal requests for student attention often promote unclear expectations with low levels of required compliance. I would also argue that the “I’ll wait as long as it takes” approach gives too much control to students, especially since most teachers claim they will wait as long as it takes, but soon lose their patience and get upset if students don’t quiet down rather quickly. 
   Although asking students to take responsibility for their behavior by simply being quiet when the teacher asks for their attention seems to be the logical, perhaps we can do more to “teach” the intended response.  Asking student to respond in some physical and/or auditory way to the teacher’s request forces students to do something to show they are ready to listen, in addition to the obvious expectation that they stop doing something else, like talking. Furthermore, using multiple senses in an environment like the gymnasium is very helpful.  
   An example of a strategy I have used with success for many years, even with college teacher education students after I have taught them (with some degree of humor, of course), might look something like the sequence that follows.

    Think about the level of student responsibility in this procedure. They must use multiple senses to… hear you (auditory), look at you (visual), clap their hands(kinesthetic), and then stop talking. Variations of this type of strategy must be utilized depending on the age of the students. However, it is important at all levels to be consistent, avoid getting irritated, and continue to practice it until they can do what is expected of them each time. If they get it on the 1st try, move on. If it takes more than one try, don’t use your voice to do what the signal is meant to do. Patiently repeat the procedure. Your only comment might be, “Oh, bummer, we don’t quite have it yet, let’s practice again.” If they continue to have trouble, you might stop and simply ask if there is something they do not understand about what you are asking them to do. DO NOT verbally chastise them for not getting it right.  Just wear a smile and practice it until they get it.  Occasionally, it may become necessary to practice again every few days or weeks to reinforce expectations, but with time students learn to respond very responsibly to your “request” for their attention.

Relays

   Although I will not use this forum to discuss the general effectiveness of using relays as a teaching strategy, I would offer a few suggestions for promoting responsible personal-social behavior during their use.

1. Have students count how many trips down and back they are making during a  pre-determined time, rather than asking everyone to go twice and then assigning some members of some teams to take extra turns.
2. Instead of assigning specific students to specific lines in a way that gives you all the control and takes time, ask students to form their lines using criteria you may give them.  Examples: Please make 6 lines with at least 2 boys and 2 girls in each line? Please do not get in the same line with someone you just played with on the playground during recess. Etc.
3. Frequently switch the members of lines.  For example, ask the 1st two girls in each line to move one line to the left after every two or three relays so no one can boast about “their team” winning.
4. Ask them to cheer loudly for each participant on their team, and when their team is finished, cheer for a team near them that isn’t finished yet. Practice this if they don’t get it right.  (Think about the kind of environment that will exist when the last person, for the last team, is the only person still moving.  How does that compare to the way it is often done?)

Game Play
 
   While some people suggest that competition should be avoided with children.  I tend to disagree. Competition is not the problem. The way people respond to competitive situations is the problem.  Perhaps by changing the way we engage children in competitive activities we can address some of those issues.

1. Change team members frequently, from one game to the next, or even in the middle of the game. While this may create some decrease in team spirit, which in itself may be a good thing, it also makes the students realize that you are concerned with competitive “fairness”.
2. Require a higher score of one team in order to be declared the winner. Example:  “Any team that already won the ‘Lucky Seven’ shooting game has to make 8 baskets to win again….Everyone else still needs 7.”
3. Ask dominant players not to dominate the game, and do what they can do to help others.  When they look back at you with a funny look, just say, “Can you figure that out, or would you like my help?”  You might be very surprised how easy it is to get the highly skilled students to be more inclusive of their less-skilled peers.  Encourage them by telling them that you really don’t want to make artificial rules that will limit what they can do during play…rules like, “You may only score 1 basket out of every 3.”

Avoid Teaching Strategies that Promote Dishonesty

   Although promoting responsible personal behavior is the goal, some teaching strategies used in physical education settings encourage dishonesty. Measuring student competence publicly and in comparison to peers is a common situation that leads to dishonesty. One example is the situation when students are asked to perform a skill as many times as possible within a given time period. Often a challenge like this is followed by the teacher asking a progressive series of questions like, “Who did 10 or more?...Who did 15 or more?....20….25…, etc.”  This type of follow-up question places students in a situation that asks them to share their performance scores with everyone else in the room.  While we hope children would be honest about their scores, the reality is that when placed in these situations, students often inflate their scores, are dishonest about their performance, in order to look better than their peers or perhaps to preserve their personal self-esteem.  The need to save face with peers could be eliminated, and honesty could be encouraged, by using a self-referenced assessment of performance, rather than taking a peer-referenced approach. This can be accomplished by asking students to perform multiple trials, remember their score on each trial, and then ask , “How many of you had a higher score this time as compared to your first attempt?”  The use of this strategy is a simple adjustment to the aforementioned approach however it represents a concrete way to protect the self-esteem of low-performing students while also encouraging honesty and integrity as a responsible personal- social behavior in physical activity settings and encourages everyone to learn and improve regardless of their skill level or personal abilities.

Equipment Care

   During my early years of teaching K-8 physical education  I found that taking care of equipment, including setting-up and taking-down for each successive class, could be very time intensive and stressful.  However, once I began to give students responsibility for the use and care of equipment, not only did I remove stress from my workday, but I also found that students seemed to take pride in being responsible for the use, care, and storage of equipment.  This did not happen overnight, but with time, even requests for a few students to come to the gym during their recess time to organize or tidy-up storage areas was met with eager student response.  In early elementary classes, this began with asking students to help put equipment small pieces of equipment away even when I knew the very next class would need to take out the same equipment.  In middle school classes, after students were taught to safely set-up gymnastics apparatus, they would subsequently come rushing out of the locker room at the beginning of classes to find their peers and set-up their assigned equipment. Setting up nets, getting out the balls, setting up gymnastics equipment, putting away equipment that younger students could not handle are all responsibilities that students can assume. 

Recognize Differences, Don’t Ignore Them

   Too often teachers shy away from pointing out the differences in abilities, skill levels, and performance levels of students. However, students are often well aware of the varied skill levels of their classmates. My experience suggests that when differences among students can be comfortably acknowledged, high skilled students tend to take less advantage of their less- skilled peers and less skilled peers tend to be more willing to participate to the best of their ability without fear of rejection. It should be noted that I am not in support of talking about the individual differences among individual students within the group, but rather about the collective differences across the community of learners. Recognition and acceptance of diverse skill levels among peers promotes a greater sense acceptance among students of various skill levels and also seems to promote a shared sense of responsibility for learning in the physical education setting.
Often, when engaged in team based activities, high-skilled students dominate play to the exclusion of their lower-skilled peers.  In these situations I have found it effective to address the group with a simple statement that might sound something like this: 

Redefining “Fair”

   What defines “fair” in your physical education classes?  Is it fair for high-skilled students to dominate physical activities at the expense of their lower-skilled peers? When higher-skilled students are allowed to regularly dominate the physical activities taking place in our gymnasiums, lower-skilled students are denied opportunities to develop skilled behaviors and they may also be denied opportunities to develop fitness attributes through active involvement. Students in my classes soon learn that fair does not mean the same. In some situations, perhaps a more fair way to play the game might be four against six.  In some cases, calling a turnover on one team because, “Sorry, the same 2-3 people have been handling the ball too often!” is more fair to their teammates than letting the same 2-3 people dominate the whole game by playing selfishly. Elimination games, by their very nature, give increased opportunities for practice to the higher-skilled child and decrease practice opportunities for the lower-skilled child.  Is that fair? I used a rules system in my classes called “Roskamp’s Rules.”  Students soon learned that during any given activity I might make and enforce a rule simply because it helps students participate and achieve my expectations and/or goals for game play.  Once students realize that the “official rules” aren’t the only rules we are playing by, their willingness to play in the ways I promote in my classes becomes a higher priority for all of them.

Summary

   The development of responsible personal-social behavior in physical activity settings is one of the six clearly stated NASPE Content Standards for Physical Education. Many physical educators do an excellent job of helping students develop and demonstrate behaviors that the standard intends. In some cases, a more deliberate approach to addressing responsible student behavior may be all that is necessary to achieve more observable results.  The preceding discussion was not meant to be exhaustive on the topic of developing responsible personal-social behavior in physical education classes, but if it caused you to reflect critically on your own practice, and consider ways that your teaching might be modified to more deliberately address the content of this discussion…mission accomplished. Honest reflection and a willingness to consider change is an important first step toward improving practice. 
 
Moving into the Future: National Standards for Physical Education, 2nd Edition. by National Association for Sport and Physical Education, 2004.  ISBN: 0-88314-909-5

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

Questions for discussion: if you want to answer the questions, please use the hereunder comment system !

1. In what ways can I be more deliberate in addressing responsible personal-social behavior in my daily teaching practices?
2. What daily practices do I engage in that may be promoting irresponsible personal-social behavior?
3. Are the daily practices of my teaching deliberate in addressing the level of responsible personal-social behavior in my classes?
4. Do the management strategies I employ on a daily basis teach and develop responsible personal-social behavior, or do they simply designed to prevent irresponsible behavior?
5. Do students demonstrate respect for the varied skill levels of their peers?  What might I do to address this?
6. How can I be more deliberate about addressing the specific personal-social issues that may appear in my classes?
   
   

Readers have left 2 comments.

 1. Developing Responsible Personal/Social Behavior in Students: By
Guest User, Unregistered

I thought this was a good article. I think if teachers had more articles that explained each standard that way, more teachers would do a beeter job.

 Posted 2009-07-13 01:43:37

 2. Untitled
Mary, Unregistered

Thanks for explaining the How's and Why's of getting students attention. Your article is beneficial to all of us in the teaching world. Thanks

 Posted 2009-10-24 07:07:31

Please keep your comments brief and on topic, and remember that this is not a discussion thread.
Name :
Title :
E-mail :
Website :
	Text ColorAquaBlackBlueFuchsiaGrayGreenLimeMaroonNavyOlivePurpleRedSilverTealWhiteYellow
Comment(s) :
Verify :
	There are how many letters in the word SPAM ?

J! Reactions 1.09.04 • Professional Site License
Copyright © 2006 S. A. DeCaro