The Teaching of Skills in Games and Sports

The teaching of skills for use in a variety of sports, games and recreational activities has historically formed an integral part of a comprehensive physical education program. Whilst there has been a push towards lifetime fitness and physical activities that require minimal skill development, different ways of thinking about teaching related skills allow sport and game play to remain as two of many important physical activity options available to students. In essence, all children should be provided with the opportunities to develop the confidence and competence to choose not to play sports or games at a later stage in life, rather than be forced from them because of a lack of opportunity

A qualitative study of 'fear' as a regulator of children's independent physical activity in the suburbs

A crisis discourse has developed within the health and physical activity literature that paints a disparaging picture about the decline of children's participation in active play and independent mobility. Fear as a moderator of children's mobility, in this case focused on independent active school travel (IAST), remains a poorly understood construct. Within the popular press and academic literature, middle class parents have been characterised as overly anxious towards culturally reinforced dangers whilst being ignorant of the benefits of IAST during childhood. Fear of strangers, dangers and risk-taking are portrayed as nebulous and irrational anxiety states that are contributing to another great fear, a fear that our children are getting fat. The study draws upon Tudor's, (2003), parameters of fear framework to explore parent negotiations of fear and risk associated with IAST. In depth individual and focus group interviews with parents (N=24) provide insight into meanings, rules and customs that govern the way in which fear is experienced and expressed within a middle class white suburb in Australia. Far from being irrational, and operating purely from drivers at a cultural level, parents were aware of the consequences of their decisions on a range of outcomes. Parents could articulate their own anxieties and in many cases the rational probabilities of anything bad happening. Fear was being constructed through complex relations, negotiated individually and collectively within a specific cultural and environmental context. In the process of their decision-making, there remained a constant negotiation between a desire to allow their child independence and the question 'what if?' Those seeking to mediate increased opportunities for children's IAST are encouraged to remove the rational/irrational focus that was redundant for parents in this study, and consider shifting the message toward the positive side of what is a highly contested decision making space for parents

Evaluating the Girls on Fire: Fire and Resilience Program – FINAL REPORT

The Girls on Fire Resilience program has been developed as an education initiative that inspires young women to pursue volunteering and career opportunities, and empowers them to take an active role in building community safety and resilience. The Program represents a significant investment of both private and public money, human resources and the diverting of agency expertise (i.e., funding constituted from public donations, government support and private investment, resources from emergency services). Without reliable and quantifiable evidence of the impact of resilience-based programming, claims about its impact will remain largely unsubstantiated and resources invested without understanding the true value of this investment, or how systems and processes might be improved. To fill this gap researchers at Monash University were commissioned to conduct an independent evaluation in order to explore the impact of the program and inform cycles of improvement so the return for communities and investors can be further enhanced and grown with confidence. The results suggest that the Program has the potential to evolve into an initiative to develop the individual and community resilience of participants. Overall, the findings of this study indicate support to continue exploring the impact of the Girls Fire and Resilience program in supporting the development of individual and community resiliency strategies to mitigate the impact of disastrous climatic events in Australia.</p

Two Background Narratives for Systems Thinking and PE

This research explores a 'border crossing' exercise intent on seeking a convergence (where possible) between two similar frameworks (complexity theory and social ecology) for understanding and progressing physical education using holistic and systems-based concepts. Researcher narratives are presented here as part of that research. These serve to position the two protagonists backgrounds and histories as part of a border crossing exercise. Narratives serve to give context to theoretical concepts and support a process of connecting research.<div><br></div><div><br></div

Supporting Pre-Service Teachers in Becoming Reflective Practitioners Using Conversation and Professional Standards

A significant goal of teacher education is to support the development of reflective practitioners. This intention, however, is not easily achieved when after-the-fact recall and reporting are key features of pre-service teacher learning rather than critique and contemplation. This research reports on a small-scale pilot study evaluating a novel approach to help pre-service teachers develop reflective skills in order to both understand and address the requirements of the profession. The approach involved a set of Conversation Cards with a series of question-based prompts directly linked to the APSTs and designed to enhance reflective conversations. Focus group interview discussions unveiled the surprising ways in which the pre-service teachers used the question prompts, not only as tools for reflection but for planning lessons and preparing for professional discussions with mentors. This research provides insight into a creative and meaningful approach for integrating reflection, professional standards and classroom practice through professional experience