Daniel Tindall

How to Develop Disability Awareness Using the Sport Education Model.

JOPERD • Volume 78 No. 9 • November/December 2007 M rs. Rodriquez has been a physical education teacher at Betsy Ross Middle School for 17 years. She is always looking for ways to update her curriculum for the benefi t of her students, so she went to a workshop on the sport education model (SEM) sponsored by her state association. She loved the idea and could not wait to implement it in the fall. Not long after the workshop, Mrs. Rodriquez noticed that two of her students, Jessica and Fernando, were not interacting with their peers during recess. Jessica is a cheerful student with Down syndrome and Fernando is a quiet student with cerebral palsy who uses a wheelchair independently. Mrs. Rodriquez and other faculty at the school had often talked about how benefi cial a disability awareness day would be for the student body, but had never actually organized one. Mrs. Rodriquez thought back to the workshop and decided to embed disability awareness into SEM for the entire physical education curriculum in the fall term. Mrs. Rodriquez utilized the SEM during her second unit of the fall, in which she taught fl oor hockey in all her classes. During this time she also incorporated a disability awareness component to increase student knowledge and awareness of children with disabilities. In her class with Jessica and Fernando, students had made the decision to use large Frisbee disks as pucks. Another game modifi cation implemented by the students was the delayed defense rule, in which players could choose three, fi ve, or 10 seconds of delay before a defender could approach them in a game and to have one person in a wheelchair on the team opposite Fernando to equal out the playing fi eld. Everyone shared the responsibility of making fl oor hockey a fair and fun unit. Jessica loved being both the announcer and a referee. Fernando loved being on offense and being in charge of updating league standings and statistics after the day’s game play had concluded. Overall, the SEM was a huge hit in all the classes and the students succeeded in becoming more aware of ways to include their peers with disabilities. The above scenario is a success story that demonstrates how the SEM can be used properly. Everyone wins when the SEM is appropriately implemented to introduce disability awareness and to facilitate inclusion. One of the goals of Healthy People 2010 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [USDHHS], 2000) is to decrease the disparity in physical activity among individuals with disabilities. Currently it is estimated that 13 percent of students in the United States have individualized education programs, or IEPs (National Center for Education Statistics, 2006). It is the position of the Adapted Physical Activity Council (APAC) of the American Association for Physical Activity and How to Develop Disability Awareness Using the Sport Education Model

Pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards children with disabilities An Irish perspective

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a 10-week adapted physical activity programme on the attitudes and perceptions of 64 Irish pre-service teachers (aged 19–25) towards teaching children and young people with physical, intellectual, and learning disabilities. Data were collected through written pre-programme expectations, weekly reflective logs, and a final written reflection. Data were analysed qualitatively through reading and rereading the data sources, identifying similarities and differences, themes, and patterns. Results revealed a positive change in attitude and perception toward both the idea of inclusion and working with persons with disabilities. Specifically, pre-programme anxieties diminished, confidence increased, and the benefits of the programme design (combining theory and practice) were realised. The findings of this study support the continued implementation of this type of ‘lived’ learning experience as an integral part of physical education initial teacher education programming in Ireland.

Looking Across and Within: Studying Ourselves as Teacher Educators.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the ongoing self-study of a community of physical education teacher educators (PETE) striving to enhance their research capacity and program effectiveness. The underpinnings of the project reside within professional development/professional learning and self-study. Engaging in self-study projects ‘allows teacher educators to focus on their own practice and students’ learning while meeting the research expectations of life as an academic’ [Tannehill, D. (2014). My journey to become a teacher educator. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 19. doi: 10.1080/17408989.2014.898745]. While often beginning with individuals looking at their own work, self-study does not need to confine itself to individuals and can involve collaboration among varying numbers across a variety of participants [Loughran, J. J., & Russell, T. (Eds.). (2002). Improving teacher education practices through self-study. London: Routledge Farmer]. This paper reflects one PETE programs attempts to examine the early findings of our programmatic self-study research into the development of a PETE learning community. It describes our initial findings reported through three themes reflecting our self-study work and experiences: dialogue, memory, and becoming, which link directly to Ovens and Fletchers [Ovens, A., & Fletcher, T. (Eds.). (2014). Self-study in teacher education: Exploring the interplay of practice and scholarship. London: Springer] self-study characteristics of community, stance, and desire. While still a work-in-progress, this project has allowed our group to address tensions, dilemmas, and practices of interest, providing for the acquisition of knowledge to move forward both programmatically and individually. Our intent in sharing this work is to provide a platform for discussion as to the potential programmatic use of self-study to enhance PETE programs and the research capacities of PETE.

Assessment Modifications for Students with Disabilities in Sport Education.

JOPERD • Volume 82 No. 7 • September 2011 S port education is a curriculum model intended to provide authentic and contextualized sport experiences for students during their school physical education classes (Siedentop, 1994). The main goal of the sport education curriculum model (sometimes abbreviated SE or SEM) is to help students develop as competent, literate, and enthusiastic sportspersons in the physical education setting (Siedentop, 1994; Siedentop, Hastie, & van der Mars, 2004). Sport education does this by providing all students with the opportunity to be successful, regardless of skill level (Clarke & Quill, 2003) or gender (Hastie, 1998), and by creating an environment in which the teacher can assess students as they experience the different aspects of sport. But how capable or confident are teachers in assessing the competence, literacy, and enthusiasm of students with disabilities as they partake in an SE season? Only one study has really explored how children with disabilities engage in SE with their peers (Fittipaldi-Wert, Brock, Hastie, Arnold, & Guarino, 2009), and some discussion has surfaced on the use of SE to facilitate disability awareness in the physical education setting (Foley, Tindall, Lieberman, & Kim, 2007). However, to date, not much has been written on integrating disability and SE, particularly as it involves assessment. Currently, there are numerous assessment materials specifically designed for different aspects of SE operating in the psychomotor, cognitive, and affective learning domains. For example, resources such as the Complete Guide to Sport Education by Siedentop, Hastie, and van der Mars (2004), Sport Education Seasons by Bulger, Mohr, Rairigh, and Townsend (2007), Assessing Student Outcomes in Sport Education (published for the NASPE assessment series) by Townsend, Mohr, Rairigh, and Bulger (2003), and Teaching Sport Concepts and Skills: A Tactical Games Approach by Mitchell, Oslin, and Griffin (2006) all offer a range of assessment tools designed for use during or in conjunction with SE. Implementing any assessment system within SE requires three very important steps: (1) to identify authentic learning outcomes for students, (2) to develop assessment tools that provide valid information about those outcomes, and (3) to use the data from those assessment tools to determine whether student physical performance and learning outcomes were achieved (Siedentop et al., 2004). Although these assessment tools are more than suitable for students without disabilities, they may be inappropriate in their current form for students with disabilities in SE. The purpose of this article is to provide physical educators with ways to modify or rethink certain assessment tools and the overall assessment environment as it functions in the SE curriculum, so they can feel more comfortable in authentically assessing students with disabilities. Specifically, the article will examine how these assessment tools pertain to individuals with different disabilities (i.e., physical disabilities, learning disabilities, emotional disorders, etc.) participating in SE. Assessment Modifications for Students with Disabilities in Sport Education

Physical activity levels of children with visual impairments during an adapted sports camp

The purpose of this study was to identify the physical activity (PA) levels of children and young people with visual impairments (VI) as they participated in closed and open skilled sports as part of a specially designed 1-week sports camp. Participants (N = 18; girls = 6; boys = 12; Mage = 13 years, 4 months) aged 9–19 years possessed various levels of VI. Data were collected using Actigraph GM1 accelerometers and analysed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Findings suggest there was a significant effect of activity type on both intensity F(1.7,28.94) = 9.86, p = .001, η p 2 = . 37 and time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) F(4,68) = 6.03, p < .001, η p 2 = . 26 . The findings of this study support the continued implementation of both closed and open skill-oriented disability sports as a means to reaching recommended MVPA levels for children and young people with VI.