Incentives in Schools and Benefits of Physical Fitness

When it comes to physical education in today’s educational system it has been found that a lot of schools do not place much value or resources into that particular department. When most people think of physical education, games and an “easy A” come to mind. Traditionally, PE classes have taken the multicultural approach and have been far from standards-based instruction. However, over the years, a non-traditional approach such as standards-based instruction within physical fitness classes has become more common. According to Jacalyn Lund, physical education programs today are repeatedly being required to answer questions such as: “What does your physical education program stand for? Can you articulate clearly what your program is attempting to accomplish? Could you produce tangible evidence that this is happening?”. Educational reform is changing the way schools operate. The move towards a standards-based curriculum is an attempt to clarify what schools and teachers are trying to accomplish. Thus, teachers are aligning their daily lessons to specific state standards in order to assess how their students are performing.

Standards-based instruction means using the state’s academic content standards by grade level to guide the concepts being taught in the classroom. The standards provide broad and specific goals thus allowing the teacher to create measurable objectives that align with those goals. Within the PE class, standards focus on various tasks such as different fit and performance tests. There are specific criteria for success outlined within each standard and the criteria for success guide what students should be able to do.

Over the years, standards-based instruction has created a high-stakes learning environment that focuses on high-stakes tests and crammed curriculum with lots of reading, writing, and arithmetic. One of the fundamental points of confusion in understanding standards-based instruction is the assumption that it suggests a “one-size-fits-all” approach to teaching. Research suggests that there is no one size fits all approach for physical fitness and that the easiest way for teachers to integrate multicultural education with standards-based instruction is through transformation and social action. The whole idea is that if teachers can teach the standards and still address multicultural education then they are truly educating the student as a whole not just the pupil in the desk. This will allow students the ability to work in and out of the classroom in real-life situations.

In response to the standards-based education movement, instruction and assessment practices have undergone significant change in a relatively short period of time. Corresponding grading practices, however, have evolved more slowly. Therefore, when considering standards-based instruction, we have to consider what is the most effective way to incorporate standards-based instruction and assessment in a multicultural physical fitness class in order to benefit students?

Literature Review

Physical Fitness

Before the industrial revolution, fitness was defined as the capacity to carry out the day’s activities without undue fatigue. However, with automation and changes in lifestyles physical fitness is now considered a measure of the body's ability to function efficiently and effectively in work and leisure activities, to be healthy, to resist hypokinetic diseases, and to meet emergency situations. Physical education was first stamped into the school system in 1820 when gymnastics, hygiene, and care of the human body found its introduction into the curriculum. In 1823, the Round Hill School in Northampton, Massachusetts was the first school in the nation to make it an integral part of their educational program. Since its inception, the changing academic curriculum has seen multiple enhancements to the physical education discipline.

Over the years, there has been much attention to the interaction between physical activity, physical fitness, and academic performance. Studies have shown that physical fitness actually increases academic performance. Physical education programs are valuable for many reasons including increasing that academic performance but also for improving the overall physical fitness of students. “For example, physical education helps students and society improve skill-related components such as speed, agility, reaction time, balance, coordination, and basic movement patterns. Physical education helps students and society improve upon are strength, endurance, flexibility, and cardiovascular/respiratory activities”. Physical education programs are vital to schools and research has shown that there are many reasons schools should provide physical activity programs:

• Youth who are physically active get physical and mental health benefits.
• Comprehensive school-based physical activity programs can help youth meet most of their physical activity needs.
• School-based physical activity programs benefit communities as well as students and schools.

Standards-Based Instruction. A Series of research has looked at standards-based teaching. Some of these researches were cited by Wang and Odell, who provided a variety of ways for looking at standards-based teaching. They cited Romberg, Cobb, and Cohen as presenting standards-based instruction as student-centered instruction that focuses on progressive ideas and constructivist ideas of learning and constructing knowledge; as active sense-making by students; and as collaborative inquiry. Over the years, standards-based instruction has created a high-stakes learning environment that focuses on high-stakes tests and crammed curriculum with lots of reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Quality physical education has been a key strategy to increase physical activity and reduce health risks. “There are two levels of implementation for standards-based curriculum; the standards and benchmarks developed or adopted by the state or district, and the teacher who will use the standards and benchmarks to guide instruction. Standards-based instruction, specifically in physical education, represents a paradigm shift for schools and teachers”. Developing a standards-based curriculum begins by looking at the standards, recognizing what students should know and be able to do to meet those standards, and selecting a curriculum that will allow students to reach the outcomes stated in the standards.

Physical education has a set of competencies that define the skills and knowledge that students are expected to learn through physical education. These competencies have been labeled content standards, and specify what a student should know and be able to do as a result of participating in a quality physical education program. While the national content standards describe what students are expected to know and be able to do, they do not define what is considered acceptable performance. That is the role of performance standards, otherwise referred to as benchmarks. Benchmarks are specific skills and knowledge that represent progress toward the standards. The revised national content standards are:

• Standard 1 - The physically literate individual demonstrates competency in a variety of motor skills and movement patterns.
• Standard 2 - The physically literate individual applies knowledge of concepts, principles, strategies and tactics related to movement and performance.
• Standard 3 - The physically literate individual demonstrates the knowledge and skills to achieve and maintain a health-enhancing level of physical activity and fitness.
• Standard 4 - The physically literate individual exhibits responsible personal and social behavior that respects self and others.
• Standard 5 - The physically literate individual recognizes the value of physical activity for health, enjoyment, challenge, self-expression and/or social interaction.

In order for the standards to become guidelines for curriculum, teaching, and assessment, it is important for teachers to gain a deep understanding of the standards. In order to help students achieve desired learning outcomes, it is the teacher’s responsibility for embracing and integrating the standards into their daily teaching practices. The theoretical framework of teacher change suggests that “teachers’ knowledge about and attitudes toward educational standards, their personal commitment to learning about the standards, and their availability and participation in formal professional development activities influence change in teacher’s beliefs, knowledge, and behaviors”. Thus, standards and the teachers’ use of those standards are important to quality physical education.

Multicultural Education

There are four different levels of multicultural education- contributions, additive, transformational, and social action approaches. An example of the first theory would be a teacher infusing cultural things like holidays and heroes into lessons to help integrate their lesson plans. The second step is the additive approach, teachers add content, concepts, themes, and perspectives that are multicultural without changing the structure of their instructional materials. The transformative approach requires teachers to change the structure of their curriculum to enable students to engage concepts, issues, events, and themes from a multicultural perspective. Oftentimes, teachers use main subjects like mathematics, the arts, and language and literature to acquaint students with the cultural elements. Although the transformative approach is not likely in classes such as physical education, studies have shown that this level is being incorporated in the classroom more often. The last level is the social action approach. According to Banks, the social action approach allows a student “to make decisions on important social issues and take actions to help solve them”. The last two are best implemented by weaving culture appreciation and cultural awareness issues into the existing curriculum: mathematics, language arts, history/social studies, and science. Nonetheless, these levels can be used in physical education classes if strategically planned.

Summation

Over the decades, there has been a move towards incorporating standards-based instruction into P.E. classes. However, the question is how to effectively implement these standards while maintaining a focus on a multicultural classroom. According to research, the most effective way to do this is to ensure that instruction and assessment philosophy and practices are aligned with content standards and learning targets as well as grading and reporting practices. Basically, PE classes should have a standards-based curriculum that in embedded into engaging physical activities and lessons.

There are many strengths and weaknesses that come along with focusing on a standards-based curriculum. One of the biggest strengths is that just as with any other subject there are clear objectives and learning targets that can be measured. Through these standards, intentional lessons can be created and assessed. One of the weaknesses of including a standards-based curriculum is that sometimes there is tension with creating a multicultural classroom that has an engaging environment for students. It is difficult to balance the standards-based approach with a focus on multicultural education. Furthermore, “physical education teachers are confronted with a high-stakes, standards-based environment that has produced a grading and report card crisis. The development of content standards, greater access to information about student achievement, and an emphasis on self-directed learning styles have led to changes in the way students are taught and assessed”.

Finally, integration of standards does affect student engagement in PE classes. When classes are aligned to standards and learning objectives that have true meaning and outcomes for students, then student engagement actually increases. When students know what and how they will be assessed then they are in turn more engaged in the activities and there is a higher motivation to do well. Research continues to show that since there are four levels for multicultural education, it is up to the educator to determine what is best for students. Any of the four levels/approaches can lead to better results in the classroom as long as there is the meaningful implementation of standards-based instruction within the multicultural classroom.