Teaching Decision Making (Part 1)
Decision making is an important thinking skill across PE content areas. All game tactics require students to make decisions. In Health-Related Physical Activity and Health-Related Fitness, students make decisions while designing their own programs of activities; in dance and gymnastics, they make decisions about which movements to perform and what to include in their sequences.
More significantly, to develop autonomy and become independent, lifelong learners, children need to learn how to make decisions about learning and practicing skills. When you give students opportunities to make decisions, you enhance learning, enjoyment, and motivation.
A. HAVE CHILDREN MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT EQUIPMENT AND TASKS
To help children learn to be more effective decision makers requires that teachers begin at the youngest grades by having children make simple decisions about which equipment to use or which task to practice. Start by giving them only two choices, such as making a decision between two different balls for practicing a skill. Then expand the range of choices, so that children make a decision by selecting from three different options, for example.
B. CLARIFY CHOICES AND DEMONSTRATE POSSIBLE DECISIONS
Expert teachers explicitly teach and scaffold the decision-making process. To do so, experts first clarify which decisions children will be making. Then, they discuss possible choices the children can make, as options that may seem obvious to teachers are not always obvious to children.
- Sample Explanation:
Suppose the task is to set up an obstacle course to practice galloping and leaping with each child having two polyspots as the starting and ending place and two hurdles (foam rods set on high cones). To help children understand their choices, the teacher makes the following statement:
"You might start on one polyspot and then arrange the two hurdles far apart so you can gallop a short distance and leap, then gallop a long distance and leap. Or, you might put the hurdles close together so you can gallop a long distance, gaining speed and then two leaps in a row. You might put the hurdles close to the polyspots so you can take one step and leap, gallop a long distance, leap, and stop quickly. You decide where you place the hurdles."
C. TEACH THE CRITERIA FOR MAKING DECISIONS
Expert teachers also provide criteria for making decisions, thereby teaching children that there are good decisions and bad decisions. Teachers may use many criteria, most of which will be focused on ensuring student learning. The following three criteria are always important. After you teach these three points, children should know you expect them to meet these criteria, whether you remind them explicity or not.
- Be safe
Safety is the most critical criterion. Although children are allowed to make decisions, they are not allowed to make choices that potentially harm either themselves or their classmates.
- Dont hurt others' feelings
Other poor choices include those that can make partners feel bad, such as making an obstacle course that is too difficult for the partner to navigate but allows the course creator to show off.
- Be fair
Another category of poor decisions includes those of which one child infringes on other children's opportunities to learn. For example, if children are allowed to make decisions about the centers at which they will practice and one child remains at a center for the entire class, thereby preventing other children from practicing at that center, it is a poor decision because it is not fair to all children.
SAMPLE TASKS
- "For your gymnastics sequence today, select three different balances and put them together in a smooth sequence. Select balances that you can do safely and hold for a count of 3 (criterion)."
- "Set up eight cones any place you want in the space for your center. Dribble all around the cones on different pathways. Make sure your partner has as much space to dribble around the cones as you do. Don't hog the space (criterion)."
- "Today you get to select which ball to use to practice your tossing and catching skills. In your baskets are plenty of small foam balls, large foam balls, yarn balls, rubber band balls, and nubby balls. Practice with three, four, or five different balls, and then select a ball you can catch successfully but also challenges you to improve."
Taken from the book: ELEMENTARY PHYSICAL EDUCATION: Curriculum and Instruction (2nd Ed.)
