It has been believed that the source of the problems occurring in the actual classrooms of physical education at today's elementary schools was the adherence to the traditional physical education method. As a solution, the study suggested the model of...
It has been believed that the source of the problems occurring in the actual classrooms of physical education at today's elementary schools was the adherence to the traditional physical education method. As a solution, the study suggested the model of the best practice. Specifically, the study combined the traditional instruction based on function-centered teaching model characterized by behavior training with the understanding-centered game teaching model typical of a decision making training, using a medium of free-tennis that had the value and principles of net competition that men and women of all ages could enjoy safely introduced in the Revised Educational Curriculum of 2007. In doing so, the study was aimed to investigate the effects of the concretized best practice on the changes in students' behaviors, examine the future directions of elementary physical education teaching and develop concrete teaching methods.
For the results of learning between the best practice and the traditional instruction, the study established three components of ‘decision made’, ‘skill execution’ and ‘adjust’ related to free-tennis that had the value and principles of net competition among seven components of game performance in consultation with the experts with regard to the GPAI (The Game Performance Assessment Instrument) suggested by Oslin et al. (1998). Its subjects included a classroom composed of two groups from the fourth-grade students at S Elementary School located in Anseong and conducted seven classes for three weeks with both the best practice and the traditional instruction. The study collected the data after videotaping the game process of the experimental and control groups, drawing up field notes and doing an analysis. From the perspectives of the analyses of collected videos, field notes and the GPAI, the study conducted a qualitative analysis on students' behaviors and in-depth interviews. In addition to them, the study did a triangulation, such as members check and peer debriefing, to improve its validity and reliability.
The difference of learning effects between the best practice and a traditional instruction through the above course reached the following results as below.
First, the best practice had more positive effects on students' ability of ‘decision made’ in free-tennis class than those participated in the traditional instruction since the former group was thinking of where to pass the ball in each situation, while the latter focused on function-centered drills. The students participated in the best practice always checked the empty spaces of the opponents, threw the ball there, moved closer to the net for their better chance of attacking the opponents and defended their empty spaces to have an opportunity even if they made mistakes.
Second, the ability of 'skill execution' in free-tennis class allowed students to develop an ability to perform the skills suitable for the situations in the best practice, in terms of the strategic and tactic aspects of attacking the spaces of their opponents, whereas it allowed students to simply develop their ability of ‘skill execution,’ based on their exercise drills in traditional teaching. However, as for the function itself, these two methods used in this study had almost no differences. It would be difficult for students to handle the racket within a short period of time, but in the long-term, it was expected that the students participated in the best practice would develop the skill more than those participated in the traditional instruction, since the former group would be able to perform the skills chosen effectively in their skill execution.
Third, the study showed that the best practice had more positive effects on the ability of 'adjust' in free-tennis class than the traditional instruction. In each best practice-based class, students accumulated their actual experiences through various play situations similar to actual games and demonstrated an ability of rapid ‘adjust(ing)’ and ‘problem-solving’ compared to the students participated in the traditional instruction in the game situations with diverse variables. Furthermore, the application of actual games not only boosted students’ interest in and passion for free-tennis, but also consolidated the relationships between students and their teacher.