Drowning in the Shallow

DECEMBER 22, 2024

This blog post is adapted from Teaching about planning in pre-service physical education teacher education: A collaborative self-study and is part of my evolving thoughts about how we teach planning to novice PE teachers. The way we teach novices PE teachers to plan is problematic.

PE Teacher

Drowning in the Shallow

APRIL 20, 2025

When we talk about participation in PE, we usually mean physical activity; how many minutes pupils are physically active, how engaged they are in movement, how much effort they put into practising what we want them to learn. These are important considerations.

PE

Drowning in the Shallow

FEBRUARY 22, 2025

Bricoleur is a French word that means ahandyman who makes use of any and all the tools at hand to complete a task‘ I see part of developing expertise as a PE teachers through this lens. The first reason for this is that teaching PE requires the constant responding to persistent challenges.

PE Teacher

Drowning in the Shallow

OCTOBER 13, 2024

“PE is not Sport.” A proclamation that I’ve written on social media and announced to others as a means of educating their ignorance. Those who often talk about the subject, but do not teach it, tend to view sport and physical education as the same.

PE

Drowning in the Shallow

SEPTEMBER 15, 2024

Inquiry episodes are challenging One of the most challenging aspects of taking a games-based approach (GBA) to the teaching of games and sports within physical education are the inquiry episodes. In attempting to make children’s thinking and understanding about their game play visible, you are essentially creating uncertainty within your teaching.

Physical Education

Drowning in the Shallow

AUGUST 26, 2024

Today marks the 10th anniversary of this blog. Over that time I have blogged 369 times (including this one) and have written just over 400,000 words mainly on physical education, sport, physical activity, teaching, coaching and teacher education. Looking back I’m unsure why I started blogging.

Physical Education

Drowning in the Shallow

AUGUST 17, 2024

The move from teaching physical education to teaching teachers of physical education has been challenging, as it is filled with unique dilemmas and problems.

Physical Education

Drowning in the Shallow

JULY 21, 2024

How should we prepare novices to become PE Teachers? This question is an enduring and challenging one, mainly because of the limited time that is given to teacher education. A decision needs to be made on what to prioritise. Over the decades there have been a variety of answers.

PE

Drowning in the Shallow

JUNE 15, 2024

What is the purpose of a physical education? My position is that it is to ‘nurture the physically educated person.’ Can PE (the school subject) do this by itself? No, I don’t think so.

Government

Drowning in the Shallow

MAY 4, 2024

I’m unconvinced that there is one best way to organise and teach physical education. Supporting children to value and find a place for movement in their lives is a complex and dynamic task.

Physical Education

Drowning in the Shallow

APRIL 14, 2024

PE is neither good nor bad. It is an empty vessel and all stakeholders involved in the subject have a duty to act ethically as we have the potential to do harm.

PE

Drowning in the Shallow

MARCH 17, 2024

Throughout my career there has often been debate whether physical education is a practical subject, an academic subject or a combination of both. Ofsted’s current position is that it should we should focus on both declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge, specifically 1) motor competence 2) rules, strategies and tactics and 3) healthy participation.

PE

Drowning in the Shallow

FEBRUARY 18, 2024

A games-based approach can be mistakenly considered as a game-as-teacher approach. This is because children can learn from playing the game. The mistake is not that children can learn from playing the game. Of course they can.

Teacher

Drowning in the Shallow

JANUARY 7, 2024

The articulation challenge: One of the many challenges for those of us who are involved in the induction of new PE Teachers (be that lecturer, teacher educator or subject mentor) is that individuals come into the profession having already observed thousands of hours worth of teaching.

PE Teacher

Drowning in the Shallow

JANUARY 1, 2024

Top 10 read posts in 2023 Top 10 read posts written in 2023 What is a ‘constraints led approach’? (2016) A constraints led approach is a relatively new approach to skill acquisition.

Education

Drowning in the Shallow

DECEMBER 15, 2023

PE is powerful. Not for the potential impact it can have on children’s learning and development but because, at least in England, it is the only time all children between the age of 5 to 16 are compelled to engage in movement.

Movement

Drowning in the Shallow

NOVEMBER 19, 2023

Mosston and Ashworth’s Spectrum of Teaching Styles (SoTS) offers PE Teachers, both novice and expert, a clear framework of teaching within the subject. Specifically it provides a unified theory and shared language about the structure of teaching, which allows an individual to develop a repertoire of teaching styles.

PE Teacher

Drowning in the Shallow

OCTOBER 21, 2023

Twice in the last week I have had conversations with people about why they engage in physical activity. The first said fitness and the second said health. These have been stock answers I have heard all through my career.

Physical Activity

Drowning in the Shallow

SEPTEMBER 3, 2023

This post is a reminder to myself of the gap: A reminder that the field of PE is a messy and misunderstood one and where radical reform and ideals will ultimately fail when that messiness is not understood. A reminder that PE pre-service teachers already come with strong values and ideas about the subject.

PE

Drowning in the Shallow

AUGUST 26, 2023

INTRODUCTION What is feedback? Feedback is information that is provided to learners during practice, usually after a single trial or a group of trials and is considered one of the most important and studied factors which affect the learning of knowledge, skills, and behaviours (Schmidt et al, 2019).

PE

Drowning in the Shallow

JULY 9, 2023

Traditional PE. “Traditional“ A description of the way we have always done PE against more contemporary approaches. A qualifier that is used as a pejorative. Employed indiscriminately – within the academic literature, on social media and in discourse around PE – as a substitute for practice we don’t like.

Academics

Drowning in the Shallow

JUNE 11, 2023

There are 3 possible futures for Physical Education in England. At least according to David Kirk’s (2010) critical analysis of the subject. The darkest future is the extinction of the subject, this however is the least likely one. The most likely future for the subject is that the dominant practice, what he calls ‘PE-as-sports-techniques’, will … Continue reading More of the same?

Physical Education

Drowning in the Shallow

MAY 6, 2023

Meaningful PE (MPE) is a framework which recommends drawing upon and applying a set of practices within PE teaching. The essential ones (in my opinion) being; vision, shared language, reflective practices and democratic practices. Vision (Ní Chróinín et al, 2019) consists of a set of vivid and concrete hopes, practices and purposes. Having one is … Continue reading Meaningful PE – just good teaching?

Teaching

Drowning in the Shallow

APRIL 8, 2023

When children turn up to PE we may not inform them of the learning intention and explain why that learning intention is valuable. If this happens our subject can seem to lack coherence. This makes it both harder for teachers to teach and for children to learn and see PE as valuable in their education. … Continue reading How can we attempt to create a greater sense of coherence within PE?

PE

Drowning in the Shallow

MARCH 19, 2023

In the past fortnight I have either listened to or read other people’s opinions about the power of PE and it frustrates and disappoints me.

PE

Drowning in the Shallow

FEBRUARY 26, 2023

For Catherine Ennis, if PE is to educate students for a lifetime of physical activity, then it needs to provide not just an effective experience but an engaging one as well.

PE

Drowning in the Shallow

JANUARY 29, 2023

How can we ensure that experience of PE does no harm? One way is to improve our ethical decision making, which requires a shift in mindset in how we see PE, how we advocate for PE and how we respond to other people’s stories of their experience of PE.

PE

Drowning in the Shallow

JANUARY 1, 2023

Top 10 read posts in 2022 Top 10 read posts written in 2022 20 mistakes I’ve made in my 20 years of teaching PE (2022) This was a reflection back on my career in PE teaching and teacher education to date and what mistakes I have made and to ensure that I don’t make similar … Continue reading Drowning in the Shallow 2022-in-review →

Teaching

Drowning in the Shallow

DECEMBER 31, 2022

When we reduce things down to its simplest level the PE Teacher has only two things they have any control over to influence children’s learning in PE and making it a meaningful experience. The first is the type of tasks and practices they design for children to participate in.

PE Teacher

Drowning in the Shallow

NOVEMBER 27, 2022

Mary Kennedy’s (2016) offers a conceptualisation of teaching that is through the lens of persistent challenges.

Motivation

Drowning in the Shallow

OCTOBER 30, 2022

Questioning is an important teacher behaviour within PE. It is a key part of Rosenshine’s principles of instruction (2012).

Teacher

Drowning in the Shallow

SEPTEMBER 4, 2022

Teaching PE is a continuous act of making professional judgements about the why(s), how(s) and what(s) of physical education (Quennerstedt, 2019). This is a fundamental but challenging part of a PE teachers job. It requires deep reflection and challenging what we have been encultured to think during our own PE experiences as a child. This … Continue reading What’s your PE Jigsaw Puzzle?

PE

Drowning in the Shallow

AUGUST 28, 2022

There is increasing political recognition of the importance of physical literacy (PL) in England. It was a critical principle underpinning UK Parliament’s (2021) recent proposal for a ‘national plan for sport, health and wellbeing‘ and the government’s response agreed that it should be an essential focus for physical education (PE) and school sport (DCMS, 2022).

Government

Drowning in the Shallow

NOVEMBER 13, 2021

PE positions developing children’s behaviours as either one of its main outcome or as a means to achieving other valuable aims. Either way PE openly promotes itself as ‘the’ subject that can enhance grit, or resilience, or cooperation or any number of ‘education through movement’ outcomes. A 2016 Brookings Report categorises these into 4 domains … Continue reading Making the abstract concrete.

Movement

Drowning in the Shallow

DECEMBER 12, 2021

The view we have of children shapes what type of PE, school sport and school based physical activity (PESA) we provide. In a deficit based approach we see children as either at risk of becoming broken or already broken.

Strength

Drowning in the Shallow

JANUARY 1, 2022

Top 10 read posts in 2021 Top 10 read posts written in 2021 What is a ‘constraints led approach’? (2016) A constraints led approach is a relatively new approach to skill acquisition.

Education

Drowning in the Shallow

JANUARY 29, 2022

Physical Education is not inherently good. Children and young people will not automatically improve their movement, health, academic success or their pro-social behaviours just by participating in the subject. To achieve that we need to become more intentional with how we shape PE, what we fill it with and how we offer it. To ensure … Continue reading 20 mistakes I’ve made in my 20 years of teaching PE.

Teaching