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. The second is their teaching behaviours and interventions in explaining those tasks and responding to children’s participation within them (or not). However there are a wide range of tools (theories, approaches, models, methods and styles) that one can draw upon to inform and enhance practice/task design and teaching behaviours. With so many options available a key part of making informed decisions about which tools are appropriate is understanding why, what and how you might be using them and who you are using them for. Here are a set of three distinctions that are useful for PE Teachers to know to help make more informed decisions about task design and teaching behaviours:
The distinction between technique and skill
There are a range of options making clear the distinction between technique and skill but my preference is for Thorpe, Bunker and Almond’s (1986) distinction. Technique is a specific movement designed to be effective in achieving a clearly identified goal. For example a front foot block in cricket is a technique designed to prevent a good ball from hitting the wicket and therefore keeping the batter in. Skill is a combination of technique and decision making in context. A front foot block only becomes a skill when the application of this batting technique is in some game format or scenario. It can only be considered ‘skilful’ if the technique is the most appropriate and used at the right moment given conditions the batter is facing.
Why is this distinction important? In this case it is for our task design. Whilst tasks and practices that improve technique may support the development of skill, if that is all we ever do then we aren’t really helping children to become more skilful. That requires tasks design that allow for children to explore and make decisions within situated learning contexts.
The distinction between performance and learning
I have written about the distinction between performance and learning before, but it is an important one for PE Teachers to fully comprehend. Soderstrom and Bjork (2015) define performance as “the temporary fluctuations in knowledge, skills or behaviour that can be observed and measured during or immediately after the acquisition process” while learning is defined as “the relatively permanent changes in behaviour or knowledge that support long-term retention and transfer.“
Why is this distinction important? Firstly it means we should be careful not to infer learning from improvements within the lesson, but should instead make judgments about learning over a period of time. Secondly it is very important for both our task design and our teaching behaviours. The evidence suggests in general that doing things which lead to rapid improvements in performance within a lesson might not be best for learning and retention and therefore we need to be aware of this and make informed decisions.
The distinction between knowledge of and knowledge about the environment
James Gibson (1966) makes a distinction between two types of knowledge whilst building his theory of direct perception. The first one is knowledge about the environment, which is an indirect response to things based on information sources produced by another human being, for example a reciprocal peer teaching card for the push pass in hockey. The second is knowledge of the environment which its a direct response based on stimulus information, for example the pace of the pitch, the distance between the passer and the receiver and where the defender is in relation to them – all things which could influence a hockey push pass.
Why is this distinction important? Where we get children to pay attention and what information we get them to pay attention to plays a large role in both their learning and the experience of PE. Both our practice design and our teaching behaviours will be majorly influenced whether we wish them to attend more to sources of information from us or sources of information from the environment we wish them to move in.
I’m calling these distinctions not because we should be choosing one over another (there is a role for all of them in nurturing the physically educated person) but that we should need to have a deeper understanding behind the judgements and decisions that inform our task design and our teaching behaviours within PE. Understanding these distinctions is just a starting point on enhancing pedagogical decision making. However I will raise the question whether a PE which always prioritises technique over skill, performance over learning and knowledge about over knowledge of the environment is one that is truly inclusive and meaningful for all?
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