Engaging in values-based teaching through sport

PGCE and School Direct Trainee PE teachers took part in a two day workshop designed to develop their understanding of values-based teaching through sport.

Specifically through the medium of rugby, well known as a high-impact collision sport, students were shown how rugby can be used in alternative ways to promote and contribute to the holistic education of young people and develop the child rather than the player.

Whilst competition is not de-emphasised through a values-based approach to teaching physical education and sport, children are made aware of the need to play and compete in an acceptable way to ensure that each game is played fairly whilst ensuring that they take responsibility for their own actions and the actions of their fellow team mates.

The sessions included both theory and practice and helped student to realise the importance of values-based teaching in the build up to the Football and Rugby 4 Peace International Festival. The festival involved 250 secondary school pupils and took place at the Falmer campus on 21 September.

Principal lecturer and PGCE/School Direct PE route leader Dr Gary Stidder said: “Learning in the affective and social domains will be familiar to most teachers. According to Bloom’s taxonomy, a classification of learning objectives within education and the way in which skills are learnt in the affective domain typically relate to the emotions and feelings experienced.

“Social learning outcomes related to behaviours and responsibility are an integral part of the learning within which pupils acquire certain values and attitudes.  These are the key principals that underpin a values-based approach to teaching and learning irrespective of the context in which physical education teachers work.”