PDFE 13

To better understand feedback, I observed a yoga class at Berry College and was able to see many example of extrinsic, instrinsic, knowledge of results, knowledge of performance, descriptive, and prescriptive feedback.

Extrinsic:
- Teacher tells a student "That's exactly how the pose should look" after seeing him complete a pose
- Teacher tells a student "I'm impressed with your improvement" after a difficult pose
Intrinsic:
 - a student feels the correct muscle stretch when she moves into a position
- a student knows she has succeeded in a pose because she no longer feels pain when doing it
Knowledge of Results:
- Teacher informs a student that she is going through the motions of a sun citation too quickly
- Teacher shows a student what her final pose looks like by demonstrating it with her own body
Knowledge of Performance:
- Teacher tells a student that during a sun citation push-up her arms are too far apart
- Teacher tell a student after class to keep practicing at home because she has noticed an improvement in many difficult poses
Descriptive:
- Teacher describes the difference in the intended pose and the pose the student is in to help her reach the intended pose
- Teacher describes which muscles the students should feel stretching during the current pose to help them know if they are doing it correctly
Prescriptive:
- Teacher says "Good, but next time, position your feet directly below your hips for better balance."
- Teacher tells a student an alternative method to use to go about reaching a desired pose

Feeback is meant to serve many purposes. The following are ways in which feedback can be useful along with examples from the yoga class I observed.
Motivation:
- "I'm impressed with your improvment."
Reinforcement
- "That's exactly how the pose should look."
Information
- Teacher telling a student to move her arms closer together during a push-up
Dependence
- I didn't see any examples of dependence in the class that I observed. I believe that it is possible, though, in yoga to depend on an instructor's opinion on how a pose should look. If a student were to ask after every pose if he were doing it correctly, that would be an example of dependence.

PDFE#14

In class on Monday, November15th, we participated in a lab concerning part-practice and whole-practice methods. Part-practice is a technique used in learning a skill that isolates different areas of the skill then puts them all together. The theory behind part-practice is that by practicing the different components of the skill separtately, an individual can learn the whole skill more effectively. Whole-practice is the method used when a person learns the entire skill at one time, without isolating any of the individual components within it.

My partner and I experimented with part-practice and whole-practice methods by using them to learn to juggle. I tried using the whole-practice method while she did the part-practice. She started by tossing one tennis ball up in the air and catching it with her other hand. This was repeated 40 times while I evaluated her. After a one-minute break, she added a second ball and practiced throwing it at the exact time the first ball reached its peak. After another 40 trials, she had perfected the skill with two balls. She took another break and started again with 3 balls. Though adding the third ball was much more difficult for her than adding the second, she quickly picked up on how to manipulate the objects and could successfully juggle for several rotations. I, on the other hand, was only allowed to practice with the 3 balls the entire time. At the end of each of our three trials, we took a 5 minute break then took a retention test. She scored much higher on the retention test than I did. I believe that the part-practice worked much better in this situation because the body must learn to juggle slowly and adjust each time a ball is added. If a person tries to begin with 3 balls instead of one, the body can become overwhelmed and the result would be dropping all the balls. Our results matched what book teaches about part-practice versus whole-practice, though there are certain situations when whole-practice would be more ieal. When we participated in the lab, we were in a main hallway of the Cage Building where people were frequently walking by.  Several times we had to stop to let a person pass so we didn't risk hitting them with a ball. Also we were limited to the space between the walls of the hall and often a ball would hit the wall before we could catch it. These are two outside factors that could have influenced our results.

PDFE#11

For the Personal Development and Field Experience #11, I chose to observe a physical education class for 2nd graders at the Berry College Elementary and Middle School, the school where I work. On the day I chose to observe, the students were playing a game of individual dodgeball in a gym because the weather was not appropriate for playing outdoors. The P.E. class is scheduled to be 40 minutes long, but as I saw on Tuesday, November 16, the entire 40 minutes is not spent in activity.

From the time the coach picked up the students from there classroom, 2:45 passed before they all reached the gym. Another 1:15 was spent quieting the students and getting them to all gather around the coach so he could give them instructions. The first 4 minutes of class time is classified as "management." Once the students were quiet and listening, the coach spent 3:30 reminding the children of the rules (all had played before) and showing them boundaries. This part of the class is in the "instruction" category. After instruction, the students took 1:15 to assemble across the gym floor, find spots where they wanted to stand, and divide up the balls. This can also be considered "management." Finally after a total of 8:45, the students began to play. The first game, classified as "activity," lasted 10:15. The coach had modified the game so that if a student got out, he/she could do 5 pushups to get back in. I liked this version of the game because each student was constantly participating in some way. After the 10:15, the coach allowed time for the students to get a drink of water and have a short rest before the second game. The break, which I classified as "waiting" because most of the students did not need a break, lasted 4:30. Once the class had again gathered together, the coach took another 2:00 to emphasize a few of the rules that he had observed students having trouble with. The students took 1:00 to get in place before beginning the second game, which took 11:30. At the end of the second game, another period of management occurred where the students were asked to put up the balls and line up at the door. This took 1:00, leaving 3:00 to walk back to the classroom.

In all, the students spent approximately 10:15 in "management," just over 25% of the allotted 40 minutes. 5:30 were used for "instruction," roughly 12% of the class. Students were "waiting" for 4:30, or 11.25% of 40 minutes. The total time spent on the actual activity was 21:45, only 54% of the class time.

Based on the percentages I calculated, I don't believe enough time was spent on the activity. Students at Berry College and Elementary School only attend P.E. classes twice a week, for 40 minutes at a time. When almost half of that time is spent in areas other than activity, I think changes need to be made. One thing I would recommend would be asking the children's teacher to consider letting them leave the classroom 3 minutes earlier and return 3 minutes later so that they would already be in the gym at the time P.E. was scheduled to start and wouldn't have to leave until it was scheduled to end. Also, I would eliminate the break between the games to save up to 5 minutes of time. Students could be instructed to get a good drink of water before P.E. began and then they wouldn't feel the need to get more water before the class ended. These two simple changes would add approximately 11 minutes of playing time to the P.E. class, bumping the percentage of "activity" time to 81%.

PDFE #12

In class on November 8, we learned about extrinsic feeback. Two ways to give feedback to a subject are by providing them with knowledge of their performance and knowledge of their overall results. Extrinsic feedback is crucial to the learning process, but individuals who receive it too frequently may become dependent on it and never fully develop the ability to evaluate their own performance. "Knowledge of performance" is a type of extrinsic feedback in which the person evaluating the task provides the individual performing the task with helpful details about their general performance. "Knowledge of results" is the type of extrinsic feedback in which the person performing the task is provided with information about the outcome of their performance.
For the lab, I partnered with Caysie and we were asked to take turns moving a pencil from one line to another. The distance between the lines never changed. We were each blindfolded for the task and each performed it 30 times. The only difference was I received feedback between every single trial, and she only received feedback when she requested it (10 out of 30 times). On average, my partner had a lower average of distance from the target line to her pencil mark than I did. Providing the knowledge of results worked better when it was provided only when requested. I believe that this can be attributed to my partner developing the skill to evaluate her own performance and also being able to get in a groove with moving the pencil. I, on the other hand, may have lost my groove while waiting to hear my results each time. The results matched the textbook because the partner with the lower average was the one who only recieved knowledge of results when she felt she needed it.
One factor that could have influenced the results is focus. My partner is a golfer and has developed an ability to focus in any situation. However, by our class time for Motor Learning and Behavior, my focus is usually shot. Also, many numbers of distances were being called out in the classroom at the same time during the tests. If one of us misunderstood a number called out by someone other than our partner to be our distance results, it might have affected the overall results.

PDFE #10

In class on November 1st, we paired up and experienced the concepts of varied and constant practice with partners. In constant practice, an individual or team will repeat a procedure exactly the same way every time to perfect the action. During varied practice, variables such as distance, time, or number of repetitions is changed to provide the individual or team a chance to practice under many different circumstances.
My partner and I took turns aiming a bean bag at a hula-hoop with a circle inside. I changed the distance from which I threw the bean bag each time, in a repeating sequence of 4 meters, 5 meters, 6 meters, 4 meters, etc. My partner threw the bean bag from 5 meters each time. We each threw the bean bag 15 times, took a 5 minute break, and repeated the sequence 3 times. At the end of the throwing/aiming sessions, we were asked to take a retention test in which we threw the bean bag only 5 times, each time from 5 meters. The theory was that my partner would score better that I would since she recieved constant practice from 5 meters. We actually scored the same, however. The results didn't match the readings from the textbook. The results could have been affected by a number of outside variables, though. My partner had just come from a workout and was tired, while I didn't feel tired. Also, we were in a crowded area that made it difficult to stay focused on the task and hard to not bump into another team when throwing the bean bag. Many bean bags were flying recklessly through the air and we had to keep an eye out for those as well. Perhaps if those variables had not been factors the results would have better matched the theory, but it was still a fun and educational lab for teaching the differences in constant and varied practice.

PDFE #9

When I was growing up, I remember going to my PE class two or three times a week. Typically we would sit in rows and warm up/stretch for the first 10-15 minutes. Then, we would receive instructions for our daily game, then play for the remaing time (usually 30-45 minutes). I remember games like dodge ball, kickball, basketball, capture the flag, and freeze tag as well as activities like jumping rope and different kinds of races. I always enjoyed PE because I was a very energetic kid and needed time to let out that energy. One of my favorite days of the whole year was field day, when we got to spend the whole day outside participating in different events and playing. By the time I got to middle school, we only had PE one semester per year, but for that semester we had it every day. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I did in elementary school because during those years we had to set goals and really push ourselves to meet them. It wasn't the care-free, playful PE that I had grown to love, but it was still a great way to release energy. In high school, we were only required to take one semester of PE for the entire 4 year period. We were introduced to new ways to exercise such as lifting weights and yoga. It was easy to get away with not doing much in high school PE and several students didn't participate all year. I enjoyed PE in high school and liked hanging out with my friends in my class. I feel like it got me in great shape for that one semester, but that was only because I chose to participate everyday. I also played recreational softball for 8 years when I was a child. I loved the "team" feeling and several of my best friends from childhood softball are still my best friends today.

I don't believe the current Georgia requirements for PE are adequate. Not nearly enough time or emphasis is spent on exercise and fitness. In middle school, students are not required to have any PE time at all! People, especially growing children, need time away from instruction to let loose and exercise. It has been proven to help the mind think more clearly and focus better, therefore making it a fantastic way to help students excel in the classroom. In high school, students are only required to have one semester of PE in 4 years. The theory is that in that one semester students will learn how to exercise and then implement it into their daily lives on their own, but this rarely happens.

I think a quality PE program would allow students to have PE class at least 21/2 hours per week, get each and every student involved and playing, be a positive environment, teach students about exercise while they play, and over all, be fun.

PE is both beneficial and important while children are still young for many reasons. It provides regular, healthy physical activity, develops movement skills, positively influences attitudes, and allows students to gain confidence while they are not self concious.

After learning about traditional and skill theme approaches to PE in class on Monday, I believe the skill theme approach is most appropriate for young children. I like how it focuses on improving the skills of each child instead of just the ones who are already skilled. Also, I think it's important that no child is singled out, which can sometimes happen with the traditional approach. Children tend to have trouble focusing for long periods of time, especially when they are thinking about something else, like the activity they are about to partake in. Because of this, the skill theme approach is better because it gets students playing and moving faster than the traditional approach which requires the explanation of rules and organization for the games. I believe when I was in elementary PE we used the traditional approach and, though I loved it, I think the skill theme approach is a better way to go about a PE class for elementary and middle school aged children.

PDFE # 8

How did your performance progress in terms of the stages of learning described in

chapter 7? Did your experience match what would be expected based on the information

presented in the textbook? As you progressed, what where the biggest challenges you

faced and how did you go about meeting them? What happened to your performance (in

terms of the stages of learning) when you tried to tie the knot upside down
During class on Monday, October 23, I participated in a lab exercise with Caysie Holley. Our assignment was to take turns tying a rope into a bowline knot and record observations of our partner as they attempted to learn how to tie the knot. I went first tying the knot while Caysie recorded my progress. I was only in the verbal-cognitive stage for about 10 trials and I was able to successfully tie the bowline knot the first time, though I had to look closely at the directions and think about every step. I glanced at the directions occasionally while I was in the verbal-cognitive stage and couldn't let my mind wander away from my task. I had to pause alot to make sure I was headed in the right direction also. I stayed in the motor stage for trials 10-20 or so. During this stage I felt confident about my knot tying abilities and could finish the bowtie know farily quickly and easily. However, there were still moments of confusion and occasional error, but for the most part I was consistent. Finally, I entered the autonomous stage around the 21st trial. By this point, I could tie the knot almost effortlessly and even found myself talking to my partner and the other people at the table while I performed the task. The motion was natural and I felt like I couldn't forget it if I tried. I progressed through the three different stages almost exactly as the book described and experienced alot of what it said I would.experience in each stage. One of the biggest challenges I faced was making the loop large enough for my hand to fit through. Though I could tied the knot early on, it took nearly 15 trials for me to figure out how to make the loop bigger. Once I discovered how to do it, I could do it every time. When I tried to tie the knot upside down, it was like I was back in the verbal-cognitive stage but I moved through the stages much more quickly than I had when I was first learning to tie the knot. I enjoyed this exercise for teaching the stages of learning. I think it was a fun, interactive way to show students a lesson and allow them to have hands on experience.