I have used Gibbs’ (1988) reflective cycle to reflect on my lesson. Description, feelings, Evaluation, analysis , Conclusion and action plan
Today was the last session from my scheme of work in badminton, after reflecting on the last few lessons I wanted the group to work in pairs more and figure things out for themselves rather than me talking at them. My mentor advised me to trust learners in working it out for themselves and not to be afraid off letting them go off and find the answer even if it does take little longer, it’s about building trust. I used a humanistic approach by allowing learners to see their own growth and goals which allow them to help themselves and build their own confidence of been able to do things with little supervision.
I started with a recap of the last lesson and paired the groups up straight away, I had them rallying with each other and saying aloud the shot they have learnt over the past few weeks whilst playing that particular shot, for example, overhead clear, drop shot, net flick and so on. At the time I was a little apprehensive to let them go off and do this as normally I would talk about it first and demonstrate. Once the groups were off and running I was surprised to see how many had remembered and were playing the right shot without me having to tell them.
Skinner talks about rewards and punishment which I also used in the lesson by playing a game, if the winning shot was scored off a net shot that player gains extra points and as a reward would receive a star , and the punishment vice versa. I found that by having the group in pairs straight away they were supporting each other as well as thinking beyond just playing a rally, there was more deep thinking happening about how to outwit an opponent. I found this teaching style worked well as the groups were thrown into a task straight away and got on with it.
By pairing the learners I allowed them to use their cognitive skills to understand their own strengthens and weaknesses whilst building on their understanding on how to further develop. If I had more time I would like to have moved the groups on to evaluating their own performances with their partner. Next time I could cut down the game time and allow for this to happen , this would allow the group to peer assess each other.
At the end of the lesson my mentor praised my efforts of moving away from my comfort zone where I tend to keep full control of the group by stopping and starting to allow the group to learn from each other.
halimakhan21 