Effect of Physical Education on Cognitive, Psychosocial Development During Childhood and Adolescence - Literature review Example

Physical Education Characteristics of Cognitive, Psychosocial, and Emotional Development During Childhood and Adolescence (Skill 1.1) A young child develops the thinking and organizing process of the brain. This is called cognitive development and it includes language development, reasoning, problem solving and the ability to memorize. He can utter new words particularly those that rhyme. He can draw something which slowly becomes recognizable. He also appreciates colors. At the end of early childhood, he shows eagerness in going to school (Knips 2006). A child then reaches adolescent stage which is the transition into adulthood that is often referred to as a time of stress and characterized by frequent misunderstanding between the child and the parents (Knips 2006). According to Knips (2006), “Children want to touch almost everything. They want to play almost all the time. This is part of their psychosocial development mostly as result of their cognitive development. More time is given to them to interact with the environment giving the children the opportunity to learn more things in the world they are living”. Children’s social and emotional development plays an important role in as they grow into adulthood. If emotional development is taken cared at an early stage, chances are, they will be good in school, have good relationship with the community and office. This is most likely the opposite if a child had grown up with poor social and emotional development (Knips 2006). At this stage, teenagers are seen distancing a bit from their parents apparently seeking for little freedom. They begin to think of their future, prospective job, what to do with their money and other things mostly done by adults. This should be well understood by the parents and continue in guiding their children as this will secure for their children a well rounded personality and an adult capable of facing the journey of an adult life (Knips). Contributions of Noteworthy Physical Educators (Skill 1.4) Change is necessary. Student’s needs and interests go with the changes in society. In the quest for survival, schools and its programs must also change including curriculum in Physical Education (Stillwell & Willgoose p111). W. G. Anderson, D. Siedentop and R.J. Brustad & D.A Zehrung are few of the physical educators who show eagerness to adapt to changes. Anderson (1989) stated that while research in teaching Physical Education has been prolific, the curriculum research in the subject has been limited in recent years (Stillwell & Willgoose p113). Siedentop posed the question on the ideal Physical Education curriculum and why do students voluntarily take part in the subject and what should be added in the curriculum in all school levels. Anderson (1989) asserted that Physical Education curriculum is an extremely large and exceedingly complicated study. He lamented on the difficult job of comprehending, recording and explaining the number of events that happen within a semester program to a physical education instructor with at least forty students (Stillwell & Willgoose p114). In the desire for continued research on Physical Education curriculum, a lot of professional periodicals and journals appeared contributed by many noteworthy physical educators. T.J. Templin in 1992 wrote the “Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance and tried to address important issues like, “Are practitioners concerned about research?” and “Why should they be concerned” (Stillwell & Willgoose p114)? R.J. Brustad & D.A.Zehrung (1994) studied the consequences of everyday Physical Education instruction on physical fitness, motor skill development and self perceptions of children in the elementary grades. In the study conducted, more than 200 children were given a daily or an every-other day physical education schedule for a year. The result showed that these students showed great improvement on the mile run and 50 yards dash. Children who weren’t given daily physical education schedules showed no significant change (Stillwell & Willgoose p117). This proved the physical activity’s positive effect on children’s physical development. Strategies for Consulting and Collaborating with Teachers, Special Education Personnel, Administrators, and Other School Personnel (Skill 3.4) The following words appear in the acknowledgement page of “Measuring Up to Standards”, a study conducted by the Pennsylvania Citizens for Better Libraries: “First and foremost, credit for this study goes to the staff of the 435 participating schools that made the time in their busy schedules to collect, compile, and report the data required to complete the 1999 Survey of School Libraries in Pennsylvania. Without their efforts, the study would not have been possible”(Lance, Rodney and Hamilton-Pennell 2000). The acknowledgement tells the beautiful result of consultation and collaboration with the personnel of an institution where changes need to be implemented. Apparently a right strategy was also a factor in the success of the study and eventually a change in their library system. If concerned persons did not participate in the process of change, the change would not have happened. And the way by which communications were sent to concerned people prompted staff of the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Office of Commonwealth Libraries to jump to their feet and made the project going. The success of this undertaking is a clear example of an effective strategy that can be adapted to fit an apparently similar objective. Firstly, a problem was identified. Secondly, an objective was made clear. Communications were sent to right authorities and information was cascaded down to concerned people. If a motive is clear and if it is for the good of all, people will respond and all will give their fair share in order to meet the objective. Bonding of the people who share in the accomplishment of the objective was also achieved. And if another project which will require similar cooperation is to be conducted in the future, expect a more vigorous response from the community. Types, Characteristics, Advantages, and Limitations of Various Assessment Methods and Instruments (Skill 4.1) Evaluation determines the value of a particular experience. The continuous process should be fully integrated with the teaching-learning process. The evaluation’s bottom line should not only be limited to the school and the student but also in terms of the contributions in the progress of the community. Measurements for evaluation provide other valuable services which can be used to classify students, determine students’ status for grading, aid in the diagnosis of students’ weaknesses in fitness skill development and others. Dunban (1994) provides a guide for educators. The guide includes the following three principles: accepted as an integral part of the teaching process, employed to assist students in achieving terminal competencies (psychomotor, cognitive and affective), based on the status of the individual students The office of Instructional Services in the Hawaiian Department of Education enumerates achievement standards for children in the elementary department. An individualized, well executed Physical Education program should have the following few outcome: walk 500 yards without stopping, run 30 yards dash in six seconds or less, jumps a standing broad jump a distance of approximately their own height plus three inches, bounce a ball to 2/4 or 4/4 music count and others. Portfolio assessments are evaluation of learning that happen in a natural setting. They can capitalize on students’ work, enhance both teacher and student involvement in evaluation and satisfy the accountability need prompted by school reform. Portfolio assessment includes active diaries, attitude inventories, entry level skill test, teacher/peer rating forms, and etc. Techniques for Selecting, Constructing, Adapting, and Implementing Formal and Informal Assessments (Skill 4.3) The study conducted by the Pennsylvania citizens for Better Library is available on line. It is worth taking a closer look, a scrutiny, a careful study, permission for its adaptation and finally implementation. Depending on a certain problem identified, a solution to the problem which can be the objective, any project that has passed a thorough study will succeed. The institution which will be the venue for the implementation of the project, the people who will be involved and the government agencies concerned which can be the source of finances that will fund the project should be in the list of recipient of the correspondence that contains the proposal – the blueprint of the project. The objective should pass the S-M-A-R-T test, meaning Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-Bounded. There should be a proposed date for the start of implementation and how long it will last. Like the Pennsylvania Citizens who got their model from another state, a proposal which can be included in the curriculum of Physical Education can also be found in the net or in the library of another state. Educators should not cease in looking for new additions to make lessons in Physical Education more meaningful and exciting. Research in the curriculum should not stop and must give Physical Education a new direction. To be able to do this, an educator must state his philosophy of physical education. The Development of Exercise Prescriptions Based on Assessment Results (Skill 4.6) Also in the net is the assessment of Miller Health Pty Ltd., Integrated Health Management about occupational health and fitness. John Miller started by getting the participants’ profile on mind and body, fitness, muscolo-skeletal risk, diet, chemical intake, stress, career satisfaction, cardiac, stroke and diabetes risk. The assessment program of Miller is based on physical fitness, diet and an ability to manage the stress of both life and work. People who are not in the pink of health experience headache, inability to sleep well, frequent cold and flu, are obese and anxious (Miller Health Pty Ltd 2005). The mind is an important part of the body. It stores some amount of stress which gives harmful effect to major body systems. Being physically fit has several positive effects on the health of a person including a strong immune system. Physically fit persons are healthy and happy, their blood pressure is normal, they sleep soundly, rarely experience headache and have straight upper body (Miller Health Pty Ltd 2005). According to Miller Health Pty Ltd, “Persons with crook back, stiff neck, cold shoulder and dysfunctional wrist have difficulty in touching their toes which suggest tight calves and hamstrings which pull the pelvis back and cause lumbar thoracic and cervical vertebrae to be out of alignment”. Miller Health also states: “Bones do what muscles tell them to do and the cause of pain is normally away from the site of the pain. A series of classes that would bring about strength and flexibility are recommended such as Yoga, Tai Chi and Pilates. It is also recommended that the organization took the muscolo-skeletal risk seriously and do its best to inform its staff about the risk and require them to attend regular strength and flexibility program. If the organization will not give this matter special attention, they will have the risk of spending on the workers musculo-skeletal defects”. Techniques for Organizing and Managing Physical Education Classes and Environments (Skill 5.1) If teachers are not sufficiently equipped with an understanding of a workable teaching skills, the program of education, no matter how worthy its objectives are, will not succeed. Based on observations, many teachers teach physical education subject employing the method which they usually use in teaching academic subjects. This caused confusion, ineffective teaching and the failure to fully appreciate the value of physical education. There are two phases of physical education and the usual method of teaching will not be effective if used in both phases. History of sports and physical education, terminologies, playing rules, safety and kinesiology as applied to movement skills are examples in the cognitive phase. Traditional method of teaching can be used in this phase but not in the other phase which is the psychomotor. Lecture as a method of teaching may be used in special topic which requires a degree of authoritativeness, but experts in the field consider this as the poorest approach as children easily get bored and lose interest. Some of the effective methods in teaching are question and answer, group discussion, demonstration, projects, problem-solving and homework. These methods, however, should be used tactfully and appropriately keeping into consideration some limitations of students. One approach to teaching motor skills is the ‘whole-part method which follows Gelstat theory of learning which says that students gain an insight into the whole activity enabling him to identify objectives for learning. By carefully analyzing the parts which make up the whole leads into permanency of learning. This method is effective in teaching special skills in sports, dance, gymnastics, as well as the basic game skills. The other approach in teaching motor skill is the Part-Whole method which premise on Thorndike stimulus-response theory that says the parts is more important than the whole since the parts make up the whole. There are other specific teaching suggestions and procedures which include the development of skill that requires, among others, the knowing of the skill to be taught and the standards of performance have the skill demonstrated in class and have the class evaluate the elements of correct form displayed by the demonstrator. The Influence of Peers and Others in Determining Social Attitudes and Behaviors (Skill 1.2) Spare time of a person in the adolescence stage is usually spent with peers and friendly relationship becomes more intimate. At this stage, teenagers distance themselves from their parents in quest for ‘little space’. This is a very crucial stage for teenagers as they unconsciously acquire the attitudes and behaviors of their peers. This is why parents are advised to understand the critical stage their children are undergoing. Parents should encourage their children to be very selective in choosing their peers. If they happen to be with the company of fellow students who spend most of their time studying, chances are, they also become studious. But if their group frequently hang around bars and clubs and stay there until wee hours of the nights, lack of sleep will give them headaches and prevent them from attending classes. If this instance happens repeatedly, they will later be famous for absenteeism, and chances are, they will live up to the expectation of the community. The worst will happen if teenagers frequent the company of drinkers, vandals and drug users. These teens usually land either in hospital of jail. Appropriate saying will be, “Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are.” Causes and Effects of Anxiety Related to Performance (Skill 1.4) The ability to overcome pressure and anxiety is an important factor that will determine the performance of an athlete. Even experienced and famous athletes admit that they feel considerable amount of stress and anxiety whenever they face competitions. In an Olympic festival, most of the consultations were focused on the stress or anxiety-related problems. However, some very good athletes possess the ability to control their anxiety which enable them to perform at their best (Hardy, Jones & Gould 1996). Early research defines anxiety as subjection, consciously perceived feeling of tension and apprehension associated with arousal of nervous system. High state of anxiety is the response of a person when faced with a threatening situation (Hardy, Jones & Gould 1996). There are three independent subscales of the Competition State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) which was developed by Martens et al. They are cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety and self-confidence. Cognitive anxiety is when an individual is afraid of failure or not being able to perform in the standard of his coach and teammates and worst, a negative outcome of the game. Somatic anxiety is the person’s feel of his psychological state in response to a stressful situation. Self-confidence subscale represents the high confidence level of a person, prompting him to issue achievement-oriented statement (Hardy, Jones & Gould 1996) Other sources of anxiety are worry about a mediocre performance, possible negative remarks of coach and trainers, losing, inability to perform at a peak expected and the physical condition of the athlete (Hardy, Jones & Gould 1996). Works Cited Rebecca Jean Knips; http://www.students.dsu.edu/knipsr/family%20album/adolescence/psychosocial.htm Stillwell & Willgoose, “The Physical Education Curriculum”, 5th Edition, p111 – 117 Lance, Rodney and Hamilton-Pennell, Pennsylvania Citizens for Better Libraries, Pennsylvania, 2000; http://www.statelibrary.state.pa.us/libraries/lib/libraries/measuringup.pdf Miller Health Pty, Ltd., Integrated Health Management, Occupational Health and Fitness, Nov. 2005; http://www.millerhealth.com.au/results/Results12AN_December2005.htm Hardy, Jones & Gould, “Understanding Psychological Preparation for Sport’, John Wily & Sons Ltd., England 1996, p140-143 Read More