Jaakkola, T., & Washington, T. (2013). The Relationship between Fundamental Movement Skills and Self-Reported Physical Activity during Finnish Junior High school. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 18(5), 492-505.
This article discusses how early studies demonstrate the ability to perform various fundamental movement skills increases the likelihood children will participate in a spectrum of physical activities through out their life. Previous studies have shown FMS and physical activities are related, yet there are no studies focusing specifically on the development of relationship between these variables through junior high school. Studies based upon this may help suggest ways to design more effective physical education programs for adolescents. The main purpose of the study is to investigate wether there are changes in students FMS and physical activity measured by self reports from grades 7-9, to investigate the associations among the students’ FMS, and self-reported physical activity through junior high school and to analyze whether there are gender differences in research task 1 and or 2. A significant quote from the article I placed into my proposal is “school-based physical education is probably the most effective way to develop students’ FMS because of its ability to reach the widest cohort of adolescents” (p.494). This is important for my inquiry because many students do not have parents or adult figures giving them opportunities to learn fundamental movement skills. Therefore, teachers can use school settings to target a wide cohort of students.
Drost, D. K., & Todorovich, J. R. (2013). Enhancing Cognitive Understanding to Improve Fundamental Movement Skills. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 84(4), 54-59.
Drost & Todorovich (2013) discuss how teachers in elementary and middle years focus on psychomotor skills but rarely engage in cognitive learning related to learning those skills. They state “students often lack motivation to persist in skill practice because they lack the understanding of the usefulness of a specific skill” (Drost & Todorovich, 2014). The article continues to describe how teachers can use various aspects from the tactical games approach when teaching fundamental movement skills to their students. The tactical games model can serve as a guide for physical educators to focus on useful student practice and understanding of fundamental movement skills and instead of focusing strictly on a tactic, elements of the tactical model can be used to teach skills. The article helps guide how to teach fundamental movement skills within the tactical games model. This is important for my inquiry because students may lack physical activity due to them not understanding the usefulness of the actual skill. By teaching kids through the tactical model the fundamental movement skills, teachers can break down the skills easier for students to understand in a meaningful and useful way.
British Columbia. Ministry of Education. (2015). Physical and health education. Retrieved from https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/physical-health-education/9
This article highlights the new BC Ministry of Education curriculum for Physical Education. Specifically, the new curriculum focuses on big ideas and curricular competencies including physical literacy, emphasizing on fundamental movement skills. The new curriculum is an important resource because it helps reiterate how teachers have to follow the new curriculum and by the time students reach grade 9, they are expected to be able to develop, refine and apply fundamental movement skills in a variety of physical activities and environments. This government document provides evidence into the importance of what students are expected to do by their specific grade level, and therefore we need to make sure they have a good general understanding of these skills to meet the requirements of the curriculum.
Active for Life (2015). Skills builder. Retrieved from http://activeforlife.com/kids-skills-builder/
Active for Life helps to demonstrate various fundamental movement skills and what sports and activities a child can do as a result of knowing that skills. Teaching a child how to do a fundamental movement skill can open a door to many sports they can transfer the skill into. Further, the skills being taught to children allows them to build confidence which in turn provides healthy and happy kids gearing them towards being happy for life. A scale is provided on the website in which age ranges can be selected to show which fundamental movement skills should be taught at what age. This is a very useful resource as students teaching the elementary kids can use this as a guide when teaching various activities to help them learn various movement skills. A specific quote was also used from the website stating “physical literacy is like learning a second language. The older you are when you learn, the more difficult it is and the less confidence you are using the second language” (Active for Life, 2015). This quote is significant because it helps to show why we as teachers need to be aiming at the younger students primarily, as opposed to waiting until they get to an older age and begin to lose confidence in their movement skills.
Hruska, B., & Clancy, M. Integrating Movement and Learning in Elementary and Middle School. Strategies: A Journal for Physical and Sport Educators [Serial online]. May 1, 2008; 21(5): 13-20. Avaliable from: ERIC, Ipswich, MA. Accessed October 28, 2015.
Barbara Hruska and Mary Clancy discuss the importance of physical activity and the advantages of movement for its value in the development of cognitive skills in young children. Further, they explain how movement can positively effect the learning environment and by changing the routine or formatting of lessons can increase both focus and motivation to learn. The focus of the article is solely on integration of movement with academic content, but can be linked with ways to increase fundamental movement skills at a young age. The purpose of the article is to assist teachers who need practical and simple movement structures. Four activity structures (scatter, tag, relay and stations) are presented in the article that can be used in elementary settings for secondary teachers to teach fundamental movement skills. This article not only provides useful information for students who would teach the younger students as well as for elementary teachers as additional guidance if they need it.