My approach to this inquiry began with my teaching philosophy and natural teaching style that emphasizes social and emotional aspects of learning. My understanding deepened by reading CASEL’s resources about SEL and Hellison’s book Teaching Responsibility Through Physical Activity. With these resources in mind, I was drawn to different pedagogical models that could support SEL in physical education settings: Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR), Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU), and Inventing Games. TPSR, in particular, overlaps with principles of SEL in many ways (Gordon, Jacobs, & Wright, 2016).
I was able to use concepts from the aforementioned sources as guiding principles in my inquiry design. In the beginning lessons, I will attempt to establish rapport with students and an inclusive, safe classroom environment using cooperative activities and games exploring the theme of identity. Games that are creative, cooperative, and exploratory have been shown to help students understand emotional expression through movement and empathize with others’ emotional worlds (Lu & Buchanan, 2014), so I feel this will lay a strong foundation from which to build social and emotional skills through physical education.
I plan on using modified and non-traditional forms of games to focus on development of specific physical and cognitive skills, and using exit slips and debrief/Check for Understanding discussions during class to make connections between activities and students’ lives outside the classroom.
Throughout my practicum I plan to model appropriate expression of a wide range of emotions, and to accept and respond to displays of emotion in class settings without judgment. I plan to use reflective journal writing as a formative assessment tool that supports students’ expression of emotion as well as their personal development (Lu & Buchanan, 2014) (Hellison, 2003).