Physical education (PE) is an essential part of the school curriculum, as it promotes physical, mental, and social well-being. However, not all students are enthusiastic about PE, and some may even avoid or resist participating. How can you help students who are unmotivated in physical education? Here are some strategies that you can try in your classroom.
The first step to help unmotivated students is to understand their needs, interests, and preferences. You can use surveys, interviews, or observations to gather information about their attitudes, goals, and challenges in PE. You can also ask them for feedback and suggestions on how to improve the PE program. By knowing your students, you can tailor your instruction and activities to suit their diverse learning styles and abilities.
One of the main reasons why students lose motivation in PE is that they feel bored, pressured, or controlled. To increase their engagement and ownership, you can provide them with choices and autonomy in PE. For example, you can let them choose the type of activity, the level of difficulty, the equipment, the partner, or the duration. You can also encourage them to set their own goals, monitor their progress, and reflect on their learning. By giving them choices and autonomy, you can foster their intrinsic motivation and self-determination.
Another factor that affects students' motivation in PE is the social and emotional climate of the classroom. If students feel anxious, insecure, or isolated, they are less likely to enjoy and participate in PE. To create a positive and supportive environment, you can use strategies such as praise, feedback, recognition, rewards, and incentives. You can also promote cooperation, collaboration, and peer learning among students, and avoid competition, comparison, and criticism. By creating a positive and supportive environment, you can enhance their self-esteem, confidence, and belonging.
I participate in the activity with the students. This way I am able to demonstrate the importance of encouraging each other, good sportsmanship and being a team player. This creates a very positive and supportive environment for everyone. Now when a ball isn't caught or doesn't go into the basket, students are using words of encouragement for their classmates instead of criticisms.
A third way to help unmotivated students is to make PE fun and relevant. You can use games, music, stories, or humor to make PE more enjoyable and engaging. You can also connect PE to other subjects, such as math, science, or history, or to real-life situations, such as health, fitness, or sports. By making PE fun and relevant, you can spark their curiosity, interest, and creativity.
A fourth strategy to help unmotivated students is to challenge and scaffold them in PE. You can design activities that are challenging but not too difficult, and that match their skill level and readiness. You can also provide them with scaffolds, such as cues, prompts, hints, models, or examples, to help them overcome obstacles and achieve success. By challenging and scaffolding them, you can stimulate their learning and growth.
A fifth and final tip to help unmotivated students is to involve parents and community in PE. You can communicate with parents about the goals, benefits, and expectations of PE, and ask them to support their children's participation and achievement. You can also invite parents or community members to join or volunteer in PE activities, such as field trips, events, or projects. By involving parents and community, you can create a partnership and a culture of physical activity.
We use the ideas of Knowledge and leadership throughout the top of KS2 and into KS3 PE. Students are challenged to lead small activities with their peers. Using their expertise they teach a warm up or a skills session. We also challenge students to coach teams during games, push them to improve their knowledge of the games and the laws and be able to umpire and referee games. There are so many jobs that children can undertake and they are great ways of getting them involved to start with and encouraging participation as we go along. It’s important that while we encourage, that we don’t push to hard as to put them off forever. Find their strengths and then work from there!
In my experience, allowing students to choose the teams is the first step in creating humiliation for students who are less skilled in sports. You should always be the one to determine who the team members are whether it is boys against girls or every other student in the line or whatever you choose. But this is the best way to ensure there are no hurt feelings or embarrassments by being chosen last by their classmates. Many of us have experienced this at least once as a child and can truly comprehend how it feels.