Physical Education: Critical Evaluation of HPE Activities in the Classroom

Health and physical education (HPE) is necessary for school-going childrens physical and mental development. It has proven valuable for increasing social cohesion, social responsibility, and interactional skills, leading to higher academic performance discipline (Smith et al., 2021). This paper aims to observe an HPE sessions class activities and critically analyze the learning outcomes, student engagement, and further recommendations if required.

I attended an HPE hockey lesson for year 10 students that had a learning intention of providing students with the opportunity to collaboratively use (attack) and deny (defend) the space.

i. The first activity was a warm-up named Kaleidoscope. The students had to work in small groups and react to the stimulus. The stimulus was a whistle for denying or confining the opposition team as quickly as possible.

ii. The second activity was also a warm-up named Lines. It had two stages: the students first had to work in pairs to communicate to defend or deny a specified area. The next stage was adding more players for extended communication to strengthen core defense and deny gameplay.

iii. The third activity involved cones where students physically used their knowledge of denying and consuming space within a targeted space. The students also had to communicate for doing so to pass balls within the designated space- the cones.

Learning Outcomes

The collective learning outcomes of the three activities, as mentioned earlier, are:

Physical and communication-based coordination among the players

Passing the ball with control to the team players

Effectively learning to defend the ball from the opponents

Strategies to outwit the rivals with stopping and passing the ball tactfully within the given space

Passing and defending the ball from the opponent team with the help of team players within the boundaries of a small space would instigate quick decision-making skills

Demonstrating quickness in the knowledge of the game rules

Be able to change the direction with speed

Showing mastery of hockey game under times of pressure

Learning to play like a team, either in the warm-up or main tasks, and visualize that it is not only about individual success but a team victory

The learning outcomes of hockey game are displayed in these warm-up and main activities of the selected session since hockey is a small ball game whose aim is to keep the ball as much as possible within the teams own space and not give up the ball until maximum goals are made (Saputri & Suharjana, 2020). The same command over ball control has been taught in observed lessons by keeping the standards of physical activity infused. Also, keeping physical activity needs in mind, hockey is one of the most crucial games that enhances cardiovascular fitness and is deemed good for anaerobic intensity (Nathan, 2017). Physical intensity is raised, providing more resilience with better heart rate and oxygen consumption. Moreover, the complex tasks that are involved in hockey go hand-in-hand with the learning outcomes of the observed sessions, such as improved cognition with a quick response of the player and simultaneously keeping a ball control, quick decision making with better working memory, and positive cognitive results (Malcolm et al., 2022).

Learning Content

The learning content of the observed lessons activities involved whistles, lines, and cones. The whistle was used to teach the players about the prompt or the stimulus to act instantly, whether to play defense or deny against the opponent. The line portrayed the strategy of facing one another and then passing the ball between each other to improve coordination. The cones are used as a tool for prompting ball control within a specifically defined space and developing hand and eye movements simultaneously. Passing the ball quickly with twists and turns is learned easily with this games content.

In line with the evidence, lines are carefully used in hockey for teaching the players defense tactics, attacking with speed, the ball carrier learning to handle pressure to carry the ball while on the field, and taking the ball forward with the risk of playing in the given space (Lord et al., 2022). The same processes were seen in the observed warm-up sessions of the selected session. Research has also corroborated that visual and auditory responses are affected in physical exercises, in which a fast reaction to a stimulus like a whistle in hockey determines a players fast performance (Rahman & Islam, 2021). Further, cones are valuable in encouraging control and shooting skills among the learners since passing and turning the ball between the cones...…spaces while controlling the ball between cones, for example, which helped in synergy formation and task modification in their personalized way (Crotti et al., 2021). Each student had a unique style, and whenever a child could not pass the ball between cones smoothly, the instructor again interjected with his linear pedagogical teaching.

Recommendations for Improvement

Student engagement could be increased through Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT), which has provided fruitful results in raising the engagement bar for ice hockey students in research (Lundgren et al., 2021). The students became more focused and reached their objectives more swiftly than in the randomized controlled group, which could also be applied here.

ACT is a behavioral and cognition-based alignment for the psychological pursuit of sports players. Its relevance to hockey has been determined by the players openness and awareness about the mindfulness of the game, so that engagement levels are bettered. Without trying to avoid the game, acceptance of the game with an attitude of embracement is used to remove obstacles i the way hockey players perform.

It might not need technology, but the methods and training sessions for the students could be conducted weekly. A four-week training program could be formulated with two sessions per week. Training materials could be given to the students by a psychological trainer. The trainer would be in the position to give feedback after home assignments each week. The central skill development over the week and by the end of the program would be communicated to the student, their parents, the school management, and the HPE teacher so that psychological flexibility with varying levels of engagement could be evaluated.

Conclusion

Few warm-up and main activities were observed for year 10 students who were taught to defend and deny spaces in the hockey game. Certain pedagogies were seen playing their part during the instructional class on the field, which helped in understanding models and HPE attributes known for infusion physical, cognitive and social skills. The lesson was analyzed effectively in fulfilling all the main criteria of PE instruction and meeting the learning outcomes; however, student engagement is a concern. Recommendation for improving engagement has been presented with an evidence-based practice that has proven to produce positive results for students psychological advancement, thus, conducive to student engagement…