Help future classroom teachers understand their role in physical activity

A story from Missouri

Dr. Sheri Beeler, a Kinesiology Professor at Missouri Southern State University, teaches courses in the Teacher Education Program that bring her in close contact with future classroom teachers. She observed:

“All classroom teachers have opportunities to support physical activity in their classrooms.”

Dr. Beeler works hard throughout the semester to reframe the role of the classroom teacher to support physical education and physical activity in all classrooms.

Key Takeaways

Reframe their role as “movement educators”. In order to support her students, Dr. Beeler helps them understand their role as “movement educators,” a term she found helps future educators understand their role in supporting physical activity in schools. For Dr. Beeler, her courses “are about teaching students to be more effective teachers. It’s not about making class ‘fun,’ necessarily. It’s about making it engaging. Not everyone will like integrating movement at first, but these students are our future teachers and the future should have more engaged, active classrooms.”

Practice and model. Dr. Beeler stressed the importance of modeling activities for students and having students practice integrating physical activity into their lessons. Dr. Beeler models activities in class and then asks students to reflect on what they observed. For example, she might ask, “What was the mood in class, before and then after the activity?” In addition, she recommends letting students practice integrating physical activity to build their confidence.

“Because students haven’t had their own classroom yet, practice is critical to get them to actually incorporate physical activity into their classroom and realize that it’s really not that different from what they’re doing in a “regular” classroom setting. It’s just an active, regular classroom setting.”

Teach the what, the how, and the why. Giving students the full picture of physical activity helps them understand why movement is important.

The ‘what’ – what classroom physical activity is and what it looks like
The ‘how’ – what activities teachers can easily incorporate
The ‘why’ – why integrating movement supports student learning

As Dr. Beeler observed: “if we don’t get all three taught, then we’re missing the boat.” Teaching all three helps stress the importance of physical activity and builds buy-in among future classroom teachers.

In closing, Dr. Beeler observed: “Going forward, if we’re not educating future teachers on their role to support classroom PA, how will change ever occur? If we do what we’ve always done, we’re going to get what we’ve always gotten: minimal physical activity and minimal connection of the importance of physical activity to learning.”