Teaching Approaches With Some Learner Involvement

As mentioned earlier, some teaching approaches fall between the two extremes of the direct and indirect approaches; these are station teaching, individualized instruction, and cooperative learn¬ing. Many movement tasks and sport skills can be practiced effectively using a station approach to teaching. With this format, the teacher usually decides which activities will be practiced, but stu¬dents can practice different tasks and can progress at individual rates. Station teaching is an effec¬tive way to practice after the initial introduction of a skill or movement. It can be used in both pri¬mary and upper grades. When learning stations are used, the teacher sets up several practice areas in the gymnasium or on the playground. This arrangement is similar to learning centers in a classroom and circuit training in physical fitness. Lessons can be designed for practicing different skills or different levels of a particular skill. Stu¬dents are divided into groups, and each group is assigned to a station. The teacher usually signals when the groups are to rotate. After children have some experience working independently at completion of all the tasks Or activities, they can progress individually to the next group. (Tasks are usually communicated to the learners with task sheets or posters.) This frees the teacher to work with children who are having trouble or to evaluate individual students.
One example of a station learning arrangement. The tasks shown in the figure are appropriate for second-grade, children. Each station should have enough equipment for five children to participate at the same time. To make sure students understand what to do at each station, the teacher should explain and demonstrate. The task sheets, posters, and other remind¬ers at each station are also helpful. The same ac¬ivities can be used effectively for practice of sport skills in the upper grades. Ability grouping for sport-skill practice allows a range of skill levels within an age group. Usually, each station is planned with progressive tasks, but it is also de¬sirable to have some stations designed specifically for those students who would benefit from modi¬fied (lower-level) or extended (higher-level) tasks. In most sport-skill lessons, students tend to accomplish more if grouped with children of similar skill (Thomas 1994)