Kinesiolgy Essay, Research Paper

How to go about developing a community within a physical education classroom setting.

Each physical education classroom setting makes up its own community. A

community is a group of persons that are supportive of each other, take responsibility for

their actions, cooperate with, and trust one another. The students within the class help in

the making of decisions that affect the classroom environment. But how do you go about

creating a community?

In the beginning of the class year the teacher/instructor needs to get all the

students together in an open and safe grouping and set the ground rules for how to

conduct themselves while participating in the class meeting. These boundaries would set

this meeting apart from any other class time.

The meetings would need to be consistent over time. The meetings would need to

be organized and scheduled for certain times throughout the school year. And meetings

could also be called in the case that there is an important issue that needs to be discussed

sooner as opposed to later.

The biggest concern is cooperation. The environment within the meetings must be

safe, caring, and controlled. Safety would allow the students to hold a sense that any ideas

or statements made by them during the meetings would not be criticized by the class as a

whole. It takes a lot for a child to open up and speak about their thoughts and feelings in

front of their fellow students. A caring environment would aid in the process in making

the students feel safe. Having all the students pay attention and listen while others speak

would create a caring atmosphere. Control within the meetings would give structure to

them. The teacher needs to control the environment by organizing the room, setting rules

that would only allow one person to talk at a time, and requiring that the students help in

the decision making process would help create a fair and equal environment between the

students themselves and between the teacher and the students.

“A learning community exists when students feel valued, feel they are supported

by their teacher and classmates, are connected to one another, and are committed to each

other’s learning, growth, and welfare.” The process that was just discussed would aid in

the creation of such a community.

“A learning community exists when students feel valued, feel they are supported

by their teacher and classmates, are connected to one another, and are committed to each

other’s learning, growth, and welfare.” The process that was just discussed would aid in

the creation of such a community.