The Gibbs Reflective Cycle

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

PS205

Introduction

A physically literate individual is able to perform physical activities with confidence, competence and motivation to carry on throughout their lives; it is a universal concept applicable to everyone (Whitehead 2010). Individuals who haven’t had the opportunity to develop their Physical Literacy will remove themselves from physical activities and take up more inactive hobbies during their leisure times (Burton and Martens 1986).

Physical Literacy can be defined in many different ways one definition found states that physical literacy is the confidence, competence, motivation, knowledge and understanding an individual has to maintain physical activity throughout their lives (Whitehead 2010). De Rossi (2013) however, defines physical literacy as an individual who is motivated to realise their movement potential and take part in physical activities throughout their life. Both similar to the definition written by Harber (2010) who suggested it was the development of fundamental movement skills, which allowed individuals to move confidently, with control of their bodies, in a variety of activities, rhythmic and sport. From different definitions and articles that have been read about physical literacy I understand it to be an individual who has the ability and confidence to perform physical movements and activities with control in a wide range of physical activities, and also has the enjoyment and motivation to continue taking part throughout their lives.

The aim of this portfolio is to present evidence which shows my own personal development through experiences and activities carried out in different learning environments. Fisher et al. (2005) stated that if a young student gains a large collection of skills and movement capabilities they will have a strong basis for physical activities, along with the knowledge and skills gained from those different activities.

I will therefore discuss the impact that these different activities have had on my own development and also the group’s development by using Gibbs reflective cycle (1998). Each physical activity that has been carried out each week has been linked to a different segment of physical literacy, this included teacher and pupil interaction, contribution to quality of life, self-expression and non-verbal communication, a well-established sense of self, reading all aspects of the environment, spiritual education, embodiment and motivation. Gibbs reflective cycle (1998) is going to be used as it is simple and easy, and helps to aid personal development (Jeannie 2007).

Gibbs Reflective Cycle (1998)

Description

Over the last three months we have been taking part in a number of different activities, which wouldn’t normally be included in Physical Education in schools. These included Tai Chi, Martial Arts, Rowing, Skipping and Parkour just to name a few. Whitehead (2010) suggested that by acquiring a range of movement skills and patterns I would find it easier to access a variety of structured physical activity settings. By taking part in these activities I was able to develop my own knowledge and skills and also see how I could take these activities and develop my skills in that area to then bring them into schools when I become a physical educator. These different activities gave me a chance to develop other parts of physical literacy such as confidence, motivation and self-expression (Whitehead 2010).

Most of the sessions that I had taken part in I had never done before and therefore wasn’t physically literate in those areas, some of the sessions also put us into new learning environments, especially rowing. It is important that we experience different activity settings as physical competence will be enhanced, only by experiencing a range of settings will movement patterns and skills be challenged (Whitehead 2010).

For the first few sessions I was injured and was unable to take part in the activities therefore I was able to observe the group and watch their development through each activity and also see if I noticed any reoccurring incidents. One thing I did notice was the divide between the males and females of the group and the different levels of confidence they had. Lirgg (1993) found that males preferred mixed sex classes in schools as they felt more confident, however the females preferred same sex classes as there was more student involvement because there was only females in the class.

Another thing that was noticed was the different levels of motivation the students had for each different activity. Whitehead (2010) defined motivation to be a drive and eagerness to take part, we need to be motivated to thrive in movement skills, maintain ability we already have and make progress.

The majority of sports we took part in caused some of us to feel apprehensive and nervous about taking part as we had never tried them before. However, there were a few sports activities that didn’t really cause any of us to feel apprehensive, which were handball and volleyball. This was because these sports activities had been carried out before in schools or clubs, I also think as we were in teams and it became really competitive as a group we fell back into our comfort zones. Whereas street dance and Tai Chi definitely made us feel out of our comfort zones, this was because a lot of us hadn’t experienced activities where we had to express ourselves with body movements and non-verbal communication.

Some individuals found this quite hard as they seemed to feel embarrassed, we were asked to get into groups and make up a routine to show at the end of the session, out of eight groups only two volunteered to perform as the majority of us were all too embarrassed and didn’t feel comfortable doing it. Comfort zones can be defined as an image that is formed of us, DePaul (2011) suggested that by letting go of the fear of making mistakes will help individuals learn to accept mistakes will be made and try to compete anyway. When comparing this reaction to that of Handball there was a huge difference in confidence levels and motivation levels just because that competitive team environment is what we are used to.

Feelings

When I found out what activities we were going to be doing in this module I felt very excited and motivated to take part in all of them. Whitehead (2010) proposed that young individuals need to be aware of different activities and the movement demands they possess, they also need to gain a rich variety of experiences, therefore it was going to be really beneficial to us to try these new activities.

A few of the sessions, for example martial arts and rowing, I was feeling very apprehensive about before, martial arts being something I had never done before and new it would include some sort of wrestling which I didn’t feel comfortable about and rowing something that I had always wanted to try but had never been brave enough.

By trying these new sports which I wasn’t used to taking part in I was able to see how I cope when out of my comfort zone or in a different environment. Whitehead (2010) suggested that a physically literate individual is able to read the environment taking shape, size, weight, surface and speed into account All of these can be linked to rowing, and all of which I found really difficult to read and cope with, however as the rowing session went on I feel that I progressed and was able to adapt to the environment and become more literate.

Evaluation

Taking part in all of the different activities was really beneficial for my own personal development through Physical Education. I was able to experience and attempt skills that I had never tried before and learn and progress at the same time. A few of the skills really tested our motivation and confidence levels and put us out of our comfort zones, for example Martial Arts.

We had to practice movements on a partner which were sometimes a bit uncomfortable and close, however this is what we had to do to learn the skill, and the amount of confidence we had and motivation was what kept us attempting the skills. Whitehead (2010) realises that complex environments can include those where we move as individuals without any equipment or we experience unpredictable situations and we have to interact and move with another individual. Physically literate individuals should hold enough physical competence to succeed in these challenges (Whitehead 2010).

Teacher interactions was one really good experience that I took from the different physical activities, in Handball, the coach really interacted with us and was asking questions on what our team was doing well and what we needed to do to improve and try and win. Whitehead (2010) suggested that the interaction between the coach and the participant is critical for the development of physical literacy. However in Parkour, the coach seemed to become frustrated when students decided they couldn’t carry out the tasks and they wanted to sit out, a good coach in order to develop physical literacy needs to be alert to individuals responses adapt and redirect the tasks so that participants do want to take part (Whitehead 2010). Observing these different types of teacher interactions helped me learn which the best way to help students progress in their lessons.

Analysis

During the sessions I felt that my motivation levels seemed to drop, at the beginning of each activity I was keen to start and learn new skills however, once I had and sometimes realised I wasn’t very competent or confident in carry out those skills, for example Judo, I felt demotivated and sat out and watched the rest of the session.

This was the same for many of the group members in many different sessions, as we were taking part in a lot of individual, different sports when students felt as though they couldn’t do it they sat out and weren’t motivated to continue anymore. This could be because as Physical Education students we are used to being good at sports that we carry out in physical education lessons at school, however once we tried these specialist sports we found ourselves out of our comfort zones and not very good at them. This can be supported by Whitehead (2010) as it is suggested that individuals have a tendency to engage in activities which show high perceived competence and success. To re-engage us individuals and make us feel motivated again, Whitehead (2010) suggested giving opportunities for us to succeed and nurture our interest, and then when we are successful at the skill again there will be a return of motivation.

This incident occurred in Parkour, Tai Chi, Skipping, Martial arts and street dance; all sports that are not carried out in usual physical education lessons, and none of them being team, competitive sports which is what we are all used to. This can be linked to Harters (1981) competence motivation theory which suggests that competence motivation is increased when an individual successfully masters a task, as this then encourages that individual to try a new task and master that one also.

Another occurrence that happened was that in the majority of the activities there was a divide between the males and females. It often seemed that the majority of males of the group had a lot more confidence in the different activities than the females had. For example, in Volleyball the after the students had developed and practice different skills they were put into games and he gave the students a choice of whether to play on a normal size court if they felt confident and competent, or on a badminton court.

All the girls automatically went over to the badminton court even if they did feel competent and good at Volleyball and the majority of the males went to the ‘normal’ size court because they felt confident and may have not actually been physically literate at Volleyball. A similar event occurred in Boccia, when asked for volunteers to play the game to show the rest of the group, not one female stood up to play as it is almost the norm to just sit back and let the males participate most. Whitehead (2010) cited that the Women’s Sport and Fitness Federation (2008) suggested for young women to become physically literate equality in participation of sport is needed.

Conclusion

To have benefited from this experience I feel that I could have been more confident and motivated in trying the new skills, sometimes I felt as though I really didn’t want to take part, for example in street dance. Whereas, for Handball I was injured and really wanted to play and this all narrows down to what we are used to from our own physical education experience in schools.

For the group as a whole to have also benefited fully from the different activities we took part in I think they also needed to be more driven and motivated to learn the new activities, we had an amazing opportunity of outside coaches coming in and teaching us new skills, however once we realised that maybe we weren’t as good as that skill as we thought we were going to be we felt demotivated and didn’t want to join in anymore. For some individuals they didn’t even try and sat out of the activities from the beginning, which didn’t make the most of the situation at all and was a waste of their own time.

This experience has helped me learn new knowledge and skills which have set up a starting point for me to develop on so that I am able to teach different activities like this in the future.

If we are able to bring in these different activities at an earlier age than University students, individuals will adapt to the different environments we place them in which will then lead them to responding to situations that challenge their movement competence, which will then lead to them becoming more physically literate (Whitehead 2010).

Action Plan

One thing I think that could have improved the activity sessions we took part in was to diminish the divide between the males and the females. Clearly when given a choice, all the females will sit back and let the males take the lead and take part in the activities which then means we get less chance to practice our skills as them. To prevent this I think that it shouldn’t be a choice and the coach or teacher should choose who to take part so that a mix of males and females has a go.

It would be difficult to try and improve on this experience as it has been very beneficial to all of us as a group and has developed our knowledge, skills, confidence and motivation to try out new activities and attempt to teach them to others.

However, I think us as individuals need to develop with our confidence levels and learn that we are all in the same situation so it doesn’t matter if we make mistakes or are unable to carry out specific tasks. To help us increase our confidence levels a few more sessions on each activity would have been beneficial as we could have started with the basics and not rushed through the activities, we therefore would have progressed slowly and increased our confidence levels for that particular activity. By doing this, we would also succeed more often which would lead us to having high motivation levels, which would then stop students from the group slowly dropping out when they are feeling demotivated.