Theory-based instruction – a key to powerful improvements when learning to regulate body tension in an upper secondary school

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore in what way gradually increasing teachers’ theory-based instruction affects the students’ learning outcomes, illustrated by the example of learning how to regulate body tension in the upper secondary school. Design/methodology/approach – In total, 72 students from four classes participated in the study. The way the students were offered to understand “regulation of tension” was designed by variation theory, and the method used was learning study, an iterative process whereby the results from the first lesson are the basis for the design of the next implementation in a new group of students. Findings – There is a significant increased learning outcome in all four lessons, but in Lesson D, where the highest increase (129 percent) was found, all students improved their results. The use of the theoretical framework had effect on the teachers to vary only the most important aspects in the instruction in the last cycle, where the features chiselled out during the study (e.g. heart rate, respiration, muscle tension) were contrasted more clearly, which had an impact on the students’ learning. Based on the theoretical framework, the teachers got more skilled at experiencing what should vary and what should be kept invariant in order to facilitate the students’ learning. In the last intervention, the teachers found one pattern of variation which was more powerful than the previous. In this one, the physical activities were kept invariant, but different responses of the sympathetic nervous system were contrasted, one at a time, to establish knowledge of different bodily responses to tension. Originality/value – Learning study has mainly been used in subjects such as Mathematics or other theoretical issues but this paper describes in what way learning study can be used in PE. So second, the result of this study contributes to knowledge about how students’ learning outcome in PEH can increase by directing focus on an object of learning rather than actual learning activity. The object of learning in this study is to learn to regulate tenseness and the learning outcomes have been analyzed in the perspective of variation theory.

Running: A way to increase body awareness in secondary school physical education

“…Den tredje och avslutande forskningsfrågan "Vilka samband synliggörs mellan lärandeinnehållets behandling, undervisningens utformning och elevers lärande genom variation i lektionsdesign?" besvaras genom re-analys av resultatet från data genererat på klassrumsnivå i två empiriska studier (Bergentoft, 2018;Holmqvist & Bergentoft, 2014). I steg 4 studeras hur innehållet behandlas i klassrummet grundats på teoretiska antaganden.…”

“…I steg 4 och 5 analyserades med hjälp av VT (Marton, 2014) hur lärare kan utveckla alla elevers lärande av rörelseförmåga. Analysen i steg 4 syftade till att förstå lärarnas teoritillämpning i relation till undervisning och hur det kan möjliggöra ökat lärande hos eleverna (Holmqvist & Bergentoft, 2014), medan analysen i steg 5 fokuserade undervisningen om rörelseförmåga ur ett elevperspektiv (Bergentoft, 2018). Enligt Pang och Lo (2012) har VT såväl en förklarande som en förutsägande kraft.…”

“…Re-analysen av studierna "Theoretical based instruction -a key to powerful improvements when learning to regulate body tension in an upper secondary school" (Holmqvist Olander & Bergentoft, 2014) och "Running -a way to increase body awareness in secondary school Physical Education" (Bergentoft, 2018) visar att kroppsmedvetenhet är en förutsättning för förändrad och utvecklad rörelseförmåga. Resultatet visar vidare att elevernas lärande ökade när lärarna skapade undervisningssituationer där LO, exempelvis kroppshållning vid löpning, är i fokus istället för själva aktiviteten, d.v.s.…”

“…4Content treatment on theoretical basis. In this part, teachers' use of variation theory in relation to student learning is investigated (Holmqvist Olander & Bergentoft, 2014). 5Learning from student's perspective (Bergentoft, 2018).…”

“…Variation of qualitative aspects of the movements, in which students' bodily consciousness, sensorial experiences and perceptions are challenged, are according the results in step 4 and 5, contributing to their learning of movement capability (Bergentoft, 2018;Holmqvist & Bergentoft, 2014). Which aspects of a movement to be varied, differs between the students and is dependent on their previous movement experiences.…”