final+report

When analysing the Wallacia and Merimbula Public School presentations, we found that both learning activities provided sound health education experiences. Both activities addressed the individual schools’ context and were appropriate for the stage intended. Each learning activity however lacked explicit links to the health priority area focused on which we questioned the effectiveness of the learning from each activity and whether students would be able to make the implicit link to real life experiences and other contexts.

By critiquing different learning activities our group has come to realise that relevant, meaningful and purposeful health education learning activities discuss students’ prior knowledge and do not assume student understanding; provide hands on concrete examples; and provide strong, explicit links to the focus area. We understand that student’s prior knowledge should always be established before commencing learning sequences to guide the direction of lessons and ensure relevance and student understanding (reference 1). Teachers must also ensure that new concepts, terminology and ideas are explicitly explained and not just assume knowledge, to enable student understanding and maximise learning. We now realised that to encourage student engagement and ensure effective learning, learning activities should have a hands on component that provides concrete examples to highlight meaning and aid understanding. By concrete examples we mean something you can see and/or touch that students can manipulate and that links in with their schemas to connect their current understanding to this newly presented information (reference 2). We understand that health education learning activities should have links clearly and explicitly made to the overall concept being studied. Students’ should be able to easily see and understand how the lesson they are taking part in and the knowledge and skills they are acquiring can be used in other contexts and how it relates to the focus topic. Teachers should ensure that they assist students in making these links and not assume that students will make them for themselves.

Our group sees constructivism as the central concept and cooperative learning as one mode of enquiry that teachers can implement during lesson experiences in PDH. We feel that constructivism as a pedagogical approach enables students to create their own understanding which allows for stimulating and effective learning to take place (reference 3). As mentioned above we feel that engaging hands-on activities create relevant, meaningful and purposeful learning experiences, which is exactly what constructivist approaches endorse. We also feel that cooperative learning is a valuable mode of enquiry which builds upon the constructivist approach. Cooperative learning is where students’ work as an effective group to gain new understanding (reference 4). In the learning activities put forward by both schools, cooperative learning was incorporated. It endorses a student led approach to learning and allows for hands-on experiences to take place. The process of critiquing these learning activities has shown us as a group the fundamentals we would endeavour to incorporate into our own personal teaching practice as well as cementing the importance of explicit instruction, along with a student led approach that is engaging through utilising the central concept of constructivism and the enquiry mode of cooperative learning.

Reference 1 - Tinning, R., McCuaig, L. and Hunter, L., 2006. Teaching health and physical education in Australian schools. Pearson Education Australia

Reference 2 - Cornish, L. and Garner, J., 2009. Promoting student learning 2nd ed. Pearson Education Australia

Reference 3 - Tinning, R., McCuaig, L. and Hunter, L., 2006. Teaching health and physical education in Australian schools. Pearson Education Australia

Reference 4 - Cornish, L. and Garner, J., 2009. Promoting student learning 2nd ed. Pearson Education Australia