Physical Education Majors Team Teaching in an Early Field Experience in a Junior High School Setting

The earl y fie ld experience (EFE) has been conside red a val uable and important component of a phys ical education major's education (Curtner-Smith , 1993). For this study 26 pre-service teachers (PST) (physical education majors) team taught ( 13 teams) in an EFE in a local junior hi gh school. During their EFE each team taught 2 lessons in the school. From thi s study it was found that during the PST lessons the junior high students were acti ve in the class acti viti<.:s. that the PST should have used louder voices when tc;1ching, that the PST should have had a back-up plan for thei r lessons, that music play.;d can help during class acti vities , and that they PST fe lt their lessons went '·well." 'rttfl i'1~ rPm tt~tH~ , &i11~'lHf ;t,:H ~t Wirt frk-ff ff '.<~(lJ~i '~1r ;t , r1 i;, lilf '.1'U-H12G (~ tfit ,nif i~l ti Mi iti! Pll F>:\'<JUH~;l · t:ii ~Wi~~ti*~tm~¥~~~~•·ffilmtt~~~~*~~~U§~·~*~~~@~~~r~~ ~i~~~m~%~t 11 ~~&~~~fflff~ft~~~ffi~~ft*tt~ -

Arter the stud,·nh had comp lctecl their obsnvation,. th ey ll'oulcl bri elh I i,it wi th the cbssrnorn te .1ch,· r an d discuss tlll' ir kS>on , f11r their team tt·. 1chi11g nperic:11ce. Cpon com pletion or th,· s· : preparat ory ste ps. the PST teamed up 11 it h :1 classm:11c for their EFE. The PST then picked t11l> c\a" period, th at the,· ll'oulcl te,1c h at the Juni or Hi gh School. It was suggested tha t th e PST teach both lesson s tP the s:1111e cl:iss. The 1\-:tson for this 11 ,ls that by the seL' l•nd kss o11 th e PST should be more fami li :1r 11·ith the stucl,·111 ,.
ancl the students would be lll01'c ramik1r 11 ith the !'ST.

\Yritten Reflections
.\ 1 the conc lu ,io n of cYcry te arn· s k s~on. the re,earchcr as ked the PST to 11ri1e a reflection 011 their les,on. .~gain. the PST 1Yas asked to reflect. from thei r per,pect ive of the lesso n they taught. Such que stion s the PST wo uld lak e int o acco unt when wrili ng th eir rcflcctiLlllS 1Yere, ··HolV the les son we nt"'. ··What the y thought we nt we ll"' . "What they thought 1yould have made the lesson better", and they we re asked to think of all parts of the lesson as they wrote their reflect ions. The rese arche r also as ked the PST to si t clown with their part ner !hey taught wi1h and discuss the abo1·e 111entionecl _ .
The fo lloll'ing theme, nf: a) S1ude111 ·, Bt'ing r\c'l!\c during Cla ss Time r\ c1i1 it ics: b) Using a Loud Gym \ "oice: and c) Over Planning or Ha1i 11g a Back-up Plan and d) /vfo cel laneous thoughts ca me fonl"a rd Ill the analys i,.

Student s Being Ac ti ve Durin g Cla ss Time Activities
Through out the informal i11tcr1·ie11·, and 1nit1en reAec tions of the PST the most common theme dealt with a majorit y of the students bei ng ac ti ve during a majo ri ty of class time. When analyzing the 11,ri1 te11 reflecti ons regarding student act ivi ty. the PST used , uch phrases as.
·'A lmost all students we re active" or ··A \l lhe student s we re act ive at some time during the lesson focu s' ". and "man y of the students li stened to the instructions, and surprisingly, got into the activ ity. " During the informal interviews some of the PST stated. how surpri sed they were that the students participated in the ac ti vities. One student said she was '·totally blown away'' when the class got into ac ti vity, and fo und that all of the students we re participating. Another student stated how he was nervous at the start of hi s lesson, but fo llowed his lesson plan and noticed at the le ve l of co ncen tration so me of the students had as they were practicing the given sk ill. He stated that '·because lhey we re so foc used on prac ticing the skill and [ was so nervous. r did n't notice if there we re any classroom man agemen t issues tha t had to be addressed. The stucknts were too bu sy wo rking on the skill.''

Over Planning or Having a Back-Up Plan
Another theme tha t came from the PST was that they wished th ey 1vo1lld have ove r pl anned or had a bac k-up pl an for th eir lesso n. On e tea m menti oned during their informal interview that they had run out of actil'i ties fo r their lesson. As they rea li zed they had fi nished teac hing their les son they still had IO minutes left 111 th e class per iod. On e of th e tea m member, said that ll'hen they had completed their lesson and sti ll had ti me left durin g the peri od. they had th e> st udenli part icipate in an ac til'i ty that was used earli er in th, pe riod. The team felt th at the repeated actil' ity 11c111 11ell because the students did n' t see m to mi nd. .-\ nothe r team st;11ed that they lc>arned "it 11as imponanl to hal'e ba ck-up acti1 ities ready ". This tea m had 10 rnodil\ an actil'ity an d beca use th ey mod ific>d th e acti1i11 it shortened the ac til' ity. thu, k.tr ing nt ra time at the end of the class . Onc of the team members sa id . "Lucki\l I remelllbered an ac1i1·ity from -a -prn ious cl~ss I had tahcn. so 11c used it at the end and it got us throu gh the class."

\liscellaneous Thoughts from the EFE
A li nal theme that ca111e fro m the data dealt 1rith miscel lane ous though ts from th e PST tt'am teaching c\pcrienc e. Th e most co 111mon PST re spon, e in this L ':llegLiry II as that the PST e\pre ssed being ncrrnu, as the) ,rcre to 11:'ach their lessons .. For the PST. thi s tea m tc:iching t'xpe rienct' 11 as the first time they had bw 1 in front of ··real"' students. It 1ras obst'rvcd that Llllc' PST 11·as visib ly nerrnus and had expre ssed her a11\i c1y. but in the same breathe stated that she 11 as gl ad she was teaching ll'ith a partner. Another common student response from the PST was how glad the y we re 10 partici pate in thi s team teaching expe ri ence. One PST expressed it when she said that the experience ll'as ··, aluable and worth whi le and a good opportunity to be 11·i1h ·real kids.· Another student said that they wue "tired of teaching their classmates and was glad to be in a real school.'' Another response that was common among the PST was the use of music or lack of music played dur ing their lesson. One team stated that because they had mus ic at the start of the lesson, it "helped get the students going.'' Another student stated during the informal interview that a couple of the studen ts menti oned how .nuch they liked having the music on while they were participating in the acti vity. One team member wished she wou ld have had music on when she stated, "Music would have been a good addition to put in our lesson.'' A final response co mmon among all the PST was that they fe lt their lessons went we ll. After all the stress and anxiety the PST went through preparing le sso ns, lining up equipment for their lessons, and overco min g bein g nervous, they felt their le s~ons we re successful.
Many PST stated that they felt their '·lesson went well. '' One team stated after they got over their ne,vousness. "things ran smoothly." One student went as fa r as saying that their lcs~on was "great ...

Discussion
The PST voi ces can be valuabl e to the physica l educat ion teacher educator (Graham . 1995 J. in that the y np rcss how to better prepare them to be suc cess ful phy,ica l euu c;it ors. The purpose ll f th i, study 11 as to in1e,t igatc the EFE when PST teams teach in a school :lling. The rc,carchcr found the PST responses to ll'h at the) thoug ht 11otil d ha1c made their b ,011 better helpful ror 1he fa ct that it can be tter help prcp,1re the PST r 1 1r thei r tea m teaching L' . \ pcrie nc es . The theme, th ,11 came our from the rcfkl·t i,111, . inl' t1rma l in te n ie11·, and obse n at ions are no r clinicult 10 teach and prepare ,1ude1 1ts fo r. ye t. if not prepared. the PST II ill go into the EFE 11·irh lit1k succe ss . The re se arch ers 11·ere plea santl y surpri sed when the PST 01 e,whelmingly stated ho11 they kit that all. ii. not many of the students 11erc in ac1i1·i1Y during class . These sra te menh are from the perspect irt's of the PST. had no stati stiL·al data 10 reinforL'c this. Yet. these results are in accord 1ri1h Simon-:Vlonon . ~lr Kcn zie.
The researchers found it in te resting that the PST fe lt they needed to have a louder rnice in the gym and tha t it is important 10 O\'er plan or ha1e a b,1c k up plan 11 hen teaching. With mon" experiences the PST has these two theme s wi ll become 111 ore common as th ey hare 111ore opport uni ties to teach . From thi s study the researchers fee l pairing the PST together is a viab le and practical 111ethod of preparing PST The researchers also fee l this method of pairing stude nts is not the "only" or '·best" method fo r having PST wo rk with students in the public school setting. The pairing of PST together can se rve as a progression that can better prepare PST for their student teaching experience and for their fi rst years of teaching.
As PETE faculty are mindful to the themes that the PST voiced in th is study, this will onl y better prepare them for the ir EFE a school setti ng.

Implications of this Study
Aft er an aly zing the PST ref lectio ns. informal inte rviews and observations. so111e interesti ng i111plica1ions for PETE faculty can be gleaned from this stud y. The first being. the importa nce of keep in g students acti ve during cla ss ac ti vitie s. Man y of the PST mentioned that many of the students we re acti Yity du ring the class period. And becau, e the student, were on-task 11ith the acti vit ies the PST had fo r them to do. there II as little to 110 cla,sroom 111anagcme111 problems.
;\nother i111plic:1tion that ha s co me from thi s stud) dealing ll'ith clas,rotllll management is the use of music being played during the actiritie,. A couple of the PST k it that ha r ing mu sic on during cla\\ ··got th e , tudL'ill, gtl1ng " and that thL ' stu dcn b "liked ha1 ing mu,ic " on du ring cla ,,. Th i, i, a go1 1d indicatio n that mu,,c rn ul d he u,cd Ill help enrnu rage ,1 ude 111, 10 he aLlill' :111d keep them f!lcu,ed Anoth er i111p li c,1ti o11 lw 111 this stll(h is that PLTE farnl ty should ge t th ei r student, into a sr lwol set ti ng for an HE (C urt11c r-S 111 ith. 199-'