Williams Inspiration

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What inspired me to do this project?

All the technology that is out is an untapped tool that can be incorporated in education. I remember when I was little I would write a pen pal, but never thought I would use a pen pal to help increase my performance on a skill in the classroom. So, I hope by incorporating this into my teaching I can take students learning to the next level while increasing their social engagement at the same time. This also resonates with me because I work with teachers from all around the world during the summer. I notice that we all teach a little different from one another. If I get my students to receive feedback from someone else anywhere in the world, it will give them a different point of view to help improve their performance.
Background and Need
Obesity is affecting people in the United States at an extremely high rate. It is a problem that needs to be fixed, and quickly. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development states that “more than one in two adults and nearly one in six children are overweight or obese.” The way to prevent this problem from growing more than it has already is to create a healthy mind and lifestyle for the youth. Improving body awareness is the first step in that direction. So, as a physical education teacher, this problem needs to be approached at the roots and that is with the youth. If the mold that students are not able to perform well at push ups can be broken, it will speed up the progress toward having a healthy lifestyle. They become physically stronger, which helps them build better self esteem.

Many students struggle when it comes to performing push-ups. Accorded to the California Department of Education, 38% of 5th grade students did not pass Upper Body Strength component of the physical fitness test in the state of California. It also states 44% of the students fail the push-up sections on the Physical Fitness Testing in Napa Valley Unified School District, which is below the state average which is already low in itself. A larger portion of the students did not pass due to improper form last year. Historically, students are evaluated on effort in the physical education class. Now with students having to meet California Physical Education Standards, they are being graded on how well they can perform a task.

With metacognition being utilized everyday, students just need to learn to use it in the most effective way. Does metacognition produce measurable changes in students performing a task in physical education like push-ups? Students struggle on the three key components of a push-up: keeping back flat, getting enough depth, and pace. This study will show if video analysis can help build metacognition and self awareness when it comes to students performing push-ups.

Literature Review

Metacognition is something that all students need to be excelling in today's education. It is not always brought to the forefront in the classroom. Getting students to think metacognitively is key. This got me thinking Does metacognition produce a measurable change in assessment scores on students performing a task in physical education like push-ups? There are many studies out there that focus on the connections between metacognition and increase performance.

When teachers metacognitively prompt students, they can get them thinking critically. A study was done focusing on metacognitive prompting and its effect on performance. The study resulted stated that, “Stimulated pupils’ awareness of task features and supported them to think about their goals and their progress guiding them to walk through the activity step-by-step”(Chatzipanteli & Digelidis, 2011). This study showed if you can lead the students to start thinking metacognitively, they can perform better in physical education. The study focused on serving a volleyball, but it can be transferred to other sports and skills of physical education.

Metacognition does not just affect students learning in the classroom, it also affects students in physical education. Students need to build metacognition to gain a better grasp of concepts being taught. One study made a correlation between building metacognition and motivation. The study stated “the findings of the present study provide valuable information on the mediating role of autonomous motivation and metacognition on the effects of autonomy supportive motivational climate on students' cognitive and affective responses during physical education lessons” (Karagiannidis, Barkoukis, Gourgoulis, Kosta, & Antoniou, 2015) This shows that metacognition helps motivate students in the physical education class. Nowadays you need to have students motivated if you want them to get the most out of the class. Having a motivated student is also having an engaged student. When a student is not motivated, they will struggle to stay on task and become bored after a while.

Not only does metacognition help motivate students, it also helps in performance in the physical education class. A study was done that focused on the connections of metacognition and motor skills. The findings concluded were “consistent with models of metacognitive development which suggest that the emergence of performance-based metacognitive skills precede the ability for the conscious expression of metacognitive awareness and knowledge.”(Jokić , Whitebread, 2014) This shows that if you can have students build metacognition, they can better perform a motor task. Physical education consists primarily of motor skills.

All these research studies demonstrate the importance of metacognition in learning. Metacognition affects all subjects of education, especially physical education. These studies not only show the significance of metacognition in the classroom, but also the need to metacognition for better learning.

Needs of the Learner

Sociological: At the location where I teach, about 90 percent of the students are from a Hispanic background. Also, 75 percent of my students are from a lower socioeconomic background. Having this background means they could come from a close, family oriented group so they might not have much interaction with people from other cultures. My students need interactions from around the world, which could be something they are lacking.

Instructional: I have an average of 60 students in each class period that I teach. This can be a lot for a single teacher, so the more peer teaching I can incorporate will only increase the amount of affective feedback my students can receive.

Technological: Every student at my school has a laptop and uses it in most of their classes. By doing this action research, I have had my students start to use their laptop in my class. Implementing this has helped them become 21st century learners especially when it comes to the communication aspect.

Educational: Students in my class need to increase the amount of communication they achieve. A large percentage of students that go onto college from my school district struggle. Two key factors are that they miss their family and/or they do not know how to communicate their needs when they get to a bigger school. This project makes students increase their amount of communication especially with people they might not typically interact with.

Action Research

Materials and Methods

I composed my own pre- and post-test using google forms. Both tests were identical so that I can chart the progress throughout the study. During the test, students performed 10 push-ups to the best of their ability. While they were performing the test they were recorded. Then, they broke down their own video by using google forms and sent it to a school overseas (Paris) where a student used the same google form to rate the performance in 3 categories (Pace, Poster, and Depth of the push-ups). Then, the students reviewed the results from the google forms and video analysis to help make correct adjustments to perform better on the next push-up test. The process was performed again a few weeks later, so I could get post data to compare to students’ results with their baseline.

The purpose of the study was to help build metacognition

Results

Quantitative Data:
I used Google forms to collect scores for each student’s performance on push-ups. Each student was graded by 4 people (him- or herself, a peer in class, a peer in France, and the teachers). All for scores were combined to calculate and average. There were 3 different categories that students were graded on: depth, pace, and posture of push-ups. All students showed improvement in these three areas.

Qualitative Data:
Here are some student responses to the qualitative question, “Which feedback helped you or did you like the most?”

“I really liked talking to Pierre because he gave me helpful tips that I would not have thought of while doing a push-up.” -7th grader

”It was cool to see myself on the iPad because it helps me figure out what I was doing wrong and helped me think of what I need to do better.” -8th grader

Pre- and Post-test Scores Compared for Pace of Push-ups.

Pre- and Post-test Scores Compared for Depth of Push-ups.

Pre- and Post-test Scores Compared for Back Flatness of Push-ups.

Research

Design Process

Support and Next Steps