Nicole Kelly

My Teaching Philosophy

Every Physical Education teacher has a different way of teaching PE in their classroom.

To me, my background and life experiences till now all play a big role in how I teach. I have

been a competitive ice hockey player for 15 years and I have learned and been through many

great lessons and great experiences that have gotten me to where I am today. I always loved

going to PE class, especially in high school where I met Mrs. Rombough. Mrs. Rombough was

my 9th, 11th and 12th grade PE teacher as well as my high school hockey coach, she had so many

great qualities that I aspire to be, she wasn’t only just a teacher and a coach but a welcoming

wholesome person who I knew I could go to for anything. To me, PE class should be a fun and

exciting place for students to be and should be a place where they get to escape their outside

worries, troubles, problems and be able to enjoy themselves for however long the class is. As

much as PE is fun, it is a place to learn and develop as a person and bringing those learning traits

and characteristics with you throughout life. There are a lot of different goals that I would like to

achieve throughout my curriculum and time as a PE teacher but the biggest goal that I aspire to

see students achieve is to become the best version of themselves and stay physically active for

life. According to Shimon “Physical education is a process of learning that uses physical

activities that help develop the whole person, mind and body.” (pg.36). Each student is a unique

individual and to be able to adjust my teaching approaches to different units to be able to

accommodate most of the class is why I would like to teach in a variety of different ways, in

hopes of being the best teacher for all the students, even though this may not always be the case,

at least I tried.
 When I first started writing this paper freshmen year, I said that I would like to teach

elementary school aged kids, now fast forward a few years, I am more interested in teaching high

school aged kids. My goal as a high school physical education teacher is to be that person that

people look up to and can come to talk to me about anything, I want to be open and transparent

and make students feel as though my classroom is a safe space. Being able to develop

relationships with students, being able to see them grow, set goals and help them reach it will

truly be the best part about my job. It is hard to choose just one philosophy to teach by which to

me is a good thing, by being able to combine multiple different principles to teach. Since I have

more than one traditional type of philosophy that I go by it would be eclectic. Those traditional

types would be realism and pragmatism.

The philosophy of realism is something that I would like to use and go by as it is basically

the fundamentals for anything. I believe that by teaching one thing at a time and then putting it

all together in the end to for a full skill is the best way to learn and practice. Understanding and

practicing a skill by being able to get the basic skills down and continually progressing will result

in a better outcome when doing the full skill and will help teach things like proper form, timing,

the reason for the skill and its purpose. According to Cohen “Teaching methods focus on mastery

of facts and basic skills through demonstration and recitation” (pg.4). Ive found throughout my

life of sports and PE class that practicing and having tests on fundamental skills increased my

results on doing the full skill as I was constantly critically thinking and practicing. I think that the

realism philosophy is close to my own teaching philosophy as it starts out with teaching and
learning the basics which to me is the most important step in learning something and then

through practice and demonstrations the student may before proficient.

The philosophy of pragmatism is also another one that I would teach by. As most kids

have probably seen sports on tv or already played games during recess or watched siblings play

etc., they already have some experience with games/sports whether it be physical or cognitive.

Having physical experience will help kids learn and progress making them better. I believe that

students will have more success by doing and learning how to actually perform skills rather than

listening to what it is they need to do and then going and trying to do it. Trial and error in most

cases is the best way develop and get better. It will also allow for students to gain better

reasonability, social skills, teamwork skills, problem solving etc. According to Lama (2020)

“The philosophy of pragmatists is predetermined to those ideas and values which result in utility

to mankind in certain time, place or circumstance rather than any predetermined of life” (Pg. 1),

allowing for students to learn how to do things rather than being told how to do it I believe is a

key factor in the development of students. As the teacher I will aid them and guide them into the

right direction, but learning comes from self-experiments and doing things on your own,

someone is not going to know how to work together to problem solve just by being told how to

do it, they need to actually do it to learn.

As the semester is coming to an end, I have had the opportunity to practice teaching with

many different curriculum models. A model that right away stood out to me was the Sports

Education model. I have gotten the chance to teach this model a hand full of times as well as do a

research presentation on it. The sports education model, like any other model, has it’s pros and
cons, to me the pros outweigh the cons and I am committed to making adjustments to make sure

that this is the best lesson for the students that I have in that moment. I really like how in this

model students will be able to be more independent, managing their time management, self-

discipline, confidence, respect for others and self, honestly, integrity etc. There are so many

qualities that students can take away from this model, hence why I love it so much. According to

Tore (2021) “In sports education, rules and regulations also apply as the students must follow the

instructions given by their coach. They are expected to obey him in all aspects. The rules help the

students to acquire physical, mental, and tactical discipline, which can also be applied during

after-school life. Being disciplined in all the aspects helps the students to fulfil their objectives in

the most efficient way.” (pg.1). Another key concept that is supported in this article that I would

like to see happen in my classroom, is to allow students to acquire the knowledge of sports and

then determine whether they truly do like it or don’t. There is no problem with students not liking

a said sport but often times students are quick to assume that they do not like it as they actually

don’t know the rules and how to play so they never had the chance to become good or better at it.

And lastly, this model just has so much room for growth and development and really focuses on

time for the students to practice, and I have always grown up with the quote “practice makes

perfect”.

In conclusion, both the pragmatism and realism philosophies as well as the sports

education model are closest to my own teaching philosophies and will definitely help me in my

teaching career. Being able to give students knowledge and allow them to problem solve

themselves will help their abilities in learning skills as well as me serving as a guide for those

students will help not only develop their skills but build relationships with them aswell. I believe
that teaching in groups or having team sports will develop skills, values and responsibilities that

will not only help them during the class but that they can carry on throughout their lives.
 Works Cited

Cohen, L. (n.d.). Philosophical Perspectives in Education. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from
https://oregonstate.edu/instruct/ed416/PP2.html

Lama, R. (2020, March 3). Pragmatism and its contribution to education - IJCRT. Retrieved
December 13, 2022, from https://ijcrt.org/papers/IJCRT2003258.pdf

Legg, C., & Hookway, C. (2020, June 24). Pragmatism. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pragmatism/

Shimon, J.M (2011). Introduction to teaching physical education. Champaign, IL: Human
Kinetics

Töre, &O. (2021, September 22). Benefits of Sports Education to students. FTNnews. Retrieved
December 11, 2022, from https://ftnnews.com/sports/42516-benefits-of-sports-education-
to-students