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Focus Statement

Case Study Assignment

Link to Ministry Guideline

South Option 2000-2001  
HEALTH AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION

 

Instructor: Andy Anderson, Ph.D.

This course has been designed to offer beginning teachers an opportunity to (re)discover physical and health education. The goal of physical and health education in Ontario is to lead a healthy active life. Toward this goal it is the educator's responsibility to provide students with a wide range of opportunities and experiences that enable all students to achieve this outcome. This course provides prospective teachers with a number of practical strategies that focus specifically on the following topics/issues:

Since this course is based entirely on participation, attendance is mandatory.

NO text is required.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION: Case Study Assignment

In recent years, case studies have been employed in a number of professional education programs. Faculties of law, medicine, and business have pioneered the problem-based approach to learning that relies heavily on the use of case studies in helping students construct their knowledge at the intersection of practice and theory. The advantage of case studies – carefully constructed accounts of actual or realistic situations – is not only in their directness, easy-to-read format, and engaging narrative that readily captures students attention, but also in their potential to develop lifelong habits of reflective practice. We hope the preparation of the case study will be an opportunity to intensify thinking about teaching and learning and health promotion for nutrition.

Your assignment is to prepare a case study that is a story about teaching that demonstrates both successful and problematic situations related to nutrition education. The case might be about teaching a lesson or unit on nutrition or it might involve an incident you observed incidentally that poses questions in your mind about what constitutes education for nutrition.

The case should contain enough information so that readers get a sense of time, location – grade level, community, and the nature of the situation – what happened, how, to whom, etc. Do not attempt to bring resolve to the case, simply tell us what happened and what results are available for the readers at this time. The case should not exceed 700 words. Please use double space, times font – 12 point. In this way we will be able to readily put the cases on our web site for future classes.
The case is due the last week in November. Please send the case via email to aanderson@oise.utoronto.ca Please be certain to identify your name and option.

 

FOCUS STATEMENT

Teaching the essentials of Healthy Active Living to students is like giving them the keys to mental and physical success.

What is success?

To laugh often and much;

~ So true. The instruction should be engaging and entertaining, for when a student's mind is relaxed and happy, that is when she or he is most open to new perceptions.

To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; 

~ The instruction must treat the students as intelligent, capable and perceptive human beings. If you limit them with instruction, you limit their minds.

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

~ The class should focus on peer instruction and evaluation. When the students have a chance to claim ownership of a topic, they will internalize it all the more.

To appreciate beauty;

To find the best in others;

 ~ The instruction, whether it be about relationships, substance abuse, sexuality, or general physical health, should always leave the door of possibility and hope open.

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

~ The instruction should focus on the student's role in the community; what resources are available to help the student, and how the student can add to her or his social environment.

 To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived;

~ The student should leave the class with increased faith in the strength of her or his own mental and physical capabilities.

This is to have succeeded. 

Raph Waldo Emerson
With additional statements by Rachael Simpson

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