CASE STUDY - GIRLS NOT PARTICIPIATING IN SPORT

Daniel Guerrieri
Practice Described
I conducted a PE lesson for the grade 5/6s which involved learning the sport of
AFL. This lesson was running smoothly during the initial skill development
activities, however there were some inclusion issues when progressing through a
competitive match. The match involved the use of all skills they had learned
during the drills and I divided the teams evenly by skill level and gender (10 boys
and 5 girls on each team). During the match there were certain students with
higher skill level that would control the ball and hesitate to pass. There were also
other students showing effort and trying to ask for the ball, but there were a
group of girls that didnt participate at all. This group would stand in the corner
of the field and talk amongst each other, not showing interest in the game. This
may have been due to the disinterest in AFL or simply not wanting to participate.
The other students would continue to play and disregard the non-participating
students. During the lesson I tried to encourage them to get involved but this
had little to no effect. As a PE teacher it is a priority to give everyone equal
opportunity and to ensure all students are being active and getting involved.
Therefore, this prompted me to further investigate this issue to find out why they
were not participating and hopefully resolve this problem.
Practice Explained
To ensure participation by all students in PE it was important for me to further
investigate this issue. This would allow for development in confidence and skills
by the group of girls. It would also allow for development in team work and
inclusion by the PE class as a whole. It occurred to me that the highly skilled
students of the class would not pass the ball to this group because of the lack of
trust. The skilled students allow their competitiveness to take over and therefore
do not trust the skills of the group of non-participating girls. This made me
realise that intimidation may also be a factor affecting the participation of this
group of girls. I then asked them directly why they were not participating and
they responded with because no one passes the ball. This showed that this
group of students were hoping to participate and get involved in the match, but
were restricted due to the current circumstances. It was also evident that they
enjoyed the sport, as they participated in the start of the lesson where they
improved their skills through the skill development activities.
Practice Theorised
Once the session was completed, I approached my mentor to notify her of the
issue and asked if this issue was a common occurrence. It was mentioned that
this issue of involvement existed in many other classes and especially in the
class I was teaching. I further examined this matter through seeking advice from
my mentor on how to approach it and asked for some ways I could change my
lesson to suit. By simply changing the rules of the match to allow for more
possessions by non-participators, this would allow for more involvement and
force the other students to pass the ball to them. By using this behaviouristic
approach, I would be able to enforce these rules during gameplay and therefore
receive a different response from the students. I would continue to reinforce
these rules and change them whenever necessary until full involvement and
teamwork is shown amongst the students. This would lead to an increase in

confidence by the non-participators and help improve their skills as they are
continuously exposed to match scenarios. Ultimately, the goals of these rule
changes are to increase the relationships within the class and to develop
teamwork amongst each other. Through this trust with one another, each student
can start to feel good about themselves and start to become an important part of
the game through their increased contribution.

Practice Changed
After reflecting on the first session I decided to implement these rule changes
that I had been creating. I would also keep constant communication with my
mentor to ensure that my approach was suitable and that it followed the correct
protocols. In the next session, I implemented some rule changes to the match
and continued to reinforce them as I had mentioned earlier. Some of the rule
changes were as follows; when a free kick would occur, I would make sure that
one of the non-participators would take this free kick to start getting them
involved in the game. I would also change the rule of scoring in which the ball
must be passed to a girl before scoring for the point to count. This resulted in
more teamwork and more encouragement amongst one another. There may
have been some gender issues with the rule changes however there was a very
positive response from the students. My mentor did not have any issues with the
way I decided to approach the lesson and agreed that unfortunately in this class
the non-participators were the female students. This subject was not generalised
amongst all classes but it was evident that the girls in this 5/6 class needed to
get involved in any way possible. Furthermore, this approach created a different
vibe amongst the session as there were some positive steps towards whole class
involvement. The girls started to enjoy the opportunity of getting involved in the
match and other students showed great teamwork with their passing. Another
thing I noticed was the constant encouragement by all teammates, especially
when a previous non-participator had the ball. Now that I have experienced this
situation, I hope to have a different approach within my sessions that I teach. I
will try to include and encourage more teamwork amongst the students as well
as reinforcing the need to get everyone on your team involved. Through this
constant reinforcement, the students will hopefully develop a behaviour in which
they start to think about other students when playing and not allow their
competiveness to take over. This empathetic approach can help disregard the
complex rules that were previously enforced and allow for a more traditional
match to occur.