PEMJ560 Curriculum in Physical Education
Curriculum Analysis Description
This assignment has two components: (a) a program analysis project (of an existing program) and (b) a curriculum development project that reflects a particular curricular approach.
Program Analysis Project
The information presented below is intended to help you prepare program analysis. You should tailor the report to your setting and the final report may depend on a variety of factors within the setting. The length that is presented for each section is intended only as a guide—your report should reflect your setting and the information you obtained.
1. Introduction and Overview (1-2 paragraphs)
2. Summary of Descriptive Data
§ The school setting (1-2 pages): Identify the school/program studied. Summarize resources available. Briefly describe the student population.
§ School philosophy (1-2 pages): Summarize the key concepts.
§ The physical education program (3 pages): Summarize the program’s philosophy, development, and resources. See items 3, 4, 5 of Part I.
§ The physical education program (3 pages)
§ Sample instructional units (2-3 pages): Summarize
§ Sample classes (2 pages): Summarize
§ The insider’s point of view (2-3 pages): Summarize
3. Evaluation of Internal Consistency (2-3 pages)
§ School philosophy/program philosophy: To what extent does the program reflect the school’s philosophy?
§ Program philosophy/program, unit, class plans: To what extent are the plans consistent with the program philosophy?
§ Program plans/unit plans/lesson plans: To what extent do lesson plans fit within unit plans and unit plans within program plans?
§ Plans/realities: To what extent are plans (program, unit, lesson) reflected in reality?
§ Objectives/outcomes: To what extent are objectives (program, unit, lesson) accomplished?
§ Students/program: To what extent are plans and operations influenced by, or responsive to, the special characteristics of the students?
4. Important Program Features and Related Factors (2-3 pages)
5. The Insiders’ (Stakeholders’) Point of View: Interview at least two key insiders (administrators, teachers) to obtain their views of the program in the following areas:
§ Key program features and related factors: Ask “Can you describe what you believe to be the most important feature of your physical education program?” (It can be a strength or a weakness). Then ask “Can you identify the factors that enable or cause the program feature to be the way it is?” (Use follow up questions or prompts to get at details and explanations.) Try to have them describe two or three features and their related factors.
§ Problems and recommendations: Ask “What is the most important problem facing the program?” and “What can/should be done to solve the problem?” Go on to identify a second major problem and solution.
Using information from the “Insiders Point of View” and your own observations, notes, and judgments, identify the two or three most important program features (positive and/or negative) and their related factors. Develop a graphic organizer (figure) to describe each feature and its related factor.
6. Recommended Changes (1-2 pages)
7. Personal Reflections (1-2 pages): Include your experiences or reflections conducting the program analysis.
Curriculum Development Project
For this assignment you are to develop a curriculum segment or unit. It may be for a school in which you are teaching or for a hypothetical school or course if you are not currently teaching in a K-12 school setting. The unit should be roughly equivalent to a traditional unit in the setting for which you are designing it. For example, if you are teaching in a high school with three to six week units then you would select that age group and that length of time. If you are planning for a middle school with semester long units then you would plan accordingly. The unit should be useful for you in your current situation and/or may be used as a model for future work.
You may use any of the resources or materials assigned for this course or any other resources that are appropriate (e.g., curriculum guides, books on teaching a specific skill). The unit, however, should essentially be your own, designed to work in the setting you have selected. You should provide a list of sources you used in preparing the unit at the end of the report.
In order to make this unit as good as possible, you are strongly encouraged to get feedback from others. You may initially wish to discuss this with other students or teachers to get feedback on your direction. As you progress through the project you may want to bounce ideas off of others and then run the final project by a peer. You do not have to incorporate all of the ideas into your unit, but it will be valuable to have others provide feedback before handing in the final report.
The written report should contain the following sections:
1. Title page
2. Table of contents
3. Introduction
§ The setting: grade level and school/course environment (~one paragraph).
§ Characteristics of students: what are the characteristics of the students and how will this influence the content and implementation (~one or two paragraphs)?
§ The focus: what content is the focus of the unit and why was it selected (~one or two paragraphs).
§ The process used to develop the unit (~one paragraph).
§ The philosophy and goals of the program for which you are designing the curriculum (~ one page).
4. The curriculum unit: develop a written description of the unit (or program segment) using a publishable format and style that could be presented to the school administration and used by other teachers. This section should be limited to 12 pages. Include the following components:
§ Goals/outcomes: indicate what students will know or be able to do at the end of the unit.
§ Block plan: provide an overview of the unit in a block plan, listing the class sessions with the content and progressions to be covered.
§ Content: describe in greater depth the content to be learned by students. Precise descriptions, illustrations and photocopied materials may be included.
§ Learning activities: provide the activities you will use to facilitate student learning. If you will use a variety of activities or teaching styles for different types of material you probably want to make that clear in this section.
§ Safety: include safety precautions for which someone teaching the unit would need to plan and the safety concepts you want students to learn during the unit.
§ Assessment: provide the procedures you will use to determine student progress and to evaluate the implementation of the unit when it is completed.
5. Optional components: You may wish to include the following optional components in your report:
§ Rationale: explain why the unit is a part of the curriculum and how the content is sequenced in relationship to other content in the program (~one paragraph).
§ Resources: what resources and equipment will be necessary to conduct the unit. This may be presented in paragraph form (~ one or two paragraphs) or as a list.
§ Task analysis: you may want to provide a task analysis (breakdown of the skill) of one or elements of the content. If you choose to include this, please limit it to one page.
6. References: Use APA referencing form for any references you used.
7. Appendices: Include any supportive materials that might help the reader understand the unit. These may include photocopies of published skill descriptions, wall charts to be used in class, tests or other assessment procedures, etc. Provide those that are helpful, there is no need to go overboard here!
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