Monday, November 06, 2006
12TH – 14TH JULY 2006 CONFERENCE HERTFORDSHIRE
THE ASSOCIATION FOR PHYSICAL EDUCATION NATIONAL CONFERENCE
Enjoy and Achieve – the unique contribution of Physical Education
The first annual Conference for the afPE was held in Hatford this year. There was an extensive programme offering a variety of workshops, research forums, presentations and keynote addresses. The delegates were a mixture of primary and secondary teachers, sports partnership representatives, Professional and consultants and lecturers and researchers from HEI.
My research colleagues were invited to present a paper based on research carried out as part of a TDA funded ICT conference we hosted. My presentation was part of a symposium which disseminated collaborative research between HEIs and schools. The purpose was in part to demonstrate how teachers in schools can be involved in action research that impacts upon teaching and learning and therefore raising the quality of this; and in part and opportunity to share our results with regard to enhancing teaching and learning in PE through the use of ICT and supporting trainee teachers in developing their confidence and competency to include ICT as one of their pedagogical tools.
The symposium was chaired by Jo Harris and comprised of four presenters including myself. The audience was a mixture was made up of teachers from Primary and secondary schools, academics who were involved in Initial Teacher Education and Members of local delivery agencies responsible for organizing continued professional development for primary ad secondary teachers.
The research report was included in the last news letter and discussed at our research day in June 06. The topic of enhancing teaching and learning through the use of ICT prompted a great deal of discussion from the symposium, all of who had views and opinions about the value of ICT in PE, the potential barriers to use and the clear benefits to teaching and learning. Findings from our research have been received gratefully by both schools and other HEIs and suggestions made within the report taken back with the aim of implementing change in practice. This provided us with positive feedback about the implications of our research on practice.
The opportunity to attend other sessions was an additional benefit from presenting at the conference; these included relevant keynote addresses and workshop activities with Crichton Casbon (QCA) where the New National Curriculum for KS3 was introduced, this will obviously have an impact on our bread and butter work here.
Gill Golder
