7 News Belize

The Education In Getting Physical
posted (August 6, 2013)
Since yesterday the National Sport Council has been facilitating physical education classes for primary school teachers in Belize City. Now PE is an important, but often neglected part of the curriculum. So, today, we stopped in at the afternoon sessions to see the teachers getting physical:

Daniel Ortiz reporting
These workshop participants look like they are in 6th form - just playing a few games of basketball and volleyball, but actually they are Belize City primary school teachers participating in a workshop to improve their physical education classes. Being one of the subjects most neglected by the education system, the facilitators are trying to change the negative mentality around P.E.

Andre Collins - Director, Caribbean Sports and Development Agency
"Today is the second day of a five day workshop for teachers coming from the Belize City and its environments and this program was designed to help teachers in the elementary school to help them develop a few techniques and strategies to help them implement some physical education activities in the elementary school system. It is a truth that physical education continues to struggle as a recognized and accepted subject on the curriculum and it is basically because of the attitude that the region pays to sport and education while most of the develop countries take sports and physical education as a very serious part of the education program."

So what are the myths surrounding P.E.?

Andre Collins
"Internationally there's been several bits of research to show that children, for example, who participate in regular and organized physical education programs have a higher potential to succeed in academics. Now in the Caribbean we have a reversed approach to that - we feel if children are allowed to take part in sports and physical education then it takes away from the academic. But the research quite clearly says the opposite."

The agency has also done research to prove that a focused apporach in P.E. enhances the students as they develop through their primary school years.

Andre Collins
"We've done our research in Trinidad & Tobago quite recently that showed that workshops like these will help teachers to deliver more quality physical education programs - it was done with 26 schools in Trinidad where a similar workshop like this was done. We had a 100% increase in the amount of Physical Education children were accessing - what that was saying was that teachers were reporting lower levels of problems with children - they were less inattentive, they were giving less problems and what some teachers found was that it kept the kids active and engaged. It helped the children to be more focused in the classroom setting; however, it's a big challenge to help educate even our teachers to appreciate that. So programs like this, we've been doing this in the region for the last eleven years - so the hope is out of this activity here out of the next couple days - these teachers will leave feeling confident to try to deliver some level of education. We are going to follow this from a research perspective and we will try to capture the changes it's made - not only with the teachers but in the whole system. The idea then will be to try and build this program out to the entire Belize."

It's been only two days but the teachers participating are already seeing how this new approach to P.E. will assist them in trying to improve their own approach for their students.

Kimberly Heusner - Teacher, Wesley Lower School
"For me, I'm not a big fan of P.E. but they do it in such a way that you're actually interested and they work on the skills as opposed to just say okay it's just to get some points. They are bringing a lot of new ideas that we can bring into our classrooms and to teach the children so it's a whole new exciting way to do P.E. as opposed to go outside and say we're going to run, march or play softball - there's a whole new dynamic coming from them. For most girls we're not interested in P.E. but when you do it this way and focusing on the skills and dealing with the exercise parts of it -then it's exciting. Of course they show you how to implement the different subject areas in with the P.E. so it's not only to go outside and shoot some balls or kick it around - they show you ways to connect the subject areas."




Bernel Jones - Teacher, St. Ignatius Primary School
"We are learning the basics that we didn't know before - we did a lot of practical outside so that when we go back in our classroom - we will definitely use what we have learned."

Daniel Ortiz
"What was your perspective on P.E. before this?"

Bernel Jones
"Well at first P.E. for me was just to go out and maybe play with the kids and do basic stuff but now that we got these few days in already - we know what exactly to do when we go out there in September."

Leon Guild - Teacher, New Horizon Academy
"It's formalizing what physical education is for us and throughout yesterday and today we discussed some of the problems that are consistent throughout the Caribbean, Belize and Trinidad. The practical we're doing some things that we learned as kids naturally, no one was there to give us official tips on how to these things - simple things like passing a ball, so we're going through the official step by step so we can teach it better to our students. There are some new games to incorporate to kids with disabilities, kids who are unmotivated - to motivate them to be a part of the physical education class instead of trying to find a reason to go and sit at the back or an excuse like they need to go to the bathroom."





Nichelle Luchario - Teacher
"It enhances my coaching skills more - the steps are some I have taught before, it just gives me more on how to reach out to the children - that you can teach them more and more skills at the same time, focusing on one that you want to carry out for them to be able to learn that skill, good sportsmanship and discipline as well."

The representatives of the Caribbean Sports and Developments Agency, they plan take the training to the other parts of the country.

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize