To promote holistic development in students, academic, physical arts, and moral values are equally important. In recent years, there has been a surge in sports enthusiasm in society, with well-known Hong Kong athletes like Cheung Ka Long and Siobhan Haughey becoming role models for young people, sparking students' interest in sports. Simultaneously, many schools advocate for "one student, one sport," supporting and nurturing students' diverse development in sports and arts, allowing them to showcase their potential based on their abilities and interests. How can schools incorporate innovative elements into the physical education curriculum and create a better sports atmosphere on campus?
Mr Yan Siu Kang, the Student Activities Director and Physical Education Department Head at HHCKLA Buddhist Ching Kok Secondary School, a winner of the third edition of Innovative Teacher Award, has developed a comprehensive physical education curriculum through innovative thinking, using technology to enhance learning and assessment effectiveness, and nurturing students' athletic potential. Mr. Yan mentioned the initial reasons for implementing reforms in the physical education curriculum and innovative teaching: "Facing students with more passive personalities, it is essential to understand their learning needs. The school hopes to leverage the new generation's interest in electronic technology to deepen the integration of different teaching methods into curriculum planning and teaching strategies, thereby igniting their interest in physical education."
Utilizing Technology to Enhance the Enjoyment of Sports Learning
To ensure that students can enjoy learning various sports during physical education classes, Mr. Yan believes that "fun" and "participation" are two indispensable elements. Therefore, in planning school-based unique courses, it is vital to appropriately integrate technology-assisted teaching to increase students' learning interest. For example, the school has introduced a heart rate monitoring system where students wear watches to check their real-time heart rates during class, allowing them to grasp and assess their exercise levels.
(In response to students' love for video games, their heart rates are displayed on a big screen like "game data," helping them understand their exercise heart rate data.)
Additionally, teachers use reaction light systems in different sports to teach students to touch the reaction lights to achieve their exercise goals, enhancing class fun and using data to assess learning effectiveness. Mr. Yan emphasized that technology is a tool to assist learning, and appropriately utilizing technology to boost students' interest and motivation, allowing them to sweat and enjoy physical education classes, is the ultimate goal.
(Using reaction lights in sports to record students' real-time exercise achievements.)
Encouraging Active Participation in Class
By introducing various innovative teaching methods, the school's entire physical education curriculum centers around students, adopting a Sports Education Model. Through gamified sports, students learn sports knowledge and skills while engaging in appreciation and participation in sports. The school also utilizes a "layered teaching method" and implements a "one role per student" classroom strategy, allowing students to participate in group learning activities and distributing roles based on abilities to maximize strengths and cater to diverse learning needs. Mr. Yan believes that regardless of students' varying sports skills and aptitudes, the goal is for them to autonomously and actively participate and gain learning benefits.
Mr. Yan values shared learning experiences with students. To understand the limitations students faced during the pandemic regarding physical education classes, he personally filmed demonstrations of running 10 kilometers back and forth at home and wearing different types of masks for breathing tests, empathizing with students' situations when exercising at home or attending class with masks, continually optimizing course design to facilitate easier participation during online classes.
Introducing Emerging Sports for Comprehensive Schoolwide Physical Education
Moreover, the school encourages students to engage with a wide variety of sports. Throughout their six years in secondary school, students can explore different sports during classes. The junior secondary curriculum is based on mainstream sports like football, basketball, and athletics, while also introducing emerging sports such as ultimate frisbee, curling, and softball, along with theory classes, fitness courses, physical fitness classes, and long-distance running. To broaden students' horizons, the senior secondary curriculum employs a "bring in outside resources and step out of the classroom" teaching strategy, utilizing external resources and experts to expose students to various sports like archery, golf, cycling, frisbee, and taekwondo. The entire curriculum design aims to balance sports knowledge, skills, and attitudes, allowing students to recognize and appreciate sports, moving toward a schoolwide "universal sports" development. When individual students find sports they enjoy, they are willing to extend their learning beyond class, such as joining school teams, indirectly promoting the development of "elite sports."
(In addition to traditional sports, archery has been incorporated into the curriculum, allowing students to experience various sports.)
Cultivating a Sports Atmosphere Throughout the School
In recent years, the school has continually added relevant facilities to support students' diverse sports learning experiences, such as establishing a futsal field and acquiring over thirty bicycles, helping students develop good exercise habits on campus. To foster a sports atmosphere throughout the school, the school has organized numerous interdisciplinary activities that integrate physical education themes, such as collaborating with the English and Home Economics departments to hold "Healthy Fruit Week," where students learn about the importance of healthy eating and exercise while enhancing their English skills. There have also been collaborative workshops with the mathematics department on "Marathon Calculation Methods," helping students understand how to use bicycles and measuring instruments to calculate marathon route distances. Recently, the school held an internal adventure event, transforming the campus into an adventure training ground for students to experience zip-lining and rope climbing in a familiar environment.
(Under expert guidance, all school staff and students participate and experience alternative adventure activities on campus.)
(The physical education department has also collaborated with the career planning team to organize training camps focused on sports activities, promoting teamwork through water activities and outdoor orientation to enhance positive values and attitudes.)
The winners of the "Innovative Teacher Award 2022" cover a wide range of subjects. In addition to the innovative physical education teaching at HHCKLA Buddhist Ching Kok Secondary School, there are also teachers from the Hong Kong Taoist Association Wun Tsuen School, who developed a virtual art space through a metaverse art education program; Ho Yu College and Primary School (Sponsored By Sik Sik Yuen) which organized STEAM learning activities using interdisciplinary contextual learning; and Lai King Catholic Secondary School, which adopted a gamified digital teaching strategy for cross-disciplinary teaching in Chinese history and history. To learn more about innovative teaching ideas and hear the award winners share their valuable practical experiences, join the ITA Series: When Innovation Meets Teaching' - Immersive and Gamified Learning Strategies, allowing educators to learn from each other and collaboratively build the future of education.