AEG5236 Teaching Health

Health Pedagogy and Practice Partnership

Keisuke Yamada 3865523
I spent my placement at Rosehill Secondary College (RSC) located in Niddrie. The school
educate a variety of students with different backgrounds and education levels. The school
offers a great range of subjects including Physical Education (PE) and Health related subjects.
PE and Health is a combined subject at RSC with two 75minute practical lessons, and one
75minute theory lesson per week. It is compulsory for students to participate in PE and Health
up until Year 9. From Year10 onwards, sporting subjects can be selected as an elective.
RSC follows AusVELS and Years 7-9 focus on topics ranging from decision-making, drugs and
alcohol, training and exercise that relate to physical performance.
I conducted an interview with two teachers; my mentor Michael Sioukas and PE, Health and
Math teacher, Stacey Cartwright-Smith.
Michael has been a teacher at RSC for 25 years and has taught some of the teachers at RSC
including Stacey. Other teaching method includes Humanities. He takes the role as a mentor to
develop skilled and well experienced teachers. He has a main concern in young adults making
the wrong decisions in life. He believes that giving the right education can assist students to
choose the correct options or at least minimise the risk of harm. I am able to see his belief and
concern is evident in his practice by him always relating back to the topic of harm minimisation.
Michael is well respected at the school and uses basic but solid teaching techniques where he
is able to provide a maximum learning environment. He believes that planning is important,
however, being adaptable is a skill that is required as a teacher. At RSC facilities were very
limited due to weather and limited space, and the adaptability to each situation is necessary.
Textbooks are given to students for health classes, other resources can be used such as videos
online.
Stacey has been working at RSC for two years and has a qualification in teaching PE, Health and
Math. Although she has much less experience in teaching, she had great leadership and was
able to conduct a productive class. As Michael, she is well respected and has a great
relationship with many of the students at RSC. One of the biggest concerns for her in regards
to health was for students to understand that everyone is different in their own way. She
enforces this not only in health classes but also in PE. She has given me advice that every class
has different combination of students and have to keep in mind that classes must be planned
accordingly even with the same topic. She also believes that health can be a very sensitive
topic so teachers must be careful what and how you say when teaching.
As shown above, both teachers have different beliefs and interests. Although the interest may
differ, it has an influence in the way they teach the students. By teachers having different
interests and beliefs, students are exposed to wider range of knowledge.


AEG5236 Teaching Health
Health Pedagogy and Practice Partnership
Keisuke Yamada 3865523
During the placement at RSC, I had an opportunity to meet and teach various students from
different background and age groups. Many of the classes I was engaged to had students with
different educational levels which made planning lesson difficult. I did not want to slow down
the students achieving expectations, nor leave behind students who are not achieving
expectations. My main focus during my placement was the inclusion of all students, both in
practical and theory classes. I found it much more difficult to involve all students in practical
lessons than theory. This may be the influence of the environment students are put in during
practical lessons. Some students participated better in practical than theory and vice versa.
In one of the Year 7 classes that I taught during my placement, I had a student who
participated in practical classes well, however, did not participate in theory. She did not
interrupt the class however refused to do most of the work given. I wanted to somehow make
a change for the student engage and participate in theory classes. My approach to improve the
behaviour was very simple; to create one-on-one conversations. I needed to build a
relationship where she can get to know me so that she can feel comfortable. I was able to have
conversations before and after classes, as well as during practical lessons. These conversations
did not have to be meaningful, it only had to be small pointless talk, but it slowly made the
difference. As we get to know each other better, I started to speak about the academic
expectations. Since we developed a better relationship, she was able to listen to my words and
changed the way she behaved. It was a slow process, however, couple of weeks later, she
completed an assignment which required her to interview someone of a different generation
regarding their involvement in physical activity (e.g. parents, grandparent, older siblings). It
was not a detailed assignment, but I was able to make a different by allowing her to trust and
build a good relationship.
At RSC, students are required to bring their PE uniform to participate to reduce the risk of
injury by wearing the appropriate clothing. Students must bring a note written by their parents
or a guardian to be excused from not having the PE uniforms on. Not having a PE uniform may
result in break, or lunch time detention, which can also lead to afternoon detention if they
continue not to bring their uniforms. In another Year 7 class, one of the boys would never
bring his PE uniform. He would also not have any note to be excused. The teacher of the class
has constantly told him to bring his uniform, but he ignores. The teacher had also emailed his
mum but did not make any difference. I believe that it is very important for students to bring a
change of uniform to reduce the risks of injury, especially a change of shoes. I took the same
approach as above by building a relationship; starting with conversation that allows him to
know me as well as for me to know him. As time went by, I changed my subjects to him not
wearing the correct uniforms. Couple weeks later, he didnt bring his PE uniform but instead
brought a change of t-shirt. This was a small step forward. He then in the next class brought a
change of t-shirt as well as a change of shorts. A change of shoes were also present by the end
of my placement. It was not the proper uniform which is expected to be worn by the school;
however, I was able to see the difference in his attitude towards bringing appropriate change
of clothes for PE classes.
AEG5236 Teaching Health
Health Pedagogy and Practice Partnership
Keisuke Yamada 3865523
The two events occurred with the same aim to get the students to participate and be involved
in a safe manner. I believe the main reason why the two students were able to follow
instructions better were because I was able to gain the trust and build the right relationship.
Some students need more attention to be noticed. I was able to give that attention to them by
speaking to them other than during class. I understood the principles of inclusion and
strategies for differentiating teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across
the full range of abilities. I have also shown that I know how to support students wellbeing
and safety working within school and system curriculum and legislative requirements
(Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, 2014). Australian Institute for
Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) has many standards for teachers at different levels. As
for graduate teachers, I was able to meet some of the standards presented by AITSL. The
standards I have met with the two scenario above were; 1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the
specific learning needs of students across full range of abilities, 4.1 Support student
participation and 4.4 Maintain student safety.
For health classes at RSC, textbooks are provided by Flexibooks where they provide textbooks
according to which topics the school has selected. Each year level has different selections so
that it can be taught various topics throughout the secondary education years. The topics that
RSC has chosen for Year 9s are Mental Health, Advanced cyber sense, Health and illness in
Australia, Fitness tests, First aid and sporting injuries and Party safe. Other options available
include; Risk-taking, Advanced sexuality education, Personal identity and Nutrition and health.
Each topic in the textbook are divided in a detailed order. For example, Mental Illness is
divided into seven subheadings; Being healthy, What is mental health, Mental Illness, Types of
mental illness, Mental disorders and addictions, Treating mental illness, Coping with mental
illness. It contains many activities which involves both individual work and group work. As
students at RSC has an access to a laptop and internet, some of the questions in the textbook
ask students to use certain websites to answer questions. This shows a good adaptation to the
modern world of usage in information and communication technology (ICT). An assessment
tasks that follow AusVELS requirements are also available for some topics. For Mental Illness,
students were given the task to complete called Taking time out. Students are asked to
research, information and statistics in regards to mental illness in Australia, then, create a
proposal for a lunchtime activity which is to promote mental health and well-being. The
proposal needs to include surveys to justify your stance on the issue. This assessment can be
done individually or in a group. It allows the students to research and acknowledge how
common it is within the society to have a mental illness. Creating a survey for the school
provides students the insight and exposes others feelings. Proposal asks to be in a structural
writing and provide evidence to justify their stance on the issue. By this, students learn to
write formally and develop their literacy levels. The assessment asks to be conducted at a
school environment; however, it can also be planned for community which can give wider
knowledge of different age groups. This assessment requires students to have various skills to
complete the assignment. It requires them to research and use ICT, create a survey to find
information needed, create a proposal to run an activity at school using the information gained.
AEG5236 Teaching Health
Health Pedagogy and Practice Partnership
Keisuke Yamada 3865523
Overall the assessment task contains great process of creating a proposal and also aims for
students to consider other people who are about the same age.
At RSC, I had a great opportunity to meet teachers and students and to experience teaching. In
health, I have learnt that topics spoken can be very sensitive, but the reason why they can be
sensitive is because of the relativeness to everyday life. I believe that teaching health is very
important due to the fact it is so closely related to our daily life. Like Michael and Stacey have
their interests and belief, I have a strong believe in effect to others. This means that whatever
you do or say, it can affect others. If you drink and drive, it can affect others by harming or
emotionally affecting relatives and friends. I believe that young adults are much focussed on
themselves that they forget how it can affect other people around them. As a teacher, it is
important to keep reminding that decision-making and risk-taking behaviours can affect other
people.
Although the approach of speaking to students takes couple of weeks to see the difference, it
has proved to be effective. I was able to increase the amount of participation and created a
safe environment for all students. In the future, I would like to continue to create a safe and
inclusive environment for all student needs.















AEG5236 Teaching Health
Health Pedagogy and Practice Partnership
Keisuke Yamada 3865523
References
Aitsl.edu.au, (2014). Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. [online]
Available at: http://www.aitsl.edu.au/australian-professional-standards-for-
teachers/standards/list?c=graduate.
Bisland, E., Hopkins, K. and Rosenbaum, L. (2014). Year 9 Health Education 2014
Rosehill Secondary College. 1st ed. Melbourne, Australia: Flexibooks.