Psychology of Learning and Teaching - Theory to Practice

Psychology of learning and teaching - theory to practice

Many coaches believe that the coaching and mentoring function as a strong lever to promote learning. Coaching and mentoring of a particular subject do offer these opportunities but learning is not a guarantee by the participant (law et al 2007). As a beginner in volleyball and for learning to take place coaches and learners must actively engage with many factors that can affect the skill acquisition and the ability to learn. This report will offer up my experience in learning a new sport, volleyball and the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that affected my learning experience. The report will also expand of learning theories, cognitive process confidence and feedback and how these factors affect the participants overall performance and participation in sports.

We were split into three groups and all given a sport in which we would partake in for the foreseeable future for our practical sessions. I was put in the group to play volleyball; I am a complete novice at volleyball who has never attempted to play throughout my sporting career. So after finding out that my practical sessions would be learning to play volleyball I was excited by the prospect of learning a new sport. The thought of using the practical sessions as grounding to be able to play volleyball confidently gave me a lot of motivation to want to do well. As Carron (1980) stated the general theme of sport or physical activity is results and achievement orientated. Having been put into a group to play a sport I had never played before i was going to be evaluated positively or negatively by my performance in sessions where Atkinson (1964) emphasises that the athletes situation, in my case playing volleyball for the first time I would be evaluated by myself and my peers playing volleyball in the session, in the terms of a standard of excellence my performance would be evaluated positively or negatively from my performance in the volleyball session. Also the pressure to want to learn, one must embrace a new set of skills, values, attitudes and knowledge of the subject that one wants to learn that one did not possess before (Law et al 2007). Harters (1978) Competence motivational theory suggests that self-worth and human desire is to compete competently to be received positively by peers and this applied to me I didn't want to be the one person in the group who could not play volleyball although I did not want to compete with my peers to be better than them my focus was not to be ego orientated it was to be the best I could be and improve in set tasks and to be more task orientated (Duda 1979). I was aware of peer evaluation but from having an experienced sporting background I still felt competent in this new environment and I have felt competent in Physical Education environments. Biddel et al (1994) suggest that perceived competence and self-determination also has an influence over intrinsic motivation. However Vallerand and Rousseau (2001) argue that sport performers and competent Physical Education students are not just simply intrinsically or extrinsically motivated but motivated by both , depending on the task in question, stating that sport and Physical Education is in a unique setting that participants are motivated by a variety of factors.

It is important for a teacher/ coach to consider how they are going to teach or coach the participants in a way which creates an environment for building confidence and allows progression of skills which improves performance and builds the participants intrinsic motivation. This was especially important for our group as we had many novices playing volleyball for the first time. During the practical sessions we were presented with many teaching styles (Mosston 2002) to see how each style motivated us for the session. Pitchert et al (1976) found that teachers who had knowledge or had training in relation to the spectrum theory and applied to practical sessions gave more individual feedback, displayed affective teaching which allowed time for practice. During our volleyball sessions according to Mosston spectrum theory (2002) I believe we experienced Style B, Practice where students carry out teacher prescribed tasks, style F , guided discovery, participants solve coaches movements tasks with assistance and we experienced a lot of style C reciprocal style where students work in pairs: one performs the other provides positive feedback. (See appendix) This was the style presented at many of our sessions because the coach was unfortunately injured. I found this a very ethical way of working because I was a novice at volleyball and this allowed us to break the skill down and my partner report back to me and give me feedback in areas I could improve and also point out in areas I was doing well. There was one particular shot I struggled with and this was the 'dig'. As Bandura (1980) state the more success an individual has in skill acquisition and success in task the more confidence and self-belief is developed therefore having a positive outcome on learning this was having a negative effect on my learning therefore becoming less motivated in that particular session. Due to past experiences I knew it was important to keep practising that skill to improve as Lee et al (2002) states that sessions must be designed around achieving success whether that be learning new skills or improving on skills that we find difficult. Also I knew practising a skill I was weak at would eventually improve performance this would be known as deliberate practice. Erickson's (2008) research that expert performance can be traced back to deliberate practice. Although I was not nesacerilly looking for expert status in the dig shot I knew in order to improve deliberate practice was needed. Erickson (2008) also states that deliberate practice also involves of immediate feedback this was available through reciprocal teaching style (Mosston 2002) we experienced in this practical session, I was able to problem solve with my partner of required footwork and technique to be able to perform the dig shot. The reciprocal style then allowed after discussion and feedback to go back and repeat correct performance to refine the skills needed to perform the dig shot. Also I believe in order to improve at this area of volleyball a blocked practice method would have aided me in my performance but was hindered by random practice with new facets and skills of the game being taught each week. Schmidt and Wrisberg (2008) state that (quasi-) random practice prevents repetition on a singular skill and practising several skills therefore minimising the repetition of one skill whereas blocked practice is a practice sequence in which an individual can practice the same skill repeatedly. Time constraints on the number of practical sessions we had available would have