See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358834589 Inter-observer evaluation of practical lesson delivery in physical education setting: Nature and demonstration of teachers' instructional cues Article · February 2022 DOI: 10.22271/kheljournal.2022.v9.i1e.2377 CITATIONS READS 0 156 4 authors, including: Samuel Kofi Donkor University of Ghana 12 PUBLICATIONS   28 CITATIONS    SEE PROFILE All content following this page was uploaded by Samuel Kofi Donkor on 24 February 2022. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. Interna tional Journal of Physical Education, Sports and Health 2022; 9(1): 270-275 P-ISSN: 2394-1685 E-ISSN: 2394-1693 Inter-observer evaluation of practical lesson delivery in Impact Factor (ISRA): 5.38 IJPESH 2022; 9(1): 270-275 physical education setting: Nature and demonstration © 2022 IJPESH www.kheljournal.com of teachers’ instructional cues Received: 10-09-2021 Accepted: 12-12-2021 Samuel Kofi Donkor, Michael Appiah, Samuel Doetse Huagie and Samuel Kofi Donkor, PhD Department of Physical Munkaila Seibu Education and Sport Studies, School of Education and DOI: https://doi.org/10.22271/kheljournal.2022.v9.i1e.2377 Leadership, University of Ghana, Legon-Accra, Ghana Abstract Michael Appiah Often, teachers plan for instructional activities, yet fail to plan for instructional cues they would use to Physical Education and Sports facilitate skill acquisition among students. During practical lesson delivery, it is ideal for instructional Unit, Department of Science, cue (IC) of the teacher to be short, descriptive and integrated in a manner that promotes students’ E.P. College of Education, retention of relevant information for executing the skill correctly. Teachers should avoid lengthy and Amedzofe, Ghana unnecessary ICs in teaching and learning environment. In this pedagogical study, we used descriptive processes to investigate the nature and demonstration of teachers’ ICs, the proportion and rate per minute Samuel Doetse Huagie of teachers’ ICs in practical physical education (PE) setting involving pre-service teachers (n=77) and Physical Education and Sports professional PE teachers (n=4). Self-developed event recording instrument was found valid using expert Unit, Department of Science, consultation procedure. In each recorded event, inter-observer agreement was above 80% which Accra College of Education, indicated a good reliability of data for making research decisions. Evaluation of the video-recorded Accra, Ghana lesson suggested that teachers were able to utilise a variety of instructional cues (i.e., short, descriptive Munkaila Seibu and integrated) to facilitate students’ learning in practical PE setting. Findings indicated that teachers Department of HPERS, were largely able to simulate skills and techniques during practical lesson delivery. Again, verbal Faculty of Science Education, instructional cues demonstrated with equipment occupied the largest proportion of events, while verbal University of Education, instructional cues demonstrated without equipment placed second. Non-verbal instructional cues Winneba, Ghana demonstrated without equipment occupied the least proportion of events in the entire observation. Generally, the study revealed a normal phenomenon in practical PE setting where verbal cues occurred more frequently than non-verbal cues. The practical PE class is usually composed of high and low prior learners. It was recommended that cues delivered by the teacher should cater for such individual differences in every practical PE setting. Keywords: Teaching cues, pedagogy, inter-observer evaluation, instructional setting 1. Introduction Pedagogical research in the field of physical education (PE) suggests that “researchers and practitioners have long been interested in the types of instructional cues that facilitate the performance and learning of motor skill” (Becker & Fairbrother, 2019, p.651) [2]. Several educational researchers have also espoused the importance of instructional cues in teaching and learning environment (Alpizar et al. 2020 Donkor, Avornyo et al. 2021; Hurzlmeier, et al., 2021; Mayer, 2014; Raisbeck & Yamada, 2019; Richter, et al. 2016; Schneider et al., 2018) [1, 4, 8, 11, 14, 15, 16]. From his work on motor learning and development, Pufaa (2006) indicates that any task convolving a motor activity or a motor skill is known as motor task. A task system is a regularized pattern for accomplishing tasks which tend to recur frequently with physical education (Siedentop & Tannehil, 2000) [17]. Therefore, every motor task in PE setting requires relevant cues to facilitate students’ learning. Corresponding Author: Samuel Kofi Donkor, PhD 1.1 Nature, Demonstration and Integration of Cues in Physical Education Setting Department of Physical Sometimes, the teacher’s IC could be lengthy than necessary in practical teaching and learning Education and Sport Studies, environment. This situation does not depict effective teaching. According to literature, School of Education and effective teachers should demonstrate “pedagogical knowledge that is able to meet the Leadership, University of Ghana, Legon-Accra, Ghana increasing demands associated with the instructional task” (Donkor, 2021, p.259) [7]. ~ 270 ~ International Journal of Physical Education, Sports and Health http://www.kheljournal.com To avoid giving unnecessary information about execution of a procedures involved in the skill as a whole and not just part(s) skill being taught, it is better for the cue to be as short as of the skill. Examples of integrated cues in netball setting possible. In situations where students need to focus on a could be: particular aspect of the skill being taught, teachers can use cues that contain short words to maximize success rate of “Catch, step, and throw” students in executing the skill. For instance, in teaching “Step, rotate, and throw” netball shooting skill, the teacher could simply say: Pivot, step, and throw Catch, step, and shoot “Keep eyes on the ring” “Keep head high” According to literature, learners should be helped to establish “Keep your back straight” an image of the task or skill through instructions provided by the teacher (Pufaa, 2006). The teacher may over-use It is commonly noticed among teachers praising tasks instructions when faced with the task of describing a complex executed successfully by students during practical lessons movement. However, Pufaa notes that too many instructions without actually communicating what learners have done “may overwhelm learners and in an effort to cope with the right. As much as possible, teacher’s IC should be adequately avalanche of information about what to do and when to do it, descriptive in a manner that communicates the exact may disregard much of the information” (p.33). information needed for learners to execute the skill correctly. During practical lesson delivery, teachers often use praises 1.2 Purpose of the Study such as “good”, “nice”, “well done”, “great performance”, The purpose of this pedagogical study was to use descriptive etc. All these praises do not descriptively communicate the processes to investigate the nature and demonstration of exact elements that make the movement task great or good as teachers’ instructional cues, the rate per minute and portrayed by the teacher. In netball shooting situation, proportions of teachers’ instructional cues used in practical students could be missing targets as a result of not doing PE setting involving pre-service teachers and professional PE something right. In an instance like this, it is the responsibility teachers. of the teacher to describe what learners need to do in order to maximize success rate in performing a movement task. For 2. Methods example, in teaching shooting skill in netball, the teacher 2.1 Participants could say: Participants were first year pre-service teachers (males=24, females=53) and professional PE teachers (males=4). All “snap your wrist,” participants were drawn from three colleges of education. “follow through” etc. Participants were assigned different roles. As part of inclusion criteria, pre-service teachers used for the study were those that In teaching and learning environment, it is a good practice for had not previously participated in competitive netball teachers to integrate cues to help learners remember the activities (novice shooters in netball). This was particularly correct sequence of executing the skill. In doing so, effective important in determining the influence of teachers’ IC on utilization of cues in pedagogical setting is demonstrated shooting skill using two instructional schedules (with when a teacher communicates critical information about the teachers’ IC & without teachers’ IC). Table 1 specifies the skill in totality. In this instance, the cue of the teacher should composition of subjects involved in the study. contain words that communicate to the learner the execution Table 1: Study Participants Gender Group A Group B Group C Total Percent. (%) Male 4 2 22 28 35 Female 0 30 23 53 65 Total 4 32 45 81 100 Group labels Group A: Professional PE teachers whose mandate was to teach shooting skill using IC. Group B: Pre-service teachers involved in the 30 minutes lesson for each of the two observed classes. Pre-service teachers involved in the two schedules of teaching (with teachers’ IC and Group C: without teachers’ IC) to determine the effects of IC on shooting. 2.2 Procedures Subjects in group B were further divided into two classes of We based our data collection efforts on the nature and 16 subjects each. Each of the two classes was taught by a demonstration of teachers’ instructional cues in a practical different teacher for 30 minutes. Group C was made up of lesson involving pre-service teachers from three selected pre-service teachers (n=45). Subjects of group C were taught colleges of education. Using descriptive processes, digital by two teachers using two teaching schedules that determined video recording was utilized to capture classroom interactions the influence of teachers’ IC on netball shooting skill (i.e., in natural PE setting. For the purposes of collecting sets of teaching schedules with IC and without IC). Precisely, two data, three groups were created for the study participants. teachers were involved in the practical lesson delivery and Group A was made up of PE teachers (n=4) whose two other teachers were involved in the teaching schedule that responsibility was to use IC in teaching shooting skill in determined the influence of teachers’ IC on shooting skill in practical PE setting. Group B was made up of pre-service netball. teachers (n=32) who were involved in 60 minutes lesson. ~ 271 ~ International Journal of Physical Education, Sports and Health http://www.kheljournal.com Inter-observer agreement (IOA) of at least 80% is usually required for the data collected via event recording format 3. Analyses (Siedentop & Tannehill, 2000) [17]. In the current situation, Data were descriptively analysed using inter-observer means, data reliability was above 80% in each case. percentages and chat. Accuracy checks were conducted for all categories of data by comparing observed values on the data 4. Results sheets. Inter-observer reliability checks between the two 4.1 Teachers’ Verbal IC independent recorders were also carried out. A frequently From the independent documentation of events, observer one used indicator for testing reliability of event recording recorded 19 events for short verbal ICs while observer two instrument of this nature is inter-observer agreement score recorded 16 events for the same category. The two observers between two independent recorders (Donkor, Nyavor, Addai- achieved inter-observer mean of 17.5 events with 84% data Tuffour, et al. 2021; Donkor, Nyavor, Atsu, et al., 2021) [6, 7]. agreement between the two independent recorders. In terms of Several categories of teacher behavior can be observed via descriptive verbal ICs, 45 events were recorded for observer event recording instrument for an entire teaching session. one and 42 events for observer two. The inter-observer mean Data collected via event recording can be converted to rate for these two observations was 43.5 events which yielded per minute (Donkor, Avornyo, et al., 2021; Siedentop & 93% inter-observer agreement. For integrated verbal IC, 36 Tannehill, 2000) [4, 17]. Traditionally, the calculation of inter- and 37 events were recorded by the first and second observers Observer Agreement (IOA) has been: respectively. The inter-observer mean for this category was 17.5 events with 97% inter-observer agreement. Table 2 presents the nature of teachers’ verbal ICs in practical physical education setting. Table 2: Nature of Teachers’ Verbal IC Nature of Teachers’ IC Demonstrated in Observation Data Reliability Practical PE Setting Observer 1 Observer 2 Mean Score Equation Percent. (%) Short 19 16 17.5 84 Descriptive 45 42 43.5 93 Integrated 36 37 36.5 97 Total 100 95 97.5 95 4.2 Rate per Minute of Short, Descriptive and Integrated which occurred at the rate of 0.7 per minute. In the case of ICs Provided by Teachers in Practical Teaching and integrated IC, the inter-observer mean was 36.5 events, which Learning Environment was provided by the teachers at the rate of 0.6 per minute. In From table 3, the mean count of events for the two total, inter-observer mean of 97.5 events were provided independent recorders was 17.5 for verbal cues that by nature during the practical lesson delivery at the rate of 1.6 per were short, which occurred at 0.3 per minute. Descriptive minute. Table 3 presents the results on the rate per minute of verbal IC recorded an inter-observer mean of 43.5 events, teachers’ ICs during the one-hour lesson. Table 3: Rate per Minute of Short, Descriptive and Integrated ICs of Teachers Length of observation= 1hr (60 minutes) Nature Inter-Observer Mean Score Equation Rate Per Minute Short 17.5 0.3 Descriptive 43.5 0.7 Integrated 36.5 0.6 Total 97.5 1.6 4.3 Proportions of Teachers’ ICs Demonstrated in integrated IC (36.5 events) and short IC as the least. Figure 1 Practical PE Setting presents pictorial proportions of the nature of teachers’ IC Inter-observer analysis of data showed that a high percentage during the one-hour practical lesson delivery. of teachers’ IC (43.5 events) were descriptive, followed by ~ 272 ~ International Journal of Physical Education, Sports and Health http://www.kheljournal.com 4.4 Demonstration of Teachers’ ICs with Equipment and without Equipment From table 5, observer one recorded 46 events for verbal IC that were demonstrated with equipment (ball) while observer two documented 44 events for this same category. A inter- observer mean of 45 events were produced with 96% inter- observer data agreement for verbal ICs demonstrated with equipment. For non-verbal IC demonstrated with equipment, both observers recorded 6 events each resulting in 100% inter- observer data agreement for this category. In the category of verbal ICs demonstrated without equipment, 39 and 36 events were recorded by observer one and two respectively with 92% inter-observer data agreement for this category. Non-verbal ICs demonstrated without equipment were 7 events for observer one and 6 events for observer two. Data for this category was 94% reliable. Table 4 presents results on Fig 1: Proportions of teachers’ IC demonstrated in practical PE teachers’ demonstration with equipment (ball) and without setting equipment (ball) using ICs. Table 4: Demonstration of Teachers’ ICs with Equipment and without Equipment Inter-Observer Reliability of Data Demonstration Type Observer1 Observer2 Inter-Observer Mean Score Equation Percent. (%) Verbal 46 44 45 95 X 100 With Equipment (ball) Non-verbal 6 6 6 100 X 100 92 Verbal 39 36 37.5 X 100 Without Equipment (ball) Non-verbal 7 6 6 86 X 100 4.5 Rate per Minute of Teachers’ ICs Demonstrated with with equipment produced inter-observer mean of 6 events Equipment and without Equipment administered by the professional PE teachers at the rate of 0.1 From table 5, inter-observer mean of 95 events was recorded per minute. Verbal cues demonstrated without equipment for all categories of teachers’ ICs demonstrated with produced inter-observer mean of 37.5 events which occurred equipment and without equipment. These demonstrations of at the rate of 0.6 per minute. Inter-observer mean for non- teachers’ ICs with equipment and without equipment occurred verbal ICs demonstrated without equipment were 6.5 events at the rate of 1.6 events per minute in the one-hour lesson which occurred at the rate of 0.1 per minute. Table 5 presents observed. Verbal ICs demonstrated without equipment rate per minute of teachers’ demonstration with equipment recorded inter-observer mean of 45 events which occurred at and without equipment. the rate of 0.8% per minute. Non-verbal ICs demonstrated Table 5: Rate per Minute of Teachers’ IC Demonstrated with Equipment and without Equipment Demonstration Type Inter-Observer Mean Score Equation Rate Per Minute Verbal IC 45 0.8 With Equipment (ball) Non-verbal IC 6 0.1 Verbal IC 37.5 0.6 Without Equipment (ball) Non-verbal IC 6.5 0.1 Overall 95 1.6 5. Discussion teachers’ instructional cues, the rate per minute and The purpose of this pedagogical study was to use descriptive proportions of teachers’ instructional cues in practical PE processes to investigate the nature and demonstration of setting involving pre-service teachers and professional PE ~ 273 ~ International Journal of Physical Education, Sports and Health http://www.kheljournal.com teachers. in physical education setting (Donkor, Appiah, et al. 2021) Findings from the study revealed the ability of teachers to [7].As acknowledged by Donkor and Hormenu (2021) [5, 5], it is utilize a variety of instructional cues (i.e., short, descriptive the critical role of teachers to help students acquire and integrated) in teaching and learning situations. Earlier knowledge and skills necessary for fostering positive attitude study suggests that “different types of teachers’ ICs must be to instructional task in physical education environment. provided in an instructional setting” (Donkor, Avornyo et al. 2021, p.135) [4]. Cues enhance the attention or focus of 6. Conclusions learners by restricting what they need to think about. Findings In every pedagogical setting in physical education, learners from the current study revealed a positive attitude of teaching need clear understanding of critical skill points to be able to where in each minute, the professional PE teachers provided perform a motor task effectively. Based on the study, it was instructional cues which by nature could be described as concluded that teachers were able to utilise a variety of short, descriptive or integrated. In order of magnitude, it was instructional cues (i.e., short, descriptive and integrated) to realized that descriptive instructional cues were mostly used facilitate students’ learning in the practical PE setting. It was by the teachers followed by integrated instructional cues and also concluded that teachers were largely able to simulate short instructional cues. The findings revealed a normal skills and techniques during the practical PE lesson delivery. phenomenon where the use of verbal cues was more than the It was observed that verbal instructional cues demonstrated use of non-verbal cues in practical PE setting. with equipment occupied the largest proportion of events, According to the findings, teachers were largely able to while Non-verbal instructional cues demonstrated without simulate skills and techniques during practical lesson equipment occupied the least proportion of events in the delivery. This is particularly useful in situations where entire observation. Generally, teachers used verbal cues more teaching and learning materials are inadequate for practical frequently than non-verbal cues. From the study, Instructional demonstrations during lesson delivery. In situations like this, cues of the teacher remain prominent pedagogical strategy in physical education teachers depend heavily on demonstrations facilitating skill acquisition among students. without equipment and communicate the proper technique of the movement task to the learners. As acknowledged by 7. Recommendations Donkor and Hormenu (2021) [5, 5], it is the critical role of For improvement in utilization of instructional cues in teachers to help students acquire knowledge and skills pedagogical setting, the following recommendations were necessary for fostering positive attitude to instructional task. made based on the results. Findings also revealed that verbal instructional cues 1. The practical PE class is usually composed of high and demonstrated with equipment occupied the largest proportion low prior learners, experienced and inexperienced with 45 events, while verbal instructional cues demonstrated learners. Therefore, we recommend that cues delivered without equipment placed second proportion with 37.5 events. by the teacher should cater for such individual This is followed by non-verbal instructional cues differences in every practical PE setting. It is also demonstrated without equipment with 6.5 events. The least necessary for teachers to adopt variety of instructional demonstrated instructional cues were non-verbal instructional cues to engage students during lesson delivery. cues demonstrated with equipment which produced 6 events 2. While some cues could be highly effective, others could in the entire observation. Generally, performance of a skill is be problematic. Therefore, teachers of PE should adopt greatly influenced by individual’s attention to the task. As teaching cues that work best in a particular instructional Wuest and Bucher (2003) state: “An individual must locate, situation. select, and focus on relevant cues to be successful in 3. The primary goal of teachers’ instructional cue is to performing the task (skill or game)” (p.392). improve learning of a motor task. As a result, cues used Literature suggests that instructional cue “plays an important by the teacher should be specific to the skill being taught. role in directing students’ attention toward the most critical information about a movement task” (Donkor, Avornyo et al., 8. Contribution of Authors 2021, p.235) [4]. Cues improve attention, (Becker & 1. Samuel Kofi Donkor, PhD – Conception and design of Fairbrother, 2019) [2], result in smooth and coordinated the study movement (Klein et al., 2019) [10] and are generally necessary 2. The rest of the authors contributed to various phases of for understanding and solving movement tasks in teaching the study involving manuscript review, data interpretation and learning environment (Hurzlmeier, 2021) [8]. Even though and presentation, results write-ups and discussion of instructional cues provided by teachers are able to enhance findings. understanding of critical skill points, study contrastingly suggests that cues presented in multiple modalities are 9. Conflict of Interest Statement redundant for learners possessing high knowledge of a task With respect to this study, we declare that there is no potential being taught and that “instructional techniques that are highly conflict of interest in the publication of this article. effective with inexperienced learners can lose their effectiveness and even have negative consequences when 10. References used with more experienced learners” (Kalyuga, 2009, p.23) 1. Alpizar D, Adesope OO, Wong RM. A meta-analysis of [9]. 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