Reflecting on professional practice: the Importance of motivating adolescent girls in physical education

According to Calderhead et al. (1993), being a reflective practitioner is a vital requirement in the quest to improve both teaching and learning. The stimulus for this research was therefore determined through reflection on current practice within an educational setting. Both sport and academic achievement play a large part in school life. As research by Blaire et al. (1999) demonstrates, regular active participation in sport helps prevent many health risks including obesity, cancer and heart disease. In recent findings however, Shen (2009) identified a steep decline in the involvement of physical activity during adolescent years (12-18 years). This research was further confirmed by 'The National Heart, Lung and Blood health study account'(in Kimm et al, 2002), a finding of which was a dramatic decrease in the median of adolescent's activity between the ages of 12-18 years. Work by (Ogden et al., 2002) subsequently confirmed that inactivity enhances the rates in obesity and Type two diabetes. The focus of this research is therefore to examine why adolescents' motivation towards physical activity decreases with specific reference to the causations and potential methods of how to change this perspective, thus promoting lifelong physical activity participation (Haerens et al., 2012). Through using Kolb's (1984) model of experimental leaning, reflection on current practice can be investigated to demonstrate the relationship of conceptualising experiences. Findings can then be used to inform planning to support improvement in current practice. The research involved synthesising literature themes including motivation and physical activity, identifying the relationship of activity patterns during adolescence to future participation habits, and the impact of team V individual sports on motivation to engage with physical activity within an educational environment. Key themes drawn from the literature illustrating a positive correlation to motivating adolescents included the provision of choice (Prusak, 2004, Pangagi, 2000), the provision of challenge and independent learning tasks linked to skill requirements (Reeves,1987; Garn et al., 2011), the provision of non-competitive and enjoyable activities (Cherubuni et al., 2005; Garn et al, 2005; Johnson et al., 2011), and finally the provision of an environment to enhance levels of perceived competence and autonomy (Wang et al., 2007).