Physical Education Teachers' Instructional Strategies for Including Overweight Students

Background/Purpose: Increasing number of overweight children present an escalating challenge for PE teachers to create inclusive classrooms where students feel safe to engage in physical activity, develop motor skills, and learn about their bodies. Research has shown that tasks are often developmentally inappropriate for overweight students and the social environment can be overwhelming (e.g., Fox & Edmunds, 2000). To date, little substantial information is available on how to include and teach overweight students in PE in a positive way. The Constraint Model (Newell, 1986) provides a theoretical framework for how teachers can identify and think about interactions among constraints to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of a diverse student body. One way to increase inclusivity and to improve instruction for overweight students can come from direct observations and in-depth interviewing of experienced and committed PE teachers. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to explore experienced PE teachers' policies and instructional strategies for the inclusion and appropriate instruction of overweight students.

Method: Participants included 9 middle school teachers from Eastern U.S. who were identified as experienced and committed to effective teaching, and were recruited from each of 3 stratifications: low, medium and high district social economic status. Two semi-structured interviews and field observations were conducted. Constant comparison was used to identify positive policies and strategies used to establish a positive instructional climate and modify tasks. Member check, interpretative member check (focus group), peer debriefing, and triangulation of field observations, artifacts and interviews were used to ensure trustworthiness.

Analysis/Results:PE teacher recognized students' individual functional constraints (e.g., self-consciousness, strength) and structural constraints (e.g., weight, size) that both limit and facilitate their skill and fitness performance. Based upon teachers' perceptions of the interaction of those individual constraints and task/environmental constraints in their specific teaching situation, and their inclusion policies, teachers modified task/environmental constraints to differentiate instruction. Modifications occurred in 5 different situations: warm-up, fitness, fitness testing, adventure education, and skill instruction. Example strategies include masking modifications during instruction, individual goal setting, private fitness testing, equipment, rule and objective modification, a priori student grouping, task choices, and open communication.

Conclusions: Experienced and committed teachers understood the interaction of the individual and task/environmental constraints, which helped them to successfully differentiate instruction for overweight students. Identification of most influential constraints to differentiate was critical to ensure that tasks were perceived as attractive and valuable, and they could experience success.