Teaching Responsibility to Enable Cooperative Learning in Pe - Koivisto Kalle-Veikko

Youngsters are very capable and fast learners if we give them the opportunity to show their potential and earn our trust. Often we underestimate their capabilities and limit them by controlling too much which, in the end, diminish their interest and motivation. By giving responsible tasks and involving the students in the decision making and learning process changes the traditional teacher-centered approach more into a student-oriented learning. According to Self-Determination Theory there are three main factors that affects motivation; the feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness. Koivisto's approach was to increase these three universal psychological needs by teaching the students responsibility and plan the PE lessons so that the students could practice and demonstrate those teachings. To teach responsibility he used Hellison's Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility model and every tasks in the PE lessons were planned to be cooperative. Directing the students to take the role of an active doer and learner will rise them from being only bystanders; a skill that will definitely be useful later in life.