Personal observations and evaluation reports on teaching practice suggest that PE teachers attending training at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) tend to "over teach" in the sense that they talk too much and put too much emphasis on scientific details such as the mechanical properties of a movement. As more time was spent on explanation and other phases of teaching, learning through play in the applying phase was reduced. Observations also indicated that PE teachers tended to use drills rather than plays or modified games to allow pupils to acquire the criteria performance. A study of 250 lesson plans written by 24 students of an Advanced Certificate of Teacher Education (ACTE) course and 30 students of a Teacher Certificate (TC) course in the HKIEd has also revealed the same tendency. Evidence indicates that the mean time allocation for the applying phase shown by these students is lower than that suggested by textbooks/documents in pedagogy (approximately 50%). "Over teaching" in the above sense may be a socio-political measure in response to the academic movement of our discipline. Drills, which in general facilitate skill refinement, neglect the interest of different ability groups and the two sexes.
[Copyright © 1998 Department of Physical Education, Hong Kong Baptist University.]