Hands On Support in Shropshire

Today I worked with the PE staff at Thomas Adams school, giving support using cSwing performance analysis software in a gymnastics lesson. We were only expecting to be using the “Live” mode of the software for pupils to replay their techniques instantly and improve on their performance, but moved on to using the motion analysis techniques also. I helped out by the “forward roll and cartwheel” mat where pupils worked in pairs and we saw some real and rapid improvements in performance due to the use of the video replay software.

With the camera trained on the mat, one pupil counted down and initiated recording by pressing the spacebar while the other did the roll. When the recording was done, they both analysed the technique by watching it on-screen and analysing it with constructive criticism. Initially I had some misgivings about the time they were spending looking at the screen as I felt that they ought to have been maximising their limited time on the mat. I revised this position later; after the first attempt and a look at the replay to see where they might improve, every single pupil made improvements to their technique, keeping their legs together, launching to give momentum, etc. Would they have been able to do this as effectively without seeing themselves on video and analysing what they did? Judging by the depth of of analysis and subsequent improvement, I would venture that the software was having a pivotal role. The instant replay, together with being able to move forward and backward frame by frame, was paying dividends already.

Later on, in the cartwheel session we found that it was useful to show pupils “before and after” videos side by side, so that they could comment on how their own performance had improved. This meant that an instant replay session had to be recorded and saved, a neat feature of cSwing that isn’t present in some other software. Although this was a KS3 lesson, it would also be useful at GCSE to show analysis of their own and others’ performance; apart from helping to meet examination objectives, this analysis is helping these pupils in their own “learning to learn”, whereby they work out for themselves what they need to do to improve. There were a number of features of excellent “assessment for learning” practice here; objectives being laid out at the beginning of the lesson and referred to throughout; good focussed questioning from the teacher to highlight points for improvement was vital, especially for those pupils who had so many things in the technique that needed attention - Ms Warburton was able to help the pupils prioritise, improving things one at a time until they were able to make a passable cartwheel. The stop-go video allowed pupils to make their own criticisms and identify what needed attention and after initial shyness from some they showed that they could constructively criticise their own and others’ performance.

It became clear that confidence in using the software was growing, and the teachers were asking to use more and more features. One pupil did an exemplary headstand, and the video was saved and bookmarks added at the critical points. When another pupil had her go, the same points were bookmarked and the two performances compared side by side using the “locking together” feature so that the videos ran together. This was also useful when comparing cartwheels for one girl who didn’t believe that she had improved; it was obvious that her technique had changed and that she could now see what she had been doing wrong. In another group, the freeze-frame features of the software were being used to analyse trampette and springboard jumps.

I was amazed at how quickly pupils made progress. Maybe it’s always like this in PE lessons, but I found that using this software really helped them visualise what they needed to do to improve. Comments from the staff were favourable and the feedback forms indicated that they found the support valuable and would welcome further sessions.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 17th, 2005 at 3:35 am and is filed under cSwing, PE, Assessment for Learning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.