One of the most important tasks of a teacher nowadays is to prepare a student to successfully integrate into contemporary society. Despite the fact that students are the same age, they differ from each other. Therefore, the didactic principle of differentiation and individualisation in everyday lessons is extremely important. A teacher should be able to recognize characteristics of each individual, define them, appropriately react, and choose helpful strategies. Everyday physical activities have a great effect on individual’s personality development. These are mainly activities in physical education and specific sports disciplines. An important factor in a child’s development are also his or her wishes, needs, interests, and abilities. A form master has to be aware of the fact that the most appropriate age for the development of motoric functions is the age between six and ten years. However, motoric functions of students are worsening. Therefore, physical education in schools is extremely important for children’s motoric functions development and encouragement.
The aim of the research paper was to find out in which way teachers from the first to fifth grade of elementary school plan, use, and carry out the individualisation and differentiation in physical education. Also, during which part of the lesson they use it, what the subject of their differentiation and individualisation is, and how they substitute certain imperfect contents. One of our aims was also to find out how teachers take care of their professional development and how do they evaluate their ability of teaching different students.
The results of the research showed that teachers differentiate and individualise the lessons of physical education. Most often they carry it out during the middle part of the lesson and during the revision of already covered topics. They mostly individualise and differentiate methodical procedures, contents, and work methods. In physical education they often use different approaches, such as: work in pairs, work in heterogeneous groups, playgroups, individual work which is adjusted to student’s abilities etc. Teachers subjectively arrange students into groups – based on their own observation. Rarely teachers use objective arrangements. Most often the missing knowledge of sports is improved with mutual help of students and instructions for home exercises.
We established that teachers read professional literature, participate in working groups, workshops, and study groups in order to develop professionally. A small number of teachers consider themselves absolutely competent at working with children with special needs. Most teachers feel absolutely incompetent at working with blind and visually-impaired children, deaf and hearing-impaired children, and children with mental disorders.
Most teachers adjust physical education and carry out differentiation and individualisation during the first three years of elementary school, and during the second three years, as well. However, they consider a big number of students in their classes who need adjustments one of the biggest problems during the process; also, to control and coordinate their work presents a problem, and the preparation and execution of differentiation and individualisation take a lot of time.
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