A mode of one - the use of slides in PE and Sport classroom teaching

I am writing this post to any PE teacher who teaches a qualification subject in a classroom. I guess I am imagining GCSE PE, A-level PE and BTEC Sport teachers. Is this you? Here’s another question: Do you use any form of slides in your teaching? If so, how many slides do you use?

Allow me to address the title of my post: ‘A mode of one’. This refers to my tendency to teach a topic using very, very few slides. In fact, I am claiming that my mode number of slides within any individual lesson is one. If I were to count up the number of slides I use to present to students per lesson, the most commonly occurring number of slides would be one.

As an example, here’s the number of slides I use to teach for Paper 1 of the AQA GCSE PE 9-1 course:

So, what does this mean? Well, I suppose it means that I don’t use long-form presentations to provoke learning in my own GCSE and/or A-level PE classes. But it also means other things. It means that I try to use slides precisely and for specific impacts rather than as a default. It also means that the average time I spend teaching from slides is low and that class time for other processes is highly valued. By definition, it means that I value other experiences over presenting from slides. It also happens to mean that I value high-quality educational imagery, and this is a point I will come back to.

More than anything else, I believe it means that I try not to make assumptions. When I enter a classroom, there is one objective: to cause the broadest and deepest possible learning that is relevant. With this mentality, slides only become relevant if, and only if, they are the best way to provoke either deep or broad learning. 

So, why am I writing this? I visited a sixth-form college recently and I walked from the school reception to the PE department office, which was in the sports-hall building, at the far end of the site. In that process, I walked past many classroom windows. Twelve perhaps, maybe fifteen. In every single classroom, there was a teacher standing or sitting at the front of a class, and there was a slideshow occurring. Now, I don’t know how long these slideshows were. Perhaps theirs, like mine, were one-slide-long. But my sense was not this. It appeared to me that some kind of default behaviour in this college was to have teachers presenting from slides. I don’t mean to criticise this college and its staff but, if I had the chance, I would ask the teachers or leaders at that college why slides seem to be so omnipresent in their classrooms. What would they tell me? How would they answer this?

It is my opinion that, too frequently, “assumed teacher behaviours” trump “required learning behaviours” in too many classrooms.

It is my opinion that, too frequently, slides occupy a role within classrooms that is assumed, passive and not learning-focused.

It’s easy to criticise, though, so I want to try and address why a slide might be useful in the learning process.

It is my opinion that slides can be excellent tools for triggering collective understanding of a critical or challenging concept once.

Beyond that, I believe they have very, very little general relevance to the learning process.

So what would be an example of doing it well? All of us will have slightly different opinions on this, and I can only suggest that my usages are simply that: opinions. But, with that said, this is my opinion and I want to share with you some of my examples of slide usage.

This slide is for the topic of bones in GCSE PE:

And the vast majority of my lesson is going to be structured with learning activities like this:

I wonder if, by seeing this lesson plan, you see my point. I probably don't need that slide at all, but I use it as a summary. I confirm that the concept of articulation is clearly understood collectively. In some ways, once I have done this, I feel my teacher role is complete and responsibility is passed over to the learner. I feel like I’ve given them what it takes to truly understand this idea and now it’s time for them to fly.

Let’s look at another example:

✅ What do you notice about this slide?

✅ What part do you believe it plays in a lesson?

✅ Why do you believe I use a single, hand-drawn image?

✅ What do you believe the purpose of the second image in the upper left is?

I want to ask you one more question, too:

✅ What do you think this slide looks like at the end of my presentation?

It takes me probably between seven and 10 minutes to present this slide. Therefore, the majority of the remainder of the lesson is about application.

It is also worth mentioning that the slide is layered. It starts like this…

…and then progresses to this…

…,and eventually this…

…with each element being an individual layer. This helps me to teach the three-dimensionality of the breathing systems.

Conclusions

So, what do you think? Am I on my own? Am I the crazy one? Is what I do wrong? Assuming for a second that you are a reader who doesn’t do it like me, why don’t you? I’m not arguing that you should, but rather, to address why you do it your way in your mind.

Finally, I’d like to ask this central question:

If you were to answer in learning-focused terms only, what is the reason for lots of slides in so many lessons in schools and colleges today?

Answers on a postcard, folks or, better still, add a comment below. I would value your thoughts, and I always respond. 🙂

Have a lovely day.

James