We're sure you have heard the saying 'we learn what we do'. In the Health and Physical Education program, we live out this axiom by providing HPE majors a variety of early, frequent and progressively complex authentic teaching opportunities. Such active learning experiences, often referred to broadly as internships, are designed to provide majors with real world, hands-on experience in order to facilitate the development of knowledge, skills and dispositions required for success in field of health and physical education teaching and coaching. The primary focus of these opportunities is to bridge the gap between theory and practice, allowing majors to learn-by-doing through the application of what is studied in the classroom to the real world.
Example Teaching Opportunities in the HPE Program
Below you will find a brief overview of teaching opportunities offered in the HPE program. While teaching requires initiative and commitment, HPE majors are provided the tools, training and support necessary to be successful in all programmatic teaching experiences, from peer teaching to student teaching. Given the variety, systematic sequencing and authenticity of the teaching opportunities it is easy to understand why ASU HPE graduates are so well prepared and ready to assume the challenging role of 21st century educators!
Peer Teaching
Peer teaching is a process by which students learn from one another. It can be described as – you teach me, I teach you. Because peer teaching is a valuable method in teacher training, student majors are often assigned content that they teach to their peers in the program. While the length, content, teaching style and number of lessons taught varies by class and level, peer teaching provides majors with exceptional opportunities to learn-by-doing. Peer teaching generally takes place in multiple courses in each professional block.
Laboratory Learning
A laboratory experience refers to an environment conducive to observation, experimentation, investigation, etc. HPE majors engage in an assembly of relevant laboratory experiences, ranging from analyzing skill in biomechanics labs, to investigating health-related fitness in human performance labs, to evaluating instructional effectiveness in pedagogy labs, to observing and teaching students with special needs in teaching-learning labs. Regardless of the situation, HPE labs are designed to enhance each major's knowledge of and ability to teach well.
Practicum Experiences
A practicum is a course of study designed especially for the preparation of teachers that involves supervised practical application of previously studied theory and methods. In the HPE program, senior-level student majors are assigned to co-teach a multi-week, college-level course in the ASU Physical Education Activity (PEA) program. The majors teach under the direct supervision of a trained PEA program instructor and are simultaneously enrolled in a seminar-based HPE course that supports the practical experience. This practicum is similar to student teaching, yet it takes place on-campus rather than in a K-12 school system.
Field-Based Teaching
Field-based experiences take place in professional venues like the ones for which majors are being prepared to enter, such as in local and regional K-12 schools. Across the program, HPE majors are provided a variety of opportunities for field work including observations, tutoring, multi-week internships, as well as student teaching. Student teaching, the cap-stone educational experience in the HPE program, is a 15-week field-based teaching experience typical completed in North Carolina. However, there are opportunities for majors to student teach internationally in places such as Costa Rica, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, and South Africa. View Student Teaching details.