Recap
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3)
Answer the following questions.
Describe what is meant by the term
‘continuum?’
Why do we use continua?
Name the six continua used to classify
skills. Classify a skill from your practical
activities on all six continua and explain
your classifications.
Answers
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1. Describe what is meant by the term ‘continuum’?
A continuum is an imaginary scale between two extremes
which shows a gradual increase/decrease in a number of
characteristics.
2. Why do we use continua?
Because the classification of movement skills is not simple.
It is difficult to be specific about the characteristics
because many of them can change depending on the
situation in which the skill is performed.
3. Name the six continua used to classify skills. Classify
a skill from your practical activities on all six continua
and explain your classifications.
Muscular involvement (gross – fine)
Environmental influence (open – closed)
Continuity (discrete – serial – continuous)
Pacing (self paced – externally paced)
Difficulty (simple – complex)
Organisation (low – high)
The application of
classification to the
organisation to the
organisation and
determination of practice
Lesson 2
Date
 By
Classwork
the end of today’s you must know and
understand and be able to:
 Critically evaluate each practice method
by knowing the advantages and
disadvantages of each method.
 The classes of skills they are best
suited for.
 To give practical examples of the
application of each type of practice.
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To decide on the best method of manipulating the
skill they will place the skill on the organisational and
difficulty continua.
Referred to as Task analysis.
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You need to consider the following
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Can the skill to be learned:
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Be broken down into separate parts? - Low
organisational.
Not be broken down into parts? – High organisational.
Does the skill to be learned:
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Involve many decisions, have lots of subroutines, have
to be carried out quickly and accurately? – Complex
skill.
Involve few decisions to be made, doesn’t involve
great accuracy? – Simple skill.
Methods of manipulating skills to
facilitate learning and improve
performance
 Describe
methods of manipulating skills
practice.
 Evaluate critically these methods and
their effectiveness.
Methods of skill practice
The method used depends on:
 level of ability of the performer
 facilities & time available
 size and structure of the group
 the task/skill — organisation &
information-processing demands
Part method
A
skill is broken down into its
constituent parts (sub-routines).
 The parts are taught as separate
actions and then put together.
 e.g. Front crawl (body position, arm
action, leg action, breathing).
 Useful for serial skills e.g. triple jump.
Part method advantages
Useful if the skill is low in organisation.
 Useful if the skill is complex as the learner
can cope with small parts before trying the
whole.
 Useful in learning dangerous skills — danger
element can be reduced, giving learner
confidence.
 Enables focus to be on particular elements.
 Success in learning a small part is motivating.
 Gives confidence.
 Allows learner to gain an initial understanding
of the skill.
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Part method disadvantages
 Reduces
kinaesthetic awareness.
 Flow of the skill is lost.
 Transfer of parts into the whole may be
difficult.
 Time consuming.
 Highly organised skills are difficult to
break down into parts.
Whole method
A
skill is taught without breaking it
down into sub-routines or parts.
 Generally, where possible, it is the best
method to use.
 It is used if a skill is highly organised
(difficult to split into sub-routines).
 e.g. Cartwheel.
Whole method advantages
Learner experiences the feel of the skill
(kinaesthesis).
 Learner appreciates the end product.
 Learner appreciates the flow & timing of the
movement (fluency).
 Learner understands the relationship between
the
sub-routines of the skill.
 Learning is quicker because the sub-routines
do not have to be put together.
 Transfer to the real situation is positive.
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Whole method disadvantages
 Unsuitable
for complex skills.
 In the early stages of learning the
learner may not be able to cope with
skills that have high attentional
demands.
 Some skills may be dangerous to be
taught by this method and therefore
have to be broken down.
Progressive part
This is often referred to as ‘chaining’. Serial
skills are broken down into their constituent
parts and then learnt as follows:
 Learn part 1 — perform part 1
 Learn part 2 — perform parts 1 & 2
 Learn part 3 — perform parts 1, 2 & 3
 Learn part 4 — perform parts 1, 2, 3 & 4
 e.g. Handstand, forward roll, cartwheel,
backward roll.
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Progressive part — advantages &
disadvantages
 See
part method.
Whole—part—whole
The learner first tries out the whole skill to
get the feel of its performance and to
establish the easy and difficult elements.
 The teacher then takes out the difficult
parts and the performer practises them.
 The performer then puts these parts back
into the whole performance.
 Useful for skills that can be broken down
(low in organisation).
 e.g. Gymnastics sequence.
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Whole—part—whole advantages
 Allows
the teacher to concentrate on
each individual’s weak parts.
 Learner gets the feel of the movement
as in the whole method.
 Easier to transfer some parts back into
the ‘whole’.
 Quicker than the whole method.
Whole—part—whole
disadvantages
 Transfer
may be difficult.
 Cannot be used for highly organised
skills.
Task
 The
model below is an illustration of
progressive part practice & assumes that a
movement has 3 clear and separate routines.
1.
Teach
2.
Teach
3.
Teach
Part A
Part B
Part A&B
4.
Teach
Part C
5.
Teach
Part ABC
Think of a skill that could be taught using the
progressive method part method. Explain how you
would structure that part practices.
Homework
 Reading
page 130 -134
 Past paper exam questions