Jumping through hoops (the real kind - not proverbial) in pre-service teacher education

So often I hear students speak of having to 'jump through hoops' in their teacher education courses. Practicums and placements are heralded as the 'important' or 'valuable' parts of the degree, rather than the course work that supports their learning and understanding of the teaching profession. The expression of 'jumping through hoops' took on a new meaning for me in my own graduate learning experience when my supervisor in my Health Education masters program said that "they should be jumping through hoops, real ones", as hoops and other flow arts/physical activity  allows student teachers to experience physical education in agentic and experiential ways.

This has always remained with me and when I took on the coordination of the Early Childhood Health and PE topic at Flinders this year I was extremely excited to continue the existing partnership that the course has with one of the University's Childcare centres. This partnership allows my students (most of which are completing undergraduate degrees in Early Childhood Education, though some Masters level  and physical education majors) to learn about teaching young children physical education and fundamental movement skills through giving a PE lesson to young children. This contstructivist approach  has so much more value for students that an essay, unit plan, or reading notes, and the feedback and reflective practice that has begun from these lessons has been very positive and meaningful.

Today I was able to go into the one of the houses (rooms in the centre) and watch a pre-service teacher deliver a PE lesson to 2.5-3.5 year olds on jumping with hula hoops. After the lesson was complete,  I watched students engaging in guided discovery with the hoops and  was struck at just how fitting that saying can be, not just for poorly developed teacher education practices which involve proverbial hoops, but for experiences where real hoops provide valuable learning experience for pre-service teachers. And yes, guilty as charged, I enjoyed playing with hoops as much as the 2.5-3.5 year olds :)

Hoops and other equipment used for the preschool PE lessons.