Promoting Personal and Social Responsibility through Physical Activity

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Promoting Personal and Social Responsibility
through Physical Activity

• Tammy Schilling
• Louisiana Tech University

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Outline

• Youth Development and Participation
• Why Physical Activity?
• Hellisons Personal-Social Responsibility Model
• - Convictions
• - Goals/levels
• - Strategies
• Project Effort
• History
• Expansion
• A Few (very few) Thoughts on Evaluation
• Wrap-up

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Developmental Outcomes Leading to Adult
Success(Connell, Gambone, Smith)

• Youth must learn to be productive
• School
• Outside interests
• Basic life skills
• Youth must learn to connect
• Family and community members
• Peers
• Something larger than themselves

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Developmental Outcomes contd

• Youth must learn to navigate
• Changing conditions in their multiple worlds
• Developmental transitions from learning about
  their world to assuming responsibility in it
• Unhealthy and dangerous behaviors and experiences
  of unfair treatment

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Youth Participation

• Importance of experiences that contribute to the
  development of initiative (Larson, 2000)
• Shift from prevention to preparation to
  participation and power sharing (Pittman et al.,
  2000)
• Myths of youth participation
• Participation is accomplished by placing one
  youth on a board or committee.
• Adults surrender roles as guides and educators.
• Adults are ready for youth participation.
• Youth are ready to participate they just need
  the opportunity.
• (ODonoghue, et al.,2006)

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One Model to Enhance Youth Participation

• Hellisons (1995, 2003) Personal and Social
  Responsibility Model
• Hellison university professor teaching PE to
  kids on a part-time basis
• Treated values not as absolutes but as qualities
  to experience and reflect on
• Uses physical activity as a medium for teaching
  personal and social responsibility

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Why Physical Activity?

• Emotional, interactive, attractive
• Kids show more of themselves
• Increased opportunities for the demonstration of
  personal and social qualities
• (Hellison, 2004)

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Caution about Claims

• Sport builds character. (True or False)
• We must
• 1. determine what we mean by personal and
  social development
• 2. develop strategies to achieve this

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Convictions

• Integration of life skills and physical activity
• Lessons learned in the gym must be taught for
  transfer
• Shift of responsibility from leader to
  participants
• Recognition and respect for participants
  strengths, opinions, and decision making capacity
  
• (Hellison Walsh, 2002)

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Creation of Responsibility Levels

• Simply stated and few in number
• Balance personal and social responsibility
• Indicate a progression (loose)
• Provisional in nature
• validity of the values offered in TPSR
  depends ultimately on acceptance, rejection, or
  modification of the values by the student.
• (Hellison, 2003)

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Responsibility Levels

• Respect for the rights and feelings of others
• Effort
• Self-direction
• Caring for and helping others
• Outside the gym
• Specific terms used vary across settings (ex. we
  build up, we dont tear down)

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Level 1 Respect for others

• Foundation for positive learning environment
• Participants are able to control their behavior
  and not interfere with others
• Attempts to address
• Verbal and physical abuse
• Intimidation, bullying, hogging equip/space
• Inability to control temper or resolve conflicts
• Disrupting others

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Level 2 Effort

• Helps participants positively experience program
  content
• Participants willingly play, accept challenges,
  and practice skills
• Try your best and dont give up.
• Attempts to address
• Self-defeating attitudes and behaviors
• Understanding of the role of effort in physical
  activity and life

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Level 3 Self-direction

• Advanced level - works toward an understanding of
  ones own needs
• Helps participants take more responsibility for
  their well-being
• Participants work on on-task independence,
  goal-setting, and self-awareness

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Level 4 Caring for and helping others

• Advanced level works on care, compassion,
  sensitivity, empathy, contribution
• Participants cooperate, give support, show
  concern, and help others
• Requires courage to resist peer pressure and
  egocentrism to step up as a leader

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Level 5 Outside the gym

• Most advanced level
• Application of the other four levels beyond the
  program
• Encourages the conversation about the possibility
  of transfer
• Very difficult to achieve consistently why?

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Final Thoughts on the Levels

• Empowerment must be linked to levels.
• Relationships and interactions must consistently
  model principles (live the levels).
• Levels should not be reduced to behaviors.
• Modify the levels to fit your kids - stay true to
  underlying principles

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Strategies

• Counseling time
• Awareness talk
• Lesson skill development, work with others
• Choice
• Peer teaching and coaching
• Reflection time

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Project Effort - History

• Project Director Tom Martinek
• Request for program
• Initial implementation of elementary after-school
  sports club two days a week
• Commitment to program expansion to meet
  participants development

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Program Development over Time
Project Effort
Afterschool Sport Clubs
Youth Leader Corps
Parent/Teacher Involvement
Mentoring
Elementary
Middle School
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Thoughts on Evaluation

• Potential survey YES (Youth Experiences Survey)
  
• Developed by Hansen (KU!) and colleagues
• Good fit for Hellisons model and proposed
  developmental outcomes
• Assesses youth experiences in
• Personal domain
• Interpersonal domain

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• Personal domain
• 1. Identity work
• 2. Initiative
• 3. Basic skills (emotional, cognitive, physical)
• Interpersonal domain
• 1. Development of teamwork and social skills
• 2. Promotion of interpersonal relationships and
  extension of peer networks
• 3. Developing connections to adults and
  acquiring social capital that comes with those
  connections

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Closing Thoughts

• Importance of handing one another along (Coles,
  2000) - youth participation/voice/leadership
• Great potential for youth development through
  physical activity
• Possibility - Hellisons Personal and Social
  Responsibility Model