Reflective & Guiding Questions

  • What personal biases, prejudices and stereotypes do I have within Health and Physical Education (H&PE)? What experiences have shaped these biases? What assumptions do I have about body types, sizes, and abilities, and how they move and experience health and well-being in H&PE?
    • How can I provide purposeful kinesthetic experiences that help students learn about their bodies and experience the joy of movement?
    • How can I meaningfully learn about my students and how they learn best?
    • What assumptions do I have about my students’ visible and invisible differences in how they may communicate, move, and participate in H&PE?
    • How do I hold an asset-based approach with each learner to provide numerous opportunities for students to improve their skills through practice and exploration?
    • How can I further my own learning meaningfully through community organizations and education centres that reflect my school community?
    • How do I make learning for myself an active process when getting to know my students and their cultural backgrounds and experiences?
  • How knowledgeable and confident am I in teaching topics within H&PE?
    • How do I leverage curiosity in teaching topics that may be new to me?
    • How do I acknowledge students’ differences and become a co-learner when program planning?  
    • How do I support students in affirming and appreciating their culture of origin while addressing the learning expectations in H&PE?
  • How do I understand and value the cultural backgrounds and abilities of my students, as well as their diversity?
    • How is my view on H&PE different than that of another culture? Why? How? How is that reflected in the way I teach?
    • How can I learn about my students’ identities, cultural backgrounds, and abilities? What opportunities can I create to learn about my students’ identities, cultural backgrounds, and abilities? How can I build community partnerships with organizations such as cultural and friendship centres?
    • How do I build relationships with students and their families and/or caregivers to embrace a collaborative approach to teaching and learning in H&PE?
    • Do I set different expectations for groups of students who represent a particular race, or identify themselves within a particular gender?
    • What is the dominant culture in the classroom and how do I teach beyond the visible or invisible differences?
    • How are activities and instruction differentiated to provide students of all abilities with relevant and engaging learning experiences, so every student experiences success?
    • How do I respect the decisions made by students and their families and/or caregivers while addressing the need to support students’ choices regarding their well-being knowing their age, stage, and factors that are within and/or without their control?
  • Do I use language and phrases when teaching concepts in H&PE that are unintentionally stigmatizing?
    • How do I model appropriate language and embed examples of diversity into my teaching?
    • How do I support students in navigating and embracing differences?
    • How do I provide opportunities for students to question and critique historical, societal norms, and values in H&PE that are not inclusive for all groups?
    • How do I build a learning environment that is a welcoming space for every student to engage in respectful and inclusive conversations where they feel comfortable sharing if they choose to?
    • What are the lived experiences of my students and how can I help them learn from those experiences to support their learning in H&PE?
    • How can I plan my instruction ensuring that it’s sensitive to students of different socio-economic backgrounds?
  • How can practicing self-reflection help me think about racism in all contexts (e.g., personal, interpersonal, cultural, institutional) and how it connects to H&PE?
    • How can acknowledging the events in our society impact the practice and activities in H&PE?
    • Reflect on the identities your students bring to the classroom and how they might be impacted in H&PE by events outside of the classroom.
    • Acknowledging and countering the systems of oppression, policies and procedures that have been historically constructed and continue to privilege whiteness at the expense of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. How can I be reflective and responsive to create space for this knowledge and the experiences in H&PE to be valued as learning?
    • What opportunities can I create for students to address, confront, or discuss inequities in H&PE?
  • Did the new approaches work? What could be tweaked to make it better for all? How can my program and instruction in H&PE evolve to better support the students and their physical and emotional safety?
    • What elements of the lesson were more effective? What aspects do you think need improvement to increase student participation?
    • How does my personal experiences affect my professional actions and judgement in the H&PE classroom?
    • What are some ways I can connect with students to help inform my program and instruction in H&PE?
    • How can I use the knowledge gained about my students to help my program planning and instruction in the future?