Education and Early Childhood Learning

More Heads Are Better Than One

Can you work together to transport your team from Point A to Point B?

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In a Grades 7/8 Physical Education class, the teacher asks the class a question: “Can you work together to transport your team across the gym?” The teacher then separated the learners into groups of four to six.

Part of the challenge was to get learners to work as a team, with groups arranged to include people who didn’t normally work together. Teamwork and collaboration were common focus areas that resurfaced throughout the school year; this story serves as one example in which learners are required to collaborate and work with their peers to achieve success in completion of a task/challenge.

Once learners were in groups, they were then given further instructions indicating that each group member must lead their group throughout the challenge at least once. Learners were invited to answer the following questions (the themes of “looks like, sounds like, feels like” had been used in discussions prior to this challenge):

• What does it look like when the leader is talking to the group? The learners’ responses indicated that the conversation is one direction; you are talking to the group.
• What does it sound like when the leader is talking to the group? The learners recognized that only the leader should be talking, and the rest of the group is listening and quiet.
• What does it feel like when the leader is talking to the group? The learners indicated that they might want to speak up and present ideas to the leader, but their role is to listen to the leader’s instructions. Some said that sometimes it is hard to keep your mouth closed and just listen, and it can create a feeling of uneasiness. Some indicated that they were okay with being directed and preferred the role of the listener.

The teacher then handed each group playing cards, one for each member of the group, that would determine the order in which learners would be the leader of the group.

Each challenge required the groups to move across the gym by using a set number of feet and hands. The challenges increased in difficulty by lowering the number of hands and feet that the groups could use. Learners needed to change or adapt their plans to persevere through the different challenges.

The teacher then described the first challenge: “Groups must use 6 feet and 6 hands to get their team across the gym.”

Learners completed the task by using combinations of hopping on one foot, carrying/piggy backing, walking, wheel barrowing, and so on. After each group reached the other side of the gym, the leader of the group changed, and the teacher announced a new challenge. Throughout the challenges, the teacher could be seen listening to groups and helping groups who appeared to be stuck and needed support to move forward.

Further Challenges:
Challenge 2: 6 feet
Challenge 3: 5 feet, 3 hands
Challenge 4: 4 feet, 4 hands
Challenge 5: 3 feet, 3 hands
Challenge 6: 2 feet, 4 hands

Once everyone had the opportunity to lead their group across the gym, the learners were then asked, “What does teamwork look like? sound like? feel like? How is teamwork different from leading?”

The learners identified things such as the following: Communication changes to a back-and-forth of sharing ideas and information; You will hear multiple voices as opposed to one; Ideas should be shared appropriately; Loudest voice can’t boss the team.

The teacher then gave the groups two final challenges to complete by working together.

Group Challenge 1: teams must get across the gym by using 3 wooden boards
Group Challenge 2: teams must get across the gym by using 2 wooden boards

After groups completed their challenges, the teacher offered some questions to prompt learners’ self-reflection, allowing learners to respond throughout. These prompts included the following:

• How did your role change throughout the challenges?
• Were there times that you had more of an impact on your group's success?
• Was there only one way to complete each of the challenges? Explain.

The learners’ responses reflected the idea that their impact on the team changed with their role, with the leader being more direct and forceful and the follower being passive and not contributing. Their perceived impact came best as a group when they could actively share ideas with each other. Some learners identified that the leader had the group complete the challenge differently than they would have. The learners also thought It was also helpful to be able to see other groups completing the task to help come up with new ideas for the more difficult challenges.

The teacher’s final prompt was, “What did you do when people suggested different ways to complete the challenge? How did you choose which option to use?” The learners said they could vote amongst the group. Sometimes when hearing other options, it made sense to compromise and choose the other person’s idea. Some used rock, paper, scissors (a model used previously in class to solve conflicts) to choose an option. Another group chose to try to complete the challenge multiple times using different ways.

The learners finished class by adding a reflection in their journals. The teacher had three questions on the board that learners needed to answer:

• How did you contribute to your team?
• How did you use good interpersonal skills?
• How do interpersonal skills improve team success?

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Dimensions of Global Competencies in Action

Connection to Self

• Learners persevere when overcoming obstacles and challenges during movement experiences.*
• Learners adapt to different roles and new movement experiences.*
• Learners reflect on movement experiences, effort, and others’ feedback to overcome movement challenges and to achieve greater enjoyment.*

Collaboration

• Learners create a sense of belonging, trust, and inclusion in physical spaces with others through listening, understanding, empathy, and encouragement.*
• Learners communicate, compromise, adapt, share responsibility, solve conflicts, and support each other with mutual respect.*

*These descriptors represent the dimensions of global competencies in physical education.