The complexities of emergent leadership using a whole school autonomy development physical education approach

Living and leading through an embodied curriculum is marvellously messy. The selection and deployment of appropriate learning domains and subsequent leadership decisions, can strengthen opportunities to maintain and sustain curricular learning in contextually meaningful ways. This inquiry embraces a constraints analysis underpinned through complexity principled thinking, to better understand how to attend to health and skill related competencies. Having attempted this through a through a psychomotor learning domain emphasis, students voiced a resounding preference for a psycho-social emphasis. The former is adopted to yield mixed results; success as regards the targeted health and skill related fitness and curricular learning and competencies. The developmentally appropriate resistance program was highly effective across all participating elementary and middle school cohorts (N=750; z=-5.763, p<0.001; z=-4.439, p<0.001; z=-4.439, p<0.001; z=-6.902, p<0.001). Yet students were not enamoured at having to engage in physical health and fitness related activities. Creative ideas to change this up in some ways were explored and considered.

A complexity thinking principled analysis was undertaken to explore potential results and from there, a different approach emerged and elected for a more student centred iteration. The emerged approach transferred both the learning and the location to beyond the PE class into recess to transform the student role into one whereby an informed and empowered voice enhanced their engagement and opinion of their collective experience. Overall participation levels (z=0.400, p<0.0001) alongside learning, (x=0.400, n=6226, p<0.001) and enjoyment of students increased when peer led structured activity, modelled and practised during class time, was extended into the playground. From the second participating cohort (N=800), a larger number of students? scores increased (mean±s.e. =195±8.37) than decreased (129±3.82), whilst the majority of scores remained the same (367±7.41). This ecological approach proffers insights as to consider and emphasize student learning across the contextual student voiced preference.