Moving Forward, Literally and Figuratively
Young children learn through movement. "The concepts of daily life are learned through the body," said Theresa Purcell Cone, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Health & Exercise Science department. "The idea of ‘faster.' What does that mean? Children learn what that means by learning to move their own bodies. It's a natural way for children to learn."
For the past three years Cone has shared her enthusiasm for early childhood physical education with her college students enrolled in Teaching Concepts of Elementary Physical Education. The course introduces physical education teaching concepts to 30 college juniors and seniors each semester.
Through a partnership with the Early Childhood Demonstration Center, Cone exposes her students to real-life teaching of small groups of three- to five-year-olds. In pairs, the college students write and submit 20-minute lesson plans to Cone, who reviews and approves the plans. The students then carry out their lesson plan for the youngsters. The lesson plans typically focus on introducing and building core physical skills through age-appropriate activities—rolling a ball using opposition; locomotive movement such as skipping, jumping, galloping, or hopping; rhythmic movement such as dance; and hand-eye coordination. Cone, who observes the teaching, grades the students on their lesson plan and self-reflection paper, not on the execution of the lesson plan or classroom management.
For many of the college students, Cone explains, it's their first experience with young children. As an educator, Cone finds it particularly rewarding to work with students as they experience their ‘a ha' moment—the moment when the students walk away feeling successful, realizing that teaching young children is challenging, but also exciting and rewarding. It's a feeling that Cone knows well as a former public school educator herself. Before joining Rowan's faculty, Cone taught preschool through fifth grade physical education in South Brunswick, Middlesex County, for 33 years.
"This experience teaches the students that it's OK if you don't follow your plan 100 percent," Cone said. "If what you've planned isn't working, it's OK to make changes to the plan and adapt it as necessary."
Theresa Cone
