Dual Roles as a Teacher and Coach

Dual Roles of a Teacher/Coach

National University

PGM 101 Philosophy of Coaching

Dual Roles of a Teacher/Coach In the United States we are seeing a decline in both education as well as physical education. The article, Clarifying physical education teacher-coach responsibilities: a self-analysis guide for those in Dual Roles points out several great points that plague the physical educator in being able to proper balance both the educational role along with the physical educational role. This is a problem that I, myself have witnessed first hand as a student-athlete in high school with a coach that has mentored me both on the field and in the classroom. The author points out that many of the teachers that take on a dual role tend to lean more towards putting their best effort into the coaching side of it rather then focusing on what is important which is to provide proper physical education to the student body that focuses more so on all of the students rather then just the highly-skilled athletes. The unfortunate thing about this is that while teacher/coaches tend to do this, most principles and school administrators condone such behavior because to them it is more important to hang that banner in the gym and receive recognition for an outstanding athletic program. Another problem that is pointed out by the author is that most teacher/coaches believe that coaching comes first especially those who plan on moving up the ladder to bigger and better paying coaching positions. This gives them the idea that they are some big name coach who hails from some college whose primary paying job is coaching. This assumption is wrong and these teacher/coaches need to understand this due to the fact that they are probably the only form of role model to instill some sort of physical fitness values into the student’s life. The author does a great job in putting the teacher/coach into his/her place by explaining that their job is no different then that of the band teacher or director of the school play. As you can see many problems arise when a teacher takes on a dual role as a coach/teacher. It is up to that person to keep him or her in check and to understand that a balance must be met between the two. There are many things that can be done to make sure that the line is held up equally between the two and on major step to take is to follow what Coach Wooden does. He puts equal effort into both parts as well as set aside a set amount of time in order to prepare. The article also offers a great way to stay in check and that is to create a list of questions or as they call it a “self-check” to determine whether or not you are maintaining a balance between coaching and teaching. If it were up to me I would like to see a report card system in place that took into account the time of employment, students overall grades, and anonymous student surveys.

References

Parsh, D. (2007, April). 8 Steps to a Coaching Philosophy. Coach & Athletic Director, 76(9), 56-57.

References: Parsh, D. (2007, April). 8 Steps to a Coaching Philosophy. Coach & Athletic Director, 76(9), 56-57.