Assessment title: Debate (30%)

As a PDHPE teacher, you will be expected to have opinions on controversial topics and to be able to back your opinions with scientific evidence and reason. As a way of developing these skills you will participate in a debate as part of your assessment.

Students will work within a team of three. Teams will be randomly allocated to a topic (and the relevant proposition) and to either the affirmative or negative side of the debate.  Each team member will speak for an allocated time on their topic starting with the first speaker from the affirmative side.

- The first speaker will introduce the topic and outline the arguments to be used by their team. They will begin to explain these arguments.

- The second speaker will continue to explain and rationalize the arguments of their team, building on the arguments and presenting evidence to support these.

- The third speaker will further the arguments of their team plus summarise and conclude the overall argument.

Where possible, all speakers should try to provide supporting evidence from relevant scientific literature for their arguments.

At the completion of each teams’ arguments, both teams will be given time to prepare and ask the opposition 2 questions. The responding team will have 1 - 2 minutes to answer each question. These questions should probe the oppositions’ arguments in an attempt to rebut their position. 

To accompany the debate:

- Each team must upload a summary paper (500 words) that outlines their arguments (with supporting references and examples) prior to the start of the debate (i.e. one summary per team).

- Individual students must then upload an individual 500 word reflection that reflects on the overall value of debates as a learning tool as well as their experiences within the debate. This should be uploaded one week after the debate. 

Possible Topics:

• Early sporting specialisation rather than diversification is the most beneficial sport development path for producing elite athletes.
• The use of performance enhancing drugs should be permitted in professional sports.
• Genes and talent are over-rated, and great sports people achieve expert performance not because of genetic factors or ‘talent’, but because they accumulate enormous volumes of deliberate practice.
• Sensors and wearable technologies (fitness trackers) increase population physical activity levels.
• The use of technology to assist decision-making has had a negative effect on the performance of umpires and referees and has been overall negative for sports.
• Elite sport is harmful to the health and wellbeing of athletes post their athletic career.

Assessment title: ICT Teaching Resource and Presentation (30%)

This task is in two parts:

Part A – ICT based teaching resource (15%) 

You will be required to develop an informative, engaging and student-centred teaching resource for an allocated area of the stage 6 PDHPE syllabus (relevant to sports science). In developing this resource, you need to create an ICT based lesson that would promote and sustain 40 – 50  minutes of independent, small group learning for stage 6 students. 

The teaching/learning resource MUST be original, but you can use a range of other resources to create yours. 

Part B - Presentation (15 minutes) (15%)

You will present a professional development session around the content area that is the focus of your teaching resource developed in Part A.  The aim of the presentation is to upskill your peers in the content area of your resource. Whilst you may make mention and briefly show your resource, the main aim of the presentation is to add value to your peers’ knowledge and understanding of the content rather than just to showcase your resource. 

Assessment title: Case Study (40%) 

This task is in two parts:

Part A: Case Study & Questions (700 - 800 words)

In the HSC module "Improving Performance" one of the suggested teaching strategies involves students examining two athlete case studies to analyse the differing training methods. This task is designed to develop your ability to write authentic case studies whilst at the same time allowing you to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the content addressed across the unit.

In this task, you will develop a case study of an athlete detailing a range of issues relating to the athlete. The case study should detail background information about the athlete such as their sport/event, level of competition, current training program, goals etc. The case study should then highlight at least two concerns the athlete is facing. These concerns could include anxiety, motivation, training factors such as overtraining or recovery, physiological adaptations, measurement and evaluation of fitness, supplement use etc.

The case study should be well developed and authentic.

From the case study you should then develop four questions relating to the athlete. These questions would be questions the athlete could ask an expert in order to improve their performance. The questions should be logical extensions from the case study detail and must address at least 2 different areas of the unit content.

The content areas are as follows:
• Training factors (types of training, principles of training, overtraining)
• Planning of training
• Physiological adaptations
• Recovery principles
• Psychological asepcts (motivation, anxiety and arousal)
• Ergogenic aids

Part B: Evidence Based Responses (1400 - 1600 words)

You will also have to provide the answers to the questions using relevant academic literature to support your responses. In providing these evidence based responses you will be required to demonstrate your depth of knowledge and understanding of the unit content.