Field Experiences Help Students Apply Classroom Learning
February 8, 2015
Newberry College students got the chance to apply some of their classroom learning during a recent visit to Newberry Industries, a community-based organization that provides training and services for people with a variety of career and educational needs. Students in Dr. Peggy Winders PHE 302 Adapted Physical Education class are learning about how to involve individuals with physical, emotional and learning disabilities in physical education.
The majority of students in the class plan to be Physical Education teachers after graduation and many will work with students with varying levels of ability.
Many of our students have never had the opportunity to work with or be around individuals with special needs, said Dr. Peggy Winder, professor of Sports Professions and Director of Diversity Education at Newberry College. In many cases, this is truly an eye-opening experience for the students.
Senior Lindsay Gore enrolled in the Adapted Physical Education course to fulfill a requirement for her major, but now claims it as her favorite class. She has a sister with special needs who attends a program similar to Newberry Industries, so she is comfortable in the environment. The tours have been a revelation for other classmates by helping them associate the needs of a real person with disabilities with what they are learning about in class.
These individuals have some of the biggest hearts you will ever encounter, Gore said. People often dont realize that they can really teach us to enjoy life and love one another.
Field trip experiences are an important component in a course that helps the students understand how teachers assess the varying levels of learning and physical disabilities, how teachers meet the needs of students with disabilities and the various forms of disabilities they may encounter as teachers.
Throughout the course, students explore how to modify their classroom curriculum to get all of their students involved in movement education whatever their level of ability, Winder said. The field experiences allow students to better understand how these ideas might take shape in a real-world setting.
Winder said she hopes that giving students the opportunity to interact with people with a variety of disabilities will help form her students into better educators in the future.
Winders course includes three field experiences. In addition to Newberry Industries, they will visit Newberry Annex and The Whitten Center in Clinton.
