What is the large unit teaching of specific sports skills?

To put it simply, it is the teaching design logic that was born after the launch of the 2022 version of the compulsory education physical education and health curriculum standards to support the goal of "allowing students to master 1-2 special sports skills that can be used throughout their lives". It is different from the "small unit" of traditional physical education teaching in which a project is completed in a few hours. The unit generally focuses on a single sports event and designs about 18 hours of coherent teaching content, stringing together individual techniques, combination movements, tactical coordination, rule literacy and even event participation. It is not about teaching movements for the sake of teaching them, but to enable students to actually play and use this event. To use an inappropriate analogy, the previous small unit teaching was like learning to cook. Each dish only taught you how to cut vegetables and then changed to the next one. In the end, you couldn’t even cook a tomato scrambled egg. ； The large unit teaches the entire process of preparing vegetables, cutting, stir-frying, and seasoning. In the end, you can not only cook it well, but you can also adjust the saltiness according to your own taste, and you can even think about adding ham sausage or something.

I have been teaching physical education in junior high schools for almost ten years. I used to teach a full 8-hour basketball unit. As soon as I finished teaching the individual movements of dribbling, shooting, and three-step layups, the unit was over. The students could not even complete a complete 3v3. They forgot all the movements as soon as someone was defending them. It was no different as if they had never learned it. Last year, our school piloted a basketball unit, splitting 18 lessons into 9 lessons each in the first and second semesters, with track and field and gymnastics content in the middle. Not only did the basic movements become solid, but also passing and cutting coordination, simple offensive and defensive tactics were added, and two classes were even left to teach basic refereeing rules. At the end of the unit, a class 3v3 league was held. Many students who used to hide and chat in class took the initiative to sign up to be referees and cheerleaders, which really gave them a sense of participation.

But to be honest, there is indeed a lot of controversy over large units in the industry. Not everyone thinks it is perfect. When I went to the city for teaching and research last time, physical education teachers from several towns complained that the school was already short of physical education teachers. One teacher had to teach classes for several grades, and also had to do chores such as recess exercises and sports meetings. The large unit of 18 hours had to design and prepare equipment. There was really no energy. ； Some teachers are worried that there are so many sports categories to be covered in the compulsory education stage. If the whole unit is taught in a large unit, a maximum of two sports can be taught in one semester. Many students may not find the sports they are interested in, so they are forced to learn basketball or football for one semester, which is counterproductive.

But teachers who support it also have their own reasons. They say that under the previous "dragonfly-on-the-fly" teaching style, students took physical education classes from elementary school to high school for more than ten years, and could not even play a complete game. They were unable to develop exercise habits at all. After graduation, they were completely insulated from sports. Even if students can only learn one sport well in one semester and have a sport they are willing to play for a long time, it is better than learning a dozen projects half-heartedly.

In fact, there is no requirement that large units have to have 18 lessons in a row. Many schools are making flexible adjustments. I know that one primary school has divided the 18 lessons in the table tennis unit into one session per week for 18 weeks, with no other content in between. After one semester, many students took the initiative to go to the gym to play ball after school. Parents reported that their children's myopia has slowed down. Isn't this the result we most want to see in physical education teaching.