Instonians Easter Monday Tournament - 22/04/19
I arrived at the rugby club early to set up the pitch and help with preparations such as filling water bottles, gathering equipment and preparing some energy drinks and food for the breaks in between matches. I was assistant coach that helped the coach in team selection for each match throughout the day. The team had started off the competition by losing their first game in the group stage, with the other teams winning by such a large margin it was going to be very difficult for them to win the group and progress into the knockout stages. In order to maintain standards and to keep the players motivated the learning theory that I learnt to use for this experience was Constructivism learning theory (Learning Theories, 2019). The key concept to this is that ‘A reaction to didactic approaches such as behaviourism and programmed instruction, constructivism states that learning is an active, contextualised process of constructing knowledge rather than acquiring it’ (Ertmer and Newby, 1993). Constructivism assumes that all knowledge is constructed from the learner’s previous knowledge, regardless of how one is taught. Thus, even listening to a lecture involves active attempts to construct new knowledge. Vygotsky’s social development theory is one of the foundations for constructivism (Vygotsky, 1980). The team rallied and managed to make the knockout stage where they lost comprehensively to eventual winners and rivals Bangor RFC.
