• Introduction
  • The reciprocal style (c)
  • Pros and cons of the reciprocal style
  • Final thoughts
  • Sources
  • Pre-impact set: a set of educational decisions that define the intent of the lesson. Includes planning, preparation, organizing, etc.
  • Impact set: a set of actions made during the lesson and one-on-one feedback. The implementation of the pre-impact decisions in the actual lesson.
  • Post-impact set: the assessment made after the lesson. Evaluating the goal and the outcome.

Introduction

Muska Mosston’s spectrum of teaching styles was first created as a guide for physical education teachers to ensure that each student learns the necessary skills, processes, and concepts ingrained in physical education. Mosston himself called it ”a framework of options in the relationships between teacher and learner”.

The spectrum of teaching styles offers eleven different teaching methods ranging from teacher-driven styles to more student-oriented learning. Each of these styles has its own specific characteristics and function when teaching a class that revolves around physical education.

This post explains the basic characteristics of the reciprocal style, and what makes it such an effective teaching style in the classroom. 

The reciprocal style (c)

In the reciprocal style, students work in pairs and give each other feedback according to the performance criteria set by the teacher. Thus, the style relies heavily on social interaction, reciprocation, and constructive feedback.

The learners switch between roles as a doer and an observer. The doer is responsible for performing the task as accurately as possible. While the doer practices, the observer uses the prepared criteria to monitor, compare, contrast, and provide constructive feedback for the doer. 

For the reciprocal style to be effective, the teacher must provide a clear framework of criteria. Thus, it should provide the answers, or a process of arriving at the answers (clues, feedback statements, etc.) to help the observer give meaningful feedback. This also helps maintain safe and respectful environment between the learners, and make them stay on topic. 

Decision-making

Teacher

Student

Pre-impact set:
(decisions that define the intent – specific planning & preparation of the lesson)

X

Impact set:
(decisions related to the implementation of the lesson plan & face-to-face interaction)

X
(doer)

Post-impact set:
(decisions concerning assessment after the lesson)

X
(observer)

After the first practice, the students switch roles. Hence the name, the reciprocal style. In addition to the benefits of analyzing and practicing a new skill, the learners participate in social interaction. Furthermore, it teaches valuable lessons in how to give and receive feedback.

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The Reciprocal Style

The teacher provides the challenge & feedback criteriaStudents work in pairsThe doer makes decisions on how to perform the task set by the teacherThe observer provides ongoing feedback to the doer according to the criteria

Pros and cons of the reciprocal style

The reciprocal style shifts the post-impact (after the exercise) decision-making from the teacher to another student, the observer. This provides a number of benefits for the entire group. First, each doer has their own observer, meaning that every student performing the task has a chance to receive immediate and ongoing feedback on their performance. The sooner the doers understand how they are performing, the greater their chances to learn the correct technique. 

Second, the observer must learn how to give constructive and useful feedback according to the criteria set by the teacher. Therefore, each observer must learn to analyze the performance against the task criteria and communicate the results in a constructive way. 

However, since the decision-making and feedback are deliberately shifted to the learner, both the teacher and the learners must understand the responsibility they take for the entire learning process. With this in mind, the reciprocal style often only works in groups where students feel comfortable and trusted. 

Final thoughts

The reciprocal style is one of the first steps into more student-driven lesson planning. Here, the teacher puts more emphasis on the interaction between students (since one is the doer and the other one is the observer) instead of the relationship between teacher and students. Organizing a lesson like this has a number of effects on the atmosphere and flow of the lesson. For example, the learners are not simply repeating a certain task over and over again, but rather guiding each other to improve their skills. 

One important thing to keep in mind is that the teacher should refrain from giving feedback to the doer, even if they see incorrect technique. Doing so, the teacher would undermine the observer’s role. Instead, the teacher should maintain the structure of the reciprocal style and not interfere with the social interaction between the doer and the observer. In a way, this requires the teacher to step back from the traditional teacher-driven lesson planning and let the learners work on their skills by themselves. 

Although this may be difficult for teachers who are used to being in control of the entire lesson, showing trust in the students can significantly increase their feelings of autonomy, relatedness, and competence – all of which are known to improve the intrinsic motivation of the learner. 

Did you learn anything new about the reciprocal style? Let us know in the comments. 

Sources

  • Mosston, M. & Ashworth, S. (2008) Teaching Physical Education. 1st Online Edition.

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