Essay: Observation of a swimming class

An observation of a swimming class within a semi-public space was conducted for the production and discernment of relevant, compelling data within particular surroundings. Pursuing an interest in understanding how student-teacher interactions differ from classroom settings, a swimming class was chosen to generate my research data. A condominium where swimming lessons are conducted was selected for the convenience of the researcher. Additionally, fewer distractions would take place within a condominium pool compared to a public swimming complex. In this essay, I will cover the methodologies used to conduct my research in consideration of ethics and reveal the generalisations of data found within my study. As the swimming class observed mostly had 5 students per session, 2 sessions were recorded over a period of 3 weeks to increase and diversify the number of student-teacher interactions observed.
The swimming complex within the condominium consists of an adult pool, a children’s pool and a baby pool. Swimming classes took place at the end of the adult pool where the children’s and baby pool are easily accessible. A barbeque pit – situated behind the adult pool – was chosen for observations (Appendix 1). The pit maintained a distance away from the class – which I felt was necessary for me as to not encroach myself within the space parents lingered to decrease participation opportunities – and provided ample view of the swimming class at hand. The swimming class observed consist of children below the age 12.
A primary pattern observed was that methods were adopted by the teacher to boost confidence, trust and cooperation with students, especially when students provided resistance during classes. One strategy was affection – displayed in forms of tenderness – such as wiping water and loose hair out of student’s eyes, face and caressing a child’s cheek. Affection may be crucial for learning how to swim, as it can be intimidating and scary for young kids. As affection helps build bonds between students and the teacher, students will trust and be more relaxed around the teacher. This not only enables classes to be carried out more efficiently, but also increases persuasion over students as individuals are more likely to be influenced when they trust someone more (Hallinan & Williams, 1990, pp.123). Such affections are rarely witnessed within classroom settings, especially in Singapore where such displays of tenderness would be seen as inappropriate in school institutions. As a form of affection, male students however received less tenderness but more play and joking. A boy was uncooperative with swimming exercises and told the teacher “I don’t want to do very hot.” The teacher jokes back, splashing water onto him, saying “Still hot? Cold already right? Now you better do.” proceeding to make the boy laugh and carry out his exercises. By playing with the boy, the teacher constructs a normalization of a lax environment making students feel more relaxed (Skinner & Belmont, 1993, pp.577). This helps change the form of resistance into a tool of managing students to carry out their tasks by sustaining their interest (Hall & Walsh, 2002, pp.189). As Singaporean classroom settings emphasizes on discipline (Moe.gov.sg, 2015) such resistance within classrooms would usually be met with punishment, which may alienate learning (Hall & Walsh, 2002, pp.189).
Encouragements were also observed when students were found to make mistakes in their swimming techniques. For example, teacher uses languages such as ‘try again’ and ‘good, maybe you can push your arms out more…’
Errors are rectified through positive language instead of negative comments such as “no you are doing this wrong” which may downplay children’s confidence levels. Nassaji & Wells (2000, cited in Hall & Walsh, 2002, pp.191) found that encouraging increased student participation in comparisons to assessing. Once again, it contrasts with classroom settings as school environments focuses on evaluations compared to encouragements (Moe.gov.sg, 2015).
Coaxing was also predominantly used and can be seen when a young student accidentally took in water and started coughing. As the student went into a stage of panic, she started crying. The teacher adopted a softer tone and used words like “it’s okay, I’m here” and “don’t worry”. Usage of words were accompanied by the motion of wiping the crying student’s tears away. Coaxing was utilized again when a boy dared not attempt swimming tasks. The teacher coaxes and assures the boy with “don’t worry, I will catch you” and pushes the boy with encouragements such as “try”. Coaxing is also rarely witnessed in classroom contexts. Additionally, it was observe that in instances coaxing was applied, it was commonly accompanied by affection or encouragement. Coaxing thus becomes a form of assurance that relieves insecurity, creating a sense of comfort and security so that students do not take lessons in fear.
Older children received the same amounts of encouragements but gained lesser affection and coaxing. For example, whilst giving out instructions towards younger children, the teacher will be inside the pool, less than half a meter away. For older children, however, the teacher was found to sit by the edge of the pool whilst giving instructions. A more authoritative tone of voice was used compared to a lighter tone used on younger students. This is similar to school institutions, as teachers are more likely practice stricter tones when children are older compared to younger children in kindergartens or childcare (Gerber, Whitebook & Weinstein, 2007, pp.329).
Despite the ease of location, sitting at a barbeque pit with a laptop felt extremely out of place. As a complete observer, I was especially self-conscious during the first week of observations as it was clear that I did not blend with the environment. I felt many occasional glances and made eye contact with the swimming teacher, making it feel like my cover was blown. However, none proceeded to ask me any questions as I assumed that my residency within the condominium helped prevented any enquiries – as I was technically free to utilise any areas within the condominium.
Based on previous experience and research done on interactions between teacher-student within classroom settings, this observation has proved to be useful in helping me identifying differences and similarities within a swimming pool and classroom environment. While classroom environments – especially in Singapore contexts – focus on discipline and evaluation strategies; swimming classes targets the cultivation of confidence, trust and a decrease of fear within the water. Findings are however limited as they can only be said for young age groups as the class observed held a young age group. Given more time, I would expand my research to diversify age groups, such as swimming class interactions with adults or teenagers as students. Furthermore, it would be interesting to explore the dynamics between students and teacher if the gender of the teacher differed.