SP7008 – Strategic Interactions in Performance Sport

Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate an advanced knowledge and critical understanding of the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and analytical skills necessary to negotiate the demands and dilemmas inherent in contemporary sports work.
2. Critically analyse the socio-pedagogical and personal challenges facing sport professionals tasked with leading, influencing, and supporting diverse networks of stakeholders in highly dynamic organisational contexts. 
3. Develop well-reasoned, judiciously considered strategies to navigate interactive professional practice dilemmas in relation to relevant real-world sport organisations, theory, and concepts.
4. Critically reflect on your analytical, emotional, and interactional competencies as a sport practitioner.
5. Demonstrate a critical, philosophical, and ethical approach to examining your own and others’ professional practice.

ASSESSMENT TASK: VIVA (100%)

The viva mirrors a typical reflective discussion that you might have with a critical friend or mentor who is supporting you to learn from and enhance your professional practice. 

During the viva discussion you will present a critical review of your professional practice experiences in sport (e.g., as a coach, performance analyst, strength and conditioner etc.). Your discussion will reflect upon, defend, and critically evaluate your strategic (inter)actions in pursuit of desirable professional practice goals. You should focus on using theory, concepts, and evidence from the module, as well as your wider reading, to critically examine the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and analytical skills necessary to negotiate the demands and dilemmas inherent in contemporary sports work.

THE REFLECTIVE SUMMARY (up to 1000 words)

To support your preparation for the viva, you will prepare a Reflective Summary of up to 1000 words. You should write in the first-person tense. A consistently formatted reference list should accompany the Reflective Summary, at the foot of the last page. While other notes will not be permitted during the viva, you will be able to refer to the Reflective Summary, which you submit via eLP by the submission deadline.

Critical incidents are times when (inter)actions or events in your practice experiences have impacted (either positively or negatively) your thoughts, feelings, interests, goals, motives, or (inter)actions. For instance, in the “passion and paranoia” paper by Potrac et al. (2017), the coach experiences several interactions with club officials, parents and players which could be considered “critical incidents” because they generated emotions such as guilt, joy and frustration, and because the coach’s subsequent coaching practice was shaped by these interactions. Your writing may cover any number of critical incidents, but consideration should be given to the richness and depth of discussion that can address the module learning outcomes in a 30-minute viva.

THE VIVA (30 minutes)

Students are typically expected to lead the viva discussion, which should critically review your professional practice experiences in relation to the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and analytical skills necessary to negotiate the demands and dilemmas inherent in contemporary sports work. 

You should focus on using theory, concepts, and evidence from the module, as well as your wider reading, to interpret and explain both your own strategic interactions and those of other people, as well as their complex situated interrelationships. Excellent work at this level will critically explore the cultural, organisational, socio-pedagogical, and personal influences on professional practice. 

During your viva, you may be prompted by your tutor to a). explain how theory/concepts from the module have helped you to make sense of your practice experiences; b). illustrate how you have enacted theory/concepts in the “real world”; c). be critical or demonstrate your appreciation of alternative perspectives or courses of action; d). clarify or elaborate upon the implications of your (inter)actions, as well as those of others, both for yourself and other stakeholders; e). critically consider the cultural, organisational, socio-pedagogical, and personal challenges of enacting practice; and f). justify relevant action points to enhance future practice.

MARKING CRITERIA 

• Critically evaluates the cultural, organisational, socio-pedagogical, and personal challenges inherent in professional practice situations.
• Vividly illustrates examples of more and less productive (inter)actions from practice, of their own and of others, drawing upon relevant explanatory concepts/theory, highlighting implications for themself and a range of relevant stakeholders.
• Explains critically considered action points to enhance strategic (inter)action in future practice.
• Communicates information in a coherent and logical manner, utilising a broad range of pertinent and accurately described research evidence, concepts, and theory to critically interrogate and support the points discussed.