Using Appreciative Inquiry to explore Australian football coaches' experience with game sense coaching

This paper reports on a project framed as a strengths-based case study in the field of sport coaching. The aim of this research was twofold. First, the project trialled. Appreciate Inquiry (AI) for sport pedagogy research and explain how AI can be used in sport coaching research. Second, using an appreciative perspective, the aim of the research was to find greater meaning in the two coaches' practice to explain the forces driving the shaping and the implementation of Game Sense (GS) coaching. This is particularly pertinent given strong advocacy for GS as a preferred sport pedagogy but a slow deployment in the field of sport coaching in Australia. Through the story of experience that emerged a reculturing of coaching practice was revealed and the elements that sustained GS coaching highlighted. This research improves understanding of decisions made by coaches to change practice and which are sustained because they bring ‘life’ to the coach. AI has not been used previously to case study coaching practice generally and GS coaching in Australian football specifically. Further research examining the long-term and accumulated benefits of AI for qualitative sport coaching research is proposed, as is further investigation of coaches' experience with GS coaching across a broad range of sports from entry and grassroots through to elite level sport.     

Questioning the no-touch discourse in physical education from a children's rights perspective

In this paper we question the rationality of ‘no-touch policies’ and offer an alternative approach to the matter of physical contact between teachers and students in the context of physical education (PE) in schools. Earlier research has drawn attention to how a discourse of child protection is starting to affect how physical contact is viewed in PE practice. The avoidance of intergenerational touch is increasingly justified by referring to the children's rights agenda. Here, arguments for ‘no-touching’ are linked to children's right to be protected from harm. In the paper we explore a children's rights-based viewpoint that supports the use of and need for physical contact in PE teaching by developing theoretical and practice-based arguments. An alternative children's rights perspective, based on rights theorising, is used to formulate the theoretical argument. Interviews with 16 PE teachers about their experiences of physical contact in their pedagogical work form the practice-based arguments. The two arguments provide a way of looking at intergenerational touch in education from the vantage point of children's human right to develop to their full potential, which can support a need for physical touch in pedagogical situations.     

Examining student-designed games through Suits' theory of games

This paper documents how a unit of student-designed games can create a more meaningful version of physical education (PE) for disengaged students, a version that enhances the educational legitimacy of the subject matter by affording it worth in and of itself rather than being justified for other, extrinsic or instrumental reasons. Furthermore, it seeks to develop new knowledge relating to the conduct of game instruction within PE, by using Suits' theory of games. Drawing on Suits' theory, we develop a conceptual model that is intended to represent the hierarchical processes that occur in gameplay through student-designed games. This model is then tested via examination of the experiences of a cohort of teachers and their year 10 students from a mixed secondary school in the greater London area. From our discussions with the students, it is argued that the key focus of the games that these students were used to playing was the need to ‘play the game well’. By contrast, we suggest that it is possible to provide more meaningful experiences to students if a more philosophically driven and less efficiency-driven approach to games is taken, following Suits' lead more closely. By exploring the loop between and around lusory means, lusory goals and constitutive rules (the aspects of Suits' theory that have been shown to represent student-designed games), students engage with a more meaningful games experience than simply playing the game well. This ‘new’ approach to games may offer counterbalance to the ideological tendencies now emphasized in countries and contexts that celebrate instrumental outcomes of performative PE and sport rather than affording worth in and of itself to the curriculum’s subject matter.     

Re-engaging disengaged pupils in physical education: an appreciative inquiry perspective

Many children and young people enjoy physical education (PE), yet many do not, and subsequently become disengaged from PE. Previous research that has explored pupil disengagement from PE has focused on what teachers should do to re-engage their pupils, or has encouraged dis-engaged pupils to create a curriculum that they perceive to be socially and culturally relevant. While this research is extremely important, it does not highlight enough what teachers bring to the teaching and learning process. An alternative approach to understanding (dis)engagement in PE is to start by asking both teachers and pupils: what is currently working, why is it working, and what could be in the future? This ‘appreciative inquiry’ (AI) approach is underpinned by the belief that everyone and everything has strengths that can be developed, and that those strengths should be the starting point for change. Consequently, in establishing the use of AI as an important means of understanding and potentially enhancing PE pedagogy, this research sought to understand the successful teaching strategies developed by PE teachers to re-engage disengaged pupils. Importantly, in recognising the value of understanding pupil experiences we also explored and shared the success stories of the ‘re-engaged’ pupils. Finally, in extending the research in this area, we examined the impact that teacher engagement in the AI process had on their professional learning. As the teachers engaged in the AI process, they discussed, listened to (each other and their pupils), reflected and shared their success stories. This, in turn, appears to have encouraged them to re-articulate and re-enact their practice and learning within the context of a more positive future. They designed (and in some cases, co-design with their pupils) meaningful and empowering PE programmes for their ‘disengaged’ pupils and have subsequently made a commitment to future professional learning and inquiry.     

From PE experiences to PE teaching practices? Insights from Scottish primary teachers' experiences of PE,teacher education,school entry and professional development

Morgan and Hansen suggest that further research is needed to explore how non-specialist primary teachers approach and teach physical education (PE) based on their personal school PE backgrounds, teacher education experiences and ongoing professional development. This paper adopts Lawson's socialisation model, a theoretical framework subsequently used by many other researchers, to explore how primary teachers' experiences in various contexts ‘shape [their] knowledge and beliefs about the purpose of physical education, its content and teaching approaches’. Examining teachers' beliefs and attitudes towards PE is arguably important as it highlights how they approach the profession and enact particular teaching practices. We examine the views of 327 non-specialist primary teachers who participated in a postgraduate certificate in primary PE run by the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. This article reports findings from the baseline data of our longitudinal research—arguably crucial in ascertaining teachers' starting point and useful in monitoring the programme's impact. Our findings suggest the prevalence of negative PE experience during primary and secondary years, which we considered part of Lawson's ‘acculturation’ phase. Experiences during initial teacher education (ITE) or ‘professional socialisation’ showed that teachers were only given a basic starting point, which was inadequate for teaching PE effectively. The initial teaching experience or ‘organisational socialisation’ stage also presented major challenges for teachers who endeavoured to apply knowledge and skills acquired during ‘professional socialisation’. We suggest that how teachers' conceptions about PE are formulated and the accounts of challenges they encountered upon school entry are vital for the design and delivery of effective ITE and PE-CPD. Additionally, these findings underpin the need for more critical and reflective learning experiences at all levels of PE.     

Teaching within a Curricular Zone of Safety: School Culture and the Situated Nature of Student Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to continue the theoretical delineation of the nature of pedagogical content knowledge. Two student teachers were observed teaching an elementary games and high school sport unit and interviewed in depth about their lessons, biography, pedagogical content knowledge, and aspects of the school culture. Data were analyzed by constant comparison and analytic induction. Trustworthiness was established through member checks and triangulation. In the high school, both student teachers tried to use extending and refining tasks, as they had in the elementary school. But, when confronted with aspects of the high school culture, both retreated to a curricular zone of safety relying on application tasks. This zone, the defining aspect of their pedagogical content knowledge of teaching sports, emerged from and was constituted by the relations among goals, capabilities, teaching, inadequate pedagogical content knowledge, and aspects of the school culture. It is argued that situated and cultural orientations contribute to psychological orientations currently used to delineate pedagogical content knowledge. A curricular zone of safety is offered as a concept that helped account for the emergence and persistence of particular ways of knowing content.     

Knowing in primary physical education in the UK: negotiating movement culture

This paper aims to understand how pupils and teachers actions-in-context constitute being-a-pupil and being-a-teacher within a primary school physical education (PE) movement culture. Dewey and Bentley's theory of transaction, which views organism-in-environment-as-a-whole, enables the researcher to explore how actions-in-ongoing activities constitute and negotiate PE movement culture. Video footage from seven primary school PE lessons from a school in the West Midlands in the UK was analysed by focusing upon the ends-in-view of actions as they appeared through the educational content (what) and pedagogy (how) of the recorded PE experiences. Findings indicated that the movement culture within the school was a monoculture of looks-like-sport characterised by the privileging of the functional coordination of cooperative action. Three themes of pupils' and teachers' negotiation of the movement culture emerged U-turning, Knowing the game and Moving into and out of games. This movement culture required teachers to ensure pupils looked busy and reproduced cooperative looks-like-sport actions. In fulfilling this role, they struggled to negotiate between their knowledge of sport-for-real and directing pupils towards educational ends-in-view within games activities. Simply being good at sports was not a prerequisite for pupils' success in this movement culture. In order to re-actualise their knowledge of sport, pupils were required to negotiate the teacher's ‘how’ and ‘what’ by exploring what constituted cooperative actions within the spatial and social dimensions of the activities they were set. These findings suggest that if PE is to be more than just the reproduction of codified sport, careful adjustment and consideration of ends-in-view is of great importance. Without regard for the latter there is potential to create significant complexity for both teachers and pupils beyond that required by learning and performing sport.     

师生关系对体育教学影响的调查与分析

就中学体育教学中师生关系的现状,对莆田市8所中学1000名学生和50名体育教师进行调查研究。结果表 明体育教学中师生关系总体评价较好,师生关系是影响学生体育课的兴趣和积极性的重要原因,在影响师生关系因素 和体育教师的角色期望上体育教师和学生存在显著差异,更新教师的教育观念是改善师生关系的关键。     

Legitimate,expert and referent power in physical education

Physical Education (PE) in school aims to help pupils experience the joy of movement through various forms of physical activity and to acquire a positive attitude to physical activity and exercise. The teacher's task is to mediate the joy of movement and instil a positive attitude to exercise in the pupils. Drawing on the methodology of van Manen [(2002). Writing in the dark: Phenomenological studies in interpretic inquiry. London: The Althouse Press], this article takes a closer look at mediating the joy of movement and conveying attitudes through legitimate, expert and referent power [French, J. R. P., & Raven, B. (1959). The bases of social power. In D. Cartwright (Ed.), Studies in social power (pp. 150–167). Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan] as narrated by an experienced Norwegian PE teacher. The teacher's narrative is interpreted within a framework where these typologies of power refer to the teacher's formal position in PE classes and the teacher's athletic skills and teaching qualities. The teacher's narrative indicates that legitimate, expert and referent power influence pupils’ views on PE, attitudes and effort in class. Referent power provides the potential to instil attitudes in the pupils, even to the point of getting them to enjoy taking exercise to the limit. It even embraces teachers’ potential to influence pupils by displaying their own active lifestyle, which goes beyond teaching itself. However, some problematic and unresolved issues are pointed out within this approach. A didactic approach, where the teachers use their own lifestyle as a pedagogical tool, may prompt a negative rather than a positive reaction from pupils, because they may be (mis)construed as being too eager and physically active to the extreme. Referent power depends on establishing credibility with the pupils, and conveying attitudes through referent power implies a didactic instability. On the other hand, the approach may be a good strategy for achieving what teachers should be trying to achieve, which is to convey and instil the joy of movement and a positive attitude to physical exercise in the pupils.     

初探培养学生执行《体育(与健康)课程标准》的能力

研究与新课程标准相适应的教学模式,教学手段和更新教学方法,做到学术性与师范性相结合,重视学生能力的培养,优化教学内容,优选教学组织形式,强调运动体验,体现运动技能的领域目标,让大部分学生掌握职业训练"双重目标"的各项技能动作,学会科学锻炼身体的方法,是本文的研究方向,并进行了一年的实验教学。     

Physical education teacher education in Norway: the perceptions of student teachers

A feature of academic literature on physical education teacher education (PETE) is the expectation that it can and should impact upon student teachers' beliefs and prospective practices in some significant ways. This is despite research over the last 20 years or more alluding to the apparent failure of PETE to ‘shake or stir’ (Evans et al., 1996) what might be termed the (typically conservative and conventional) pre-dispositions of student and early career PE teachers. In this article, we examine the perceptions of PE student teachers in Norway in order to ascertain just what it is that makes them so resistant to change and, for that matter, such infertile ground for sowing the seeds of reflexivity. The study involved semi-structured interviews with 41 PE student teachers from the three routes through teacher education available at Nord University College (Nord UC). Among the main themes identified in the data were the PE students' perceptions of: the purposes (and ostensible benefits) of school PE and PETE as well as the nature of PETE itself (including subsidiary themes of sporting and teaching skills, other ‘competencies’, school placements, mentoring and mentors, PETEs' (physical education teacher educators) teaching styles and the students teachers' relationships with the PETEs). The article concludes that, as far as the students at Nord UC were concerned, the significance of PETE revolved around the programme's efficacy in developing the sporting skills and teaching techniques they viewed as central to their preparation for teaching. The minimal impact of the more theoretical aspects of PETE appeared to be partly attributable to the students' perceptions of PE as synonymous with sport in schools and partly to their particularly pragmatic orientations towards PETE. In this vein, the students viewed experience as the most important, most legitimate ‘evidence’ on which to base their beliefs and practices and were resistant to the ‘theory’ of teacher education, rationalising their tendencies to select the evidence that suited them.     

Sport Education as a pedagogical application for ethical development in physical education and youth sport

The purpose of this paper is to consider four pedagogical applications within the Sport Education model to examine the ways in which a young person can become a literate sports person and develop ethical behaviour through engagement in physical education and youth sport. Through a systematic review of the Sport Education research literature we present evidence to suggest that although notions such as inclusion, responsibility and ownership, personal and social development and social justice are part of the architecture of this pedagogical model, our findings show that rather than simply being caught, ethical conduct must be taught. Consequently, in the final part of the paper, we present four pedagogical applications within Sport Education that physical education teachers as well as youth sport practitioners and administrators may find useful to promote ethical development: (1) ethical contracts; (2) sports panels; (3) modified games; and (4) awards and rewards.     

Emotional connections and caring: ethical teachers of physical education

The field of physical education (PE), as it exists in teacher education, is dynamic as ways of preparing teachers to meet the needs of young people in contemporary times change. Such endeavours are underpinned by concerns about school-based PE, the alienation of students from PE, and responsibility for producing healthy students. Concerns also exist around a perceived propensity amongst pre-service teachers of PE to steadfastly retain initial beliefs and values and resist more socially critical perspectives and pedagogies. An engagement with socially critical discourses in teacher education is critical if PE is to be a site of inclusion rather than marginalisation and exclusion. This paper examines how a group of pre-service teachers of PE, who experienced a teacher education programme, at an Australian university, that was infused with strong social justice discourses constituted subjectivities and pedagogical practices. We explore how, emotional connectivity, and an ‘ethic of care’, instil broadened perspectives and engagement with socially critical pedagogical practices. Whilst emotions and caring are generally perceived as marginal attributes in the field of PE, we suggest that the affective domain is significant to effective pedagogical practices, subjectivities of teachers of PE and the reality of teaching. We seek to trouble ‘truths’ disseminated by hegemonic discourses that construct PE teaching as a technical undertaking, founded on disciplinary knowledge and curricular expertise. We close by providing possibilities for others working with PE pre-service teachers around foregrounding affective dimensions of pedagogical practices and teacher subjectivities and propose that these possibilities might address calls for a new type of PE teacher.     

Educating Students for a Lifetime of Physical Activity: Enhancing Mindfulness,Motivation, and Meaning

For many years, pedagogical scholars and physical education (PE) teachers have worked to enhance effective teaching and learning environments. Yet for some children, youth, and young adults, many of the benefits associated with a physically active lifestyle remain elusive. Enhancing programming and performance to meet physical activity goals may require moving programs beyond “effective.” It will require teachers and program leaders to focus programmatic attention on strategies to actually increase students’ out-of-class physical activity behavior. Transformative PE provides physical activity content within a nurturing and motivating environment that can change students’ lives. It focuses on PE students’ role in cognitive decision making, self-motivation, and their search for personal meaning that can add connection and relevance to physical activities. In this SHAPE America – Society of Health and Physical Educators Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport Lecture, I have synthesized the research on these topics to emphasize useful findings applicable to teachers’ everyday planning and teaching. Using sport, physical activity, dance, and adventure activities as the means to an end for personal and social growth, we can meet our commitment to effective standards-based education while preparing students for a lifetime of physical activity.     

The involvement of external agencies in extra-curricular physical education: reinforcing or challenging gender and ability inequities?

Within the UK and internationally, schools are increasingly being encouraged to call on external agencies and draw on the services of individuals, including sport coaches, to ‘help teach or lead sports within the school setting and out of school time’. This trend arises from and has contributed to a changing policy landscape and relations that characterise ‘physical education and school sport’ (PESS) and the growing use of the terminology of ‘PESS’. Previous research has highlighted that neither PESS considered broadly as a policy space, nor specific initiatives centring on ‘partnership-based’ development of physical education (PE) and/or sport in schools, can be assumed to facilitate greater equity in provision for young people. This study reports on research that has sought to build on past studies revealing gender and ability inequities amidst PESS developments. The research was designed as a small-scale case study investigation to critically explore the equity-related messages being conveyed in and through the hidden curriculum in a context of coaches’ involvement in extra-curricular provision. Utilising observations and interviews with coaches and PE teachers, data collection focused on ways in which ideas of ability, masculinity and femininity were being constructed and reproduced in and through coach's pedagogy, and sought insight into the prospective impact of the particular constructions on girls’ and boys’ involvement in extra-curricular PE. Analysis revealed that the hidden curriculum expressed in and through the organisation of extra-curricular PE and coaches’ pedagogical practices in this context can be seen as reaffirming limited conceptions of ability in PE and gender inequity in relation to girls’ and boys’ respective participation opportunities. Discussion critically addresses the relationship between policy and pedagogy in PESS in pursuing apparently ongoing tendencies for long-standing inequities to be reproduced in and through extra-curricular provision.     

中学体育教学中的"拔河现象"

中学体育教学中的“拔河现象”是指在体育教学中师生间的一种矛盾现象。它的产生主要有大纲、教材对体育教学的制约;师生对体育教学所追求的目标的差距;体育教学改革的力度不大等原因。因而解决“拔河现象”必须要在体育教学中牢固树立以人为本的思想,充分发挥学生在体育教学中的主体作用;体育教学大纲、教材宜多纲多本;要更新观念,改变教法,加大体育教学改革的力度;初中体育教学游戏化,高中体育教学选项化,是一种可供选择的体育教学模式。     

体育教师教学活动风险认知的质性研究及测量方法

体育教师教学活动是学校体育工作的重要组成部分,而体育教师教学活动的风险行为与体育教师教学活动风险认知有关。通过质性研究总结出体育教师教学活动风险认知的特征为持续性、可控性、知识性、熟悉性、一般恐惧性、严重性、忧虑性和灾难性;体育教师教学活动风险认知的影响因素为教学经验、归因、收益认知、风险沟通、学生特点和教学内容,并探讨基于心理测量范式的体育教师教学活动风险认知测量方法。研究结果对于体育教师安全地开展教学活动和有效预防学校体育活动风险事件发生有一定的现实意义。     

Factors influencing pre-service teachers' perception of teaching games for understanding: a constructivist perspective

This study aims to examine the factors influencing pre-service Physical Education (PE) teachers’ perception of a specific constructivist approach — Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) in Hong Kong. By adopting a qualitative approach, 20 pre-service PE teachers were recruited for individual semi-structured interviews. Deductive data analysis was utilised to identify unique themes with broad aspects of influencing factors. Using Piaget's cognitive constructivism and Vygotsky's social constructivism as the theoretical frameworks, individual factors such as game knowledge, teacher beliefs, learning and teaching experience and social factors including government policy, teacher support and professional culture were identified as key influences in pre-service teachers’ perception of TGfU. Furthermore, individual and social factors interplay with each other. In conclusion, cognitive and social constructivism was identified as a useful theoretical framework for illustrating and analysing the factors influencing pre-service teachers’ perception of TGfU.