The Use of Statistical Significance: A Commentary Related to Franks and Huck

Abstract

This paper focuses on the processes by which people become high school coaches. Occupational choice, professional socialization, and organizational socialization are examined, using qualitative data drawn from naturally occurring observations of coaches and informal discussions and in-depth interviews with them. Over 50% of the coaches had decided that they wanted to become a coach before entrance into college. The decision to become a coach was subjectively warranted by personal characteristics and experiences in sports, a devotion to sport, and a desire to work with young people. Youth sport coaching and student teaching which involved coaching constituted the only formal professional socialization that most of the coaches received. However, because almost all of the coaches participated in organized youth and/or high school athletics, they had a first-hand opportunity to observe their own coaches and acquire some informal images and impressions about the coaching occupation from them. Regardless of whether a neophyte began as an assistant or a head coach, technical aspects of the job and the occupation's culture were acquired by observing and listening to more experienced coaches. Through these experiences, collective understandings began to form, and the shared meanings about the occupational culture took shape. Reality shock for most novice coaches came in the form of understanding the importance the coaching culture assigns to long hours and hard work and to the realization that coaching does take an enormous amount of time. By the end of the first season, a symbolic transformation takes place and internalization of institutional expectations occurs as the neophyte begins to understand what coaching is all about.     

Becoming a high school coach: from playing sports to coaching

This paper focuses on the processes by which people become high school coaches. Occupational choice, professional socialization, and organizational socialization are examined, using qualitative data drawn from naturally occurring observations of coaches and informal discussions and in-depth interviews with them. Over 50% of the coaches had decided that they wanted to become a coach before entrance into college. The decision to become a coach was subjectively warranted by personal characteristics and experiences in sports, a devotion to sport, and a desire to work with young people. Youth sport coaching and student teaching which involved coaching constituted the only formal professional socialization that most of the coaches received. However, because almost all of the coaches participated in organized youth and/or high school athletics, they had a first-hand opportunity to observe their own coaches and acquire some informal images and impressions about the coaching occupation from them. Regardless of whether a neophyte began as an assistant or a head coach, technical aspects of the job and the occupation's culture were acquired by observing and listening to more experienced coaches. Through these experiences, collective understandings began to form, and the shared meanings about the occupational culture took shape. Reality shock for most novice coaches came in the form of understanding the importance the coaching culture assigns to long hours and hard work and to the realization that coaching does take an enormous amount of time. By the end of the first season, a symbolic transformation takes place and internalization of institutional expectations occurs as the neophyte begins to understand what coaching is all about.     

Teachers in school sports: between the fields of education and sport?

According to the cultural sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, gaining access to a social space or a position within a social space requires a specific capital. For teachers, this is normally indicated by a valid teaching certificate with relevant subject knowledge. However, when no qualified teachers are available, which is the case for the subject of school sports in Sweden, other assets gain recognition. Drawing on Bourdieu's conceptual framework, this paper examined the conditions for school sports in Sweden, and based on questionnaires answered by 109 teachers, explored the competencies, education and backgrounds teachers in upper secondary school sports possess. The paper address the question: what valuable resources are required to become a teacher of school sports and gain recognition as symbolic capital? The results show that while school sports in Sweden are carried out through a school subject and thus regulated by the government, it is influenced by both the fields of education and sport. Furthermore, the questionnaire results show that a majority of the teachers are employed as coaches instead of teachers and that less than half of them (45%) have a teacher education background, while 95% have a coaching education background. However, the results also show that teachers assessed their competencies for teaching school sports as high, especially with regard to competencies in specific sport skills. In conclusion, this paper shows how coaching education and experience in competitive sports are an important resource required to become a teacher in school sports and is thus recognized as symbolic capital. Therefore, school sports cannot be viewed as a legitimate part of the field of education but can be viewed as a part of the field of sport.     

Teacher and school outcomes of the Physical Education and Physical Literacy (PEPL) approach: a pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial of a multicomponent intervention to improve physical literacy in primary schools

ABSTRACT

Background: Physical education (PE) can be considered the centrepiece of school physical literacy (PL) programs, but ineffective lessons or an absence of PE across the public primary school system has raised concern. This study aimed to evaluate the implementation, acceptability and impact of teacher delivery of PE as part of a multicomponent Physical Education Physical Literacy (PEPL) approach, designed to improve classroom teachers’ provision of PE and PL opportunities within a cluster of suburban primary schools.

Method: Within a pragmatic randomised cluster-based trial with mixed methods, a PEPL coach was appointed to seven schools for one school year, with another seven schools continuing their usual practice as the control group. The coach’s role was to support and professionally develop classroom teachers to teach PE and to create opportunities that develop PL inside and outside the school environment. Focusing on Grade 5 teachers, the implementation, acceptability and teacher impact were assessed using direct observations of PE teaching style, a daily log kept by the coach and interviews with principals and teachers.

Results: The PEPL coach visited each school on average once a week for the 33 available weeks of the school year. There were several positive effects for teachers and schools. With no classroom teacher initially taking PE or classroom physical activity breaks, all seven teachers regularly introduced a PE lesson and activity breaks into their weekly schedule. PE class instructional time increased (intervention; +4.8 vs. control; ?3.5 min/lesson; β?=?1.69; SE?=?0.76; p?=?.05), with lessons of greater duration (intervention; +8.6 vs. control +1.9 min/lesson; β?=?1.14, SE?=?0.58, p?=?.05) and moderate and vigorous physical activity increased 5.7 min in intervention classes (p?<?.05). The PEPL coach introduced regular physical activities before and after school and linked the schools with a national sports coaching scheme. Interviews indicated that the PEPL approach was both valued and well-accepted by staff, that classroom teacher confidence to teach PE increased and that principals perceived a shift toward a school ‘culture’ of physical activity.

Conclusions: Well-received by classroom teachers and principals, the PEPL approach resulted in classroom teachers introducing both PE and activity breaks into their weekly teaching program and schools were linked to external sport coaching programs. These effects suggest that the PEPL approach enhanced opportunities for the development of physical literacy in this suburban primary school setting.

Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry identifier: ACTRN12615000066583.     

Undergraduate Physical Education Majors' Perceptions of the Roles of Teacher and Coach

Abstract

This investigation examined undergraduate physical education majors' perceptions of the roles of teacher and coach. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 80 physical education majors at a large urban university. Subjects were asked to rate the importance of twelve characteristics or abilities for teachers and for coaches. Results indicated that the subjects viewed the abilities needed for each of the roles as similar. Subjects were asked to indicate their job preference, and to estimate their ability to perform each of the roles. Gender was significantly related to role preference, with males indicating a greater preference for the coaching role. Students indicating a preference for teaching only have less experience in athletics than the coaching only and the teaching/coaching groups.

A significant relationship was found for selected background variables with estimated role performance. The variables most highly related to confidence in one's ability to teach were positive role models and skill in a wide range of activities, and those most related to estimated ability to coach were positive role models and very high skill in at least one activity.     

Self-efficacy,perceived training needs and coaching competences: The case of Portuguese handball

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyse handball coaches’ perceptions of self-efficacy and recognition of training needs related to coaching competences according to their coaching experience, coach certification level and academic education. Two hundred and seven Portuguese handball coaches answered questionnaires that included a scale of self-efficacy and another of recognition of training needs. Data analysis started with an exploratory factorial analysis with Maximum Likelihood Factoring and Oblimin rotation. From the factors obtained, a One-way ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc multiple comparisons were applied. Coaches’ self-efficacy revealed coaching competences related to: annual and multi-annual planning; planning and guiding training and competition; coaching methodology; implementation of sport development projects and coach education and meta-cognitive competences. Coaches’ recognition of training needs revealed four main areas: planning and guiding training and competition; multi-annual planning; management of sports careers and coaching education and leadership. Although an independent relationship between coaches’ perceptions of self-efficacy and training needs was confirmed, they perceived themselves as having competences and highlighted training needs in all areas. Coaches’ perceptions of self-efficacy were influenced by their coach certification level, academic education and coaching experience. The study suggests that sport specificity within the social culture in addition to the precise sporting domain of action influence the perceptions of coaches about their self-efficacy and training needs as related to coaching competences and, therefore, should be considered in the coach education curriculum.     

粤北贫困地区农村学校体育的现状及对策

为了改进粤北贫困地区农村学校体育现状,揭示该地区农村学校体育中存在的问题,采用文献资料法、调查访问法、数理统计法等研究方法,对当前广东省北部地区农村学校体育发展中存在的问题进行分析.结果表明:部分学校和家长体育观念陈旧;体育经费严重短缺;专职体育教师缺乏;学历层次低,中青年教师居多;科研能力差等是制约该地区学校体育发展的主要因素,并提出了加大检查力度、引入竞争机制、提高师资质量、有针对性开展课余训练的建议.     

An Examination of Personal/Situational Variables,Stress Appraisal,and Burnout in Collegiate Teacher-Coaches

Abstract

Following Smith's (1986) cognitive-affective model of stress and burnout in athletics, this investigation examined (a) the relationship of personal/situational variables (social support, gender, and years of experience) to stress appraisal and (b) the relationship of stress appraisal (perceived stress, coaching issues, and role conflict) to burnout. Male (n = 99) and female (n = 115) teacher-head basketball coaches from NCAA Division III and NAIA colleges completed established measures of burnout, perceived stress, teacher—coach role conflict, and social support and a measure of coaching issues developed for this study. Multivariate analyses supported the hypothesized relationships. Specifically, greater satisfaction with social support, less experience, and gender (females higher) were related to stress appraisal, and all stress appraisal variables were positively related to burnout. Contrary to previous studies, these teacher—coaches reported moderate to high levels of burnout.     

山东省农村中小学体育教师对实施体育新课标认识的现状调查

通过农村中小学体育教师对体育新课标认识的问卷调查，发现农村中小学和体育教师对新课标的认识和行动存在很大偏差，新课标理念已经深入人心，但学校体育地位有待加强。农村体育教师比较热爱本职工作，但教学目标重点不够明确；认为根据学生身心需求，设置特色课程、自选教材、保证体育课和课外活动的顺利开展，有助于新课标的顺利实施和中小学生体育锻炼习惯的形成。     

全国中小学体育教师数量结构发展概况分析

体育教师数量结构主要体现在体育教师数量规模、生师比、性别结构、年龄结构和区域结构等方面。采用文献资料法、数理统计法等研究方法,研究发现:体育教师数量规模不断扩大,已建成一支数量达48万余人、相对稳定的体育教师队伍,成为学校体育改革发展的重要支撑。但中小学体育教师数量城乡呈现不同的变化趋势;师生比大;全国以男体育教师为主要力量,女体育教师数量总体上升;小学体育教师缺额20余万,中学体育教师不缺反而多;体育教师配置总体偏低,结构逐步走向合理化、科学化,将为教育部和各级教育行政部门构建体育教师队伍提供可参考的依据。     

鄂西北贫困山区农村小学体育教育现状及对策研究——以国家级贫困县郧县农村小学为例

为了解鄂西北贫困山区农村小学体育教育现状,运用问卷调查法、实地访问调查法、分析法对郧县农村小学进行研究。研究发现除了"重智育、轻体育"和体育师资缺乏老问题之外,出现了新的现象:专业体育教师"被兼职";学校无具体操作的体育与健康课程实施方案;农村体育教师师资提升途径单一。提出加大农村学校教师队伍,同时补足农村学校体育教师,释放专业体育教师资源;联合多部门制订具有当地特色的、易操作的含有体育校本内容的体育与健康课程实施方案;开发农村学校体育教学的网络信息共享资源等对策。     

高校体育教师专业化培养体系的探索研究

教师发展已成为教师教育改革的重点方向,反映了当代教育的重要规律。用专业化的视角来审视我国体育教师教育改革,本身是一个对体育教师教育历史的扬弃和对先进的同类经验借鉴的过程。教师专业化发展是我国教师教育改革的一个重要取向,因此,建立合理的体育教师专业化培养体系是对于高等院校的教学改革将起到重要的作用。本文就普通高校体育教师专业化培养体系构建进行研究,提出教师专业化的培养体系应该包括预期职业社会化、继续职业社会化两个阶段;职前培养、入职培养和在职培养三个时期,同时,对高校体育教师的专业化成长过程提出了反思。     

Coaching athletes with disability: preconceptions and reality

It is now widely recognized that athletes with disability compete at an elite level which parallels that experienced by non-disabled athletes. The importance of quality coaching to develop an athlete’s full potential is similarly recognized. However, research in the area of coaching athletes with disability is still lacking compared to its counterpart in non-disabled sport. This research explored the holistic experience of coaching elite athletes with disability, and therefore encompassed not only the coaches’ preconceptions, but the rewards and challenges of their coaching experience. Semi-structured interviews were held with 12 coaches of elite athletes from sports including swimming, athletics, cycling, canoeing, triathlon, equestrian sport and wheelchair basketball. The results of the study identified that, although the coaches reported their experience as being overwhelmingly positive, they were also regularly confronted with difficulties not generally faced by coaches of non-disabled athletes.     

Experiences of teacher evaluation systems on high school physical education programs

Primary objective: Teacher evaluation is being revamped by policy-makers. The marginalized status of physical education has protected this subject area from reform for many decades, but in our current era of system-wide, data-based decision-making, physical education is no longer immune. Standardized and local testing, together with structured observation measures, are swiftly being mandated in the USA as required elements of teacher evaluation systems in an effort to improve school programs and student achievement. The purpose of this investigation was to document how this reform was initiated and the experiences of teachers, students and administrators, from three high school physical education programs, during initiation of this reform. Documenting how physical education programs respond to such reforms develops our understanding of top-down reform efforts and helps to identify conditions under which such reforms have the intended effect on physical education teachers and student learning in physical education.

Theoretical framework: Fullan’s three phases of school change has been used to analyze and guide school change efforts in several subject areas including physical education. The phases are initiation, implementation and institutionalization. This study is situated primarily within the first phase of school change, the initiation phase.

Methods and procedures: This study took place over a 21-month period in 3 suburban school districts in a northeast metropolitan area of the USA. Interviews with district physical education administrators, high school physical education teachers and students were conducted. Field notes of physical education classes, informal interviews and related artifacts including pre- and post-physical education assessments were collected. To ensure trustworthiness, several steps were taken including member checks, triangulation and peer review. The data were analyzed to find common themes and patterns using the constant comparative method.

Results: Several themes emerged: (1) changes in curriculum and assessment; (2) effect on administrators; (3) stakeholder apathy and (4) department collaboration.

Conclusion: Changes, although minor, did take place in the wake of this top-down teacher reform; however, additional research needs to be completed to determine whether or not these changes are meaningful or long lasting.     

Influence of occupational socialization on beginning teachers’ interpretation and delivery of sport education

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which newly qualified teachers employed the Sport Education (SE) model. In addition, we attempted to discover factors that led to and facilitated beginning teachers employing the model and those that did not. Participants were six American and four British beginning teachers. Data were collected by formally interviewing each teacher. Analysis procedures employed were analytic induction and constant comparison. Occupational socialization was the theoretical framework that guided data collection and analysis procedures. The results indicated that teachers interpreted and delivered SE in one of three different ways: full version, watered down version and cafeteria style. Moreover, the teachers’ acculturation, professional socialization and organizational socialization largely explained why teachers interpreted and delivered SE as they did.     

人本管理理念下的发展性体育教师评价研究

教师评价是高校管理的重要内容,是影响学校发展的一个重要因素。搞好教师评价是每一所学校在管理中要重点解决的问题。发展性教师评价的目的是促进教师的全面发展,其评价内容、标准等均要用以人为本的理念来制定。发展性体育教师评价应当以人为核心,根据体育教师工作的特殊性、复杂性,发掘出一种以人为重点的,带有感情色彩的发展性体育教师评价的管理模式来取代传统的纯理性模式。在评价的目标实施上,应当重视对情感、信念、价值标准等"软"因素的长期观察和培育,从而提高教师工作的凝聚力和竞争力。     

农村中小学体育教师职业倦怠成因与对策

体育教师的职业倦怠是客观存在的,而以农村中小学体育教师为甚,这对学校体育工作的开展以及全民素质的提高,对新课程改革的顺利推行都是非常不利的因素,本文从社会、学校以及体育教师三个层面对农村体育教师职业倦怠的成因与对策进行了分析和探讨。     

Socialization of Prospective Physical Education Teachers: The Story of New Blood

There has been much criticism of how teachers are prepared to teach and physical education has not been immune from this criticism. Despite numerous efforts to improve the content and focus of teacher education programmes there is still a paucity of programme evaluation research on the efficacy of these teacher education programmes (Metzler & Tjeerdsma, 1998). This paper reports on part of a yearlong investigation on the efficacy of a graduate physical education teacher education programme to prepare teachers. The focus of this aspect of the study was to identify what attracted graduate students to pursue a teaching career and what beliefs they held about physical education teachers and teaching. This was a qualitative case study and multiple data sources were gathered to address the research questions. The data sources included interviews, analyses of the students' autobiographical statements, and observations of their teaching, critical incidents from their teaching and peer responses to critical incidents. Findings indicate that this cohort of graduate students, many embarking on a major career change, was more committed to teaching and their love for teaching children than coaching. While their own success and love of sport was a factor in their career choice, their experiences in helping young people engage in and enjoy physical activity was more significant than their desire to gain a teaching credential. They believed their role as a physical education teacher was to be a physically active role model and help students appreciate the importance of physical activity, to contribute to the development of student self-esteem, especially those sometimes marginalized in physical education classes, and to plan and teach lessons that would motivate all students to participate in class. This work is grounded in the occupational socialization literature and the findings are discussed in terms of what we know about how to maximize the impact of teacher education programmes especially when students' beliefs may not be aligned with those of the programme.     

Elite cricket coach education: a Bourdieusian analysis

The social structures within coach education have been largely unexplored, undiscussed, and treated as unproblematic in contributing to coach learning, both in research and practice. The study used semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 11 elite cricket coaches to gather their perceptions of an elite coach education programme. In particular, this research attempted a more nuanced critical inquiry into the impact of culture on coach learning, habitus on knowledge production and the extent to which capital structures practice within the field of cricket coach education. Data analysis followed abductive reasoning, combining inductive thematic analyses of the data, with a deductive abstraction of these themes within a Bourdieusian framework to provide a level of explanation to the data. The findings present coach education as a complex social field in which coaches were active social beings in the (re)production of coaching knowledge. The culture of cricket was found to perpetuate a powerful doxic system that highlighted the tensions and conflict between an accepted model of coach education with a singular and prescribed body of knowledge and a strong underlying sporting culture and individuals hierarchically placed within it. This data further highlighted how coach education contributes to the (re)production of power within the field of cricket coaching.     

Lived experience and community sport coaching: A phenomenological investigation

Coaching in the participation domain is the act of coaching participants that are less intensely engaged in sport than performance orientated athletes. This form of coaching is a popular activity occurring in community settings such as schools or sport clubs, and it is often undertaken with a broad range of social and health outcomes in mind. The experiences and practices of the large army of ‘community coaches’¹ have been under-explored in comparison to those of elite performance coaches who focus on competitive success and dominate much academic research. This study focuses on the little known world of the community coach. Drawing on the philosophy of phenomenologists such as Husserl, and in particular the methodology of Van Manen, the study explored the lived experiences of a single case study community coach. Derived from semi-structured interviews and in keeping with Van Manen's methodology, findings are presented in a narrative format. The narrative describes the ‘lifeworld’ of the coach and seeks to identify the ‘essential features’ of community coaching in this case. Specifically, the narrative illustrates a dichotomy in the lifeworld of the coach; between a frenetic practical delivery mode visible in the public arena and a ‘hidden’ largely unknown, private world used predominantly for planning and organising. For this case study coach, the essence of community coaching lay in two complementary activities; planning and then delivering fun based activities that achieved social, health and sporting outcomes. Additionally, interacting with others, such as parents, carers and teachers was identified as an essential feature of this coach's experience.