Integrating complexity thinking with teacher education practices: a collective yet unpredictable endeavour in physical education?

While complexity thinking features increasingly in the education and physical education literature, there remains a paucity of research presenting evidence of the influence that complexity principles have on learning. We further advocate that more work with complexity thinking is required to investigate how teacher educators engage with key complexity principles in their work with students and teachers. Accordingly, in this paper we investigate how one group of teacher educators, the Developmental Physical Education Group (DPEG), have grappled to develop their own knowledge of complexity thinking while concurrently attempting to support students and teachers in their efforts to apply these principles within local schools. Employing methodology from self-study, the paper provides data from two focus group interviews carried out in 2012 and 2014 in which six members of the DPEG discuss how they wrestled to understand, share and support the application of complexity thinking in practical contexts. In particular, the paper explores how the group members worked with complexity principles such as self-organisation, emergence and ‘the edge of chaos’ to develop innovative pedagogical strategies with children, students and teachers. Findings from the study reveal how all members of the DPEG, in their initial engagement with complexity principles, raised questions about their personal approaches to the teaching and learning process but also struggled to use the principles to inform their practice. Two years later, however, as the group’s confidence with complexity thinking grew, the members had created a shared understanding and language around complexity thinking, were more comfortable debating issues around complexity and also describing how key principles had impacted upon their pedagogical strategies in practical settings.     

Foundations of Science Literacy: Efficacy of a Preschool Professional Development Program in Science on Classroom Instruction,Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge,and Children’s Observations and Predictions

Young children are able to benefit from early science teaching but many preschool teachers have not had opportunities to deepen their own understanding of science or to develop their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in relation to specific science topics and concepts. This study presents the results of efficacy research on Foundations of Science Literacy (FSL), a comprehensive professional development program designed to support teachers’ knowledge of early childhood science; their PCK around 2 physical science topics (water, and balls and ramps); and their abilities to plan, facilitate, and assess young children’s learning during inquiry-based science explorations. Research Findings: In a randomized trial with 142 preschool teachers and 1,004 4-year-old children, FSL teachers demonstrated significantly higher quality science teaching in general and greater PCK in the 2 physical science topics than did teachers in comparison classrooms. Furthermore, children in FSL classrooms performed significantly better than children in comparison classrooms on tasks involving floating and sinking, and an instrumental variable analysis suggests that the quality of classroom science instruction mediated the relationship between teacher participation in FSL and student outcomes. Practice or Policy: Findings support the use of comprehensive early science professional development programs designed to bolster teacher knowledge and PCK.     

General Media Works

Ida Oswald and Susanne Wilson, This Bag Is Not A Toy: A Handbook for The Use of Videorecording in Education For the Professions (New York: Council on Social Work Education, 1972 – (price not known), paper.

Thomas R. Giblin (ed.) Popular Media and the Teaching of English (Pacific Palisades, Calif.: Goodyear Publishing Co., 1972 – $3.95, paper)

Charles Boeckman's And the Beat Goes On: A Survey of Pop Music in America (Washington: Luce, with distribution by David McKay of New York, 1972 – $5.95)

Donald R. Gordon's The New Literacy (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971 – $10.00/2.75/10.00 (hard, paper, microfiche editions)

Jess Ritter and Grover Lewis (eds.) Focus/Media (San Francisco: Chandler, 1972 – $5.00, paper)

Otto Lerbringer (of Boston University's School of Public Communication), Designs for Persuasive Communication (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972 – $8.95/4.95)     

The Nature of Verbal and Non-Verbal Abilities

This study examined the link between learning style and Jungian psychological type. A large sample of ninth-grade students was administered the Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Inventory, the Renzulli-Smith Learning Style Inventory, and the Murphy-Meisgeier Type Indicator for Children (MMTIC). Canonical correlation procedures indicated the presence of two bipolar learning preferences characterized by a reflective learner-active learner (introversion-extraversion) dimension and a structured/motivated-unstructured/casual (judging-perception) dimension. It is suggested that the MMTIC’s Extraversion-Introversion and Judging-Perception scales may be alternatively conceptualized as useful measures of learning style. Educational implications and recommendations are discussed.     

Connecting policy aspirations with principled progress? An analysis of current physical education challenges in Scotland

Various recent politically driven policy interventions have outlined the increased importance of school physical education programmes as a contributor towards realising active lifelong learning targets. This paper explains the origins of the new policy emphasis and describes some of the opportunities which now exist for reviewing many curriculum orientation and fragmentation concerns. However, in reviewing the possibilities for policy aspirations to achieve transformative educational benefits, the paper also outlines how a commitment towards principled progress and educational realignment could founder on the rock of its own ambition unless various critical conceptual questions and associated pedagogical issues are thoroughly addressed. Following analysis of the barriers to progress that exist, the encouraging signs of a more coherent future are discussed. This occurs through analysing the progress of developmental-based programmes, which aim to improve the quality and authenticity of pupils’ learning experiences in physical education, and by analysis of the new professional development opportunities that are available to teachers.