Tool for Assessing Responsibility-Based Education (TARE): Instrument Development,Content Validity,and Inter-Rater Reliability

Numerous scholars have stressed the importance of personal and social responsibility in physical activity settings; however, there is a lack of instrumentation to study the implementation of responsibility-based teaching strategies. The development, content validity, and initial inter-rater reliability testing of the Tool for Assessing Responsibility-Based Education (TARE) are described here. Inter-rater agreement was calculated for paired observations focused on 2 different teachers delivering a total of 18 separate physical education lessons for students in grades 1 through 6. Findings indicate that the Tool for Assessing Responsibility-Based Education provides scores with adequate inter-rater reliability. The procedures employed in this study proved feasible and enable observers to characterize the implementation of responsibility-based teaching in physical education. The Tool for Assessing Responsibility-Based Education has numerous research and training applications relative to the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility model (Hellison, 2003 Hellison, D. 2003. Teaching responsibility through physical activity, 2nd, 15–38. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.  [Google Scholar]) and the national content standards for K–12 physical education, specifically Standard 5: Exhibits responsible personal and social behavior that respects self and others in physical activity settings (National Association for Sport and Physical Education, 2004 National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE). 2004. Moving into the future. National standards for physical education, 2nd, 39–43. Reston, VA: Author.  [Google Scholar]).     

Factorial Validity and Reliability of the Curricular Goals in Physical Education Questionnaire

This study aimed to examine the validity and reliability of an instrument designed to measure student perceptions of curricular goals in physical education, the Curricular Goals in Physical Education Questionnaire. Participants were 879 Finnish students from grades 7 to 9 (412 girls, 467 boys; mean age 13.81). An exploratory factor analysis was performed on Sample 1 (n = 287), revealing a four-factor solution and suggesting that factor structure be cross-validated with confirmatory factor analysis in Sample 2 (n = 592). Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated an acceptable fit and supported the four-factor model. Tests for gender invariance supported configural, metric, and scalar invariance. Analyses of factor mean differences indicated that girls attributed more importance than boys to physical education’s health-related goals, social and emotional learning, and motor skill development. This study confirmed the validity of the Curricular Goals in Physical Education Questionnaire to assess student perspectives on curricular goals across gender. In order to improve factor structure the authors suggest the addition of an item measuring skill acquisition to future versions of the instrument.     

The Differential Effect of Indirect Instruction in the Teaching of Sport Skills on Critical Thinking and Self-esteem of Early Adolescent Boys Placed at Risk

The purpose of this study was to examine the differential effect of sport skills instruction (SSI) and sport skills instruction plus initiative games (SSI +) on the critical thinking (CT) and self-esteem scores of early adolescent boys placed at risk. Students in the SSI + group ( n = 36) participated in initiative games classes in addition to their sport skills activities. Students in the SSI group (n = 44) participated in the sport skills activities only. Since the boys were divided by age (10-11 & 12-13), the influence of age on the dependent variables was also investigated. Classes taught by the initiative games teacher were student-centered while the sport skills classes were teacher-centered. Significant differences between teacher behaviors occurred in interaction patterns, instructional strategies, and management concerns. There were no differences on self-esteem scores. The results supported the addition of initiative games to SSI to foster CT with this group of participants.     

Book Reviews

This study examined the teaching of games via a tactical approach (also known as teaching games for understanding) from the theoretical perspective of social constructivism. A pilot study (of student teachers (STs) and pupils) informed the ‘main’ study which included collecting data on 49 STs, 58 cooperating teachers (CTs) and 1177 pupils. ST data were collected through videotaping (lessons), interviews and questionnaires; CT data through interviews and questionnaires; and pupil data through questionnaires. Data analysis techniques included systematic coding of teaching behaviours through computer software, using constant comparison to code open-ended question responses, and computing frequencies of Likert-scale question responses. T-tests were used to compare pre- and post-CT workshop data. Findings suggest that STs’ teaching of the tactical approach was in line with a social constructivist perspective, in part because lessons were student-centred. Overall student activity was 53% of all lessons taught, and STs facilitated pupil learning through several question and answer scenarios. Pupils wrote that they enjoyed playing games in what amounted to ‘authentic’ settings. Their responses also suggest that learning took place through ‘legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice’ and this facilitated pupil movement through the ‘zone of proximal development’. There were indications that pupil experiences were mediated by ST competence. CTs reported that an in-service workshop on the tactical approach and mentoring was beneficial and subsequent pairings with STs elicited positive feelings from both parties.     

Crisis Discourse in Physical Education and the Laugh of Michel Foucault

The central argument in this paper is that talk of crisis functions as an important shaper of contemporary understandings of Physical Education, and in this sense becomes a means for intervention by 'experts' into the form and function of the institutional practices and understandings that work to define the field; in other words, talk of crisis is properly understood as crisis discourse. This argument carries an important implication in that when we attempt to intervene via the activities of 'expertise' in our institutional practices, especially when we do so within crisis discourse, we need to recognise that notions of control over where this intervention will lead are little more than illusory. Implicit here is a recognition that the current field of Physical Education, as it has historically emerged, is not given to us outside of our own construction of it and, yet, that field, though contingent on our thought and actions, possesses a certain objective density which imposes itself on us. Recognising this, we need to commit ourselves to practices which seek to change this field, while at the same time understanding that our change-oriented practices, too, will be dense with effects we may not comprehend until they have betrayed us. This attitude was called by Michel de Certeau ' the laugh of Michel Foucault '. By examining this phenomenon qua an examination of the way multiple, often conflicting discourses found their way into the popularly identified crisis in Australian Physical Education during the first half of the 1990s, this paper focuses on how crisis discourse that was invoked strategically (particularly by the socially critical 'left') as a catalyst for change tended to produce conservative outcomes due to the way particular historical themes tended to colonise the discursive spaces created. This historical case raises important questions about the relations we presently take up within and toward Physical Education whenever we wish to speak its 'truths', and provides a standpoint from which both existing understandings of the field and future emergences of crisis discourse may analysed.     

A Sense of Connection: Toward Social Constructivist Physical Education

In social constructivist educational theory, the classroom is seen as a community of learners. According to social constructivists, learning occurs through peer interactions, student ownership of the curriculum and educational experiences that are authentic for students. The purpose of this study was to investigate how teachers used social constructivist strategies to encourage student construction of knowledge and meanings, and how students constructed knowledge and meanings in two middle school physical education classrooms. A qualitative naturalistic design was used to collect data over a five-month period with two experienced middle school physical education teachers. Data included 11 weeks of observational field notes and interviews with teachers and students. Data were analyzed using cross-case and inductive analysis. Findings indicated that the teachers' strategies created a learning environment in which students actively constructed knowledge and meanings by making connections to their peers and by connecting physical education to their lives, their communities, and the real world. Students shared information, assumed leadership and responsibility, and became decision-makers. By connecting to their peers, students felt supported in their learning. This study offers additional findings in support of social constructivist pedagogy in physical education that encourages individual growth and social awareness in communities of learners.     

Ethics,politics and bio-pedagogy in physical education teacher education: easing the tension between the self and the group

In this paper, we argue that reflecting upon our personal experiences and the origins of our ethical and political beliefs can be useful to see that, as much as society has a strong influence on us, each of us has the capacity to influence society. Also we suggest that there exist intimate links between personhood and pedagogy. As such, through the use of bio-pedagogical passages, we examine the process of coming to the realisation of the need to develop ethical principles that enable us to contribute to society in universally beneficial ways through our teaching. Moreover, we explain that, as they try to help prospective educators understand their future role in society, physical education teacher educators (PETEs) ought to start with clear ethical principles, not just merely technical (or even scientific) ones. These principles, in turn, can serve as a guide for all pedagogical (read political) actions, both inside and outside the classroom. We close this paper offering viable guidelines as to how this can be done.     

Targeting Mr average: participation,gender equity and school sport partnerships

The School Sport Partnership Programme (SSPP) is one strand of the national strategy for physical education and school sport in England, the physical education and school sport Club Links Strategy (PESSCL). The SSPP aims to make links between school physical education (PE) and out of school sports participation, and has a particular remit to raise the participation levels of several identified under-represented groups, of which girls and young women are one. National evaluations of the SSPP show that it is beginning to have positive impacts on young people's activity levels by increasing the range and provision of extra curricular activities (Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), 2003, 2004, 2005; Loughborough Partnership, 2005, 2006). This paper contributes to the developing picture of the phased implementation of the programme by providing qualitative insights into the work of one school sport partnership with a particular focus on gender equity. The paper explores the ways in which gender equity issues have been explicitly addressed within the ‘official texts’ of the SSPP; how these have shifted over time and how teachers are responding to and making sense of these in their daily practice. Using participation observation, interview and questionnaire data, the paper explores how the coordinators are addressing the challenge of increasing the participation of girls and young women. The paper draws on Walby's (2000) conceptualisation of different kinds of feminist praxis to highlight the limitations of the coordinators’ work. Two key themes from the data and their implications are addressed: the dominance of competitive sport practices and the PE professionals’ views of targeting as a strategy for increasing the participation of under-represented groups. The paper concludes that coordinators work within an equality or difference discourse with little evidence of the transformative praxis needed for the programme to be truly inclusive.     

Busy doing nothing? Physical education teachers' perceptions of young people's participation in leisure-sport

Within the substantial body of research examining the professional knowledge of physical education (PE) teachers one particular area remains relatively under-explored: namely, their understandings of young people's participation in leisure-sport and the implications of this, if any, for the practice of PE. There are grounds for thinking, however, that in this aspect of their professional knowledge PE teachers might not be as conversant with patterns of participation—among young people, generally, and their own pupils, in particular—as one might expect. In order to examine this tentative hypothesis, the present study involved focus groups with a total of 29 PE teachers at six secondary schools in England. A central finding of the study was that PE teachers' perceptions of their youngsters' leisure-sport lives tended to be characterized by a blend of myth and reality. Many teachers, for example, underestimated the levels of participation in leisure-sport both of their own pupils and the 15–16 years age group, generally. Nevertheless, the teachers' observations regarding what amounted to growing and diversifying sporting repertoires among their pupils were, to a greater or lesser degree, commensurate with the profiles reported by the pupils, and with wider trends associated with the changing lifestyles and preferences of young people. The paper concludes by briefly locating this study of professional knowledge within the sociology of knowledge, while observing that the content and form of PE for Year 11 pupils at the six schools in this study appeared to be informed by the common-sense, everyday knowledge of PE teachers rather than by evidence from national or local surveys of young people or studies of their own pupils.     

‘Studentship’ and ‘impression management’ in an advanced soccer coach education award

The purpose of this study was to investigate how coaches perceived and responded to the content knowledge and assessment processes that they were exposed to during an advanced level soccer coaching award programme. In-depth interviews were conducted with six coaches who had successfully completed the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) ‘A’ Licence in the UK. Using the concepts of the ‘dialectic of socialisation’, ‘studentship’ and Goffman's (1959) work on ‘the presentation of the self’ as analytical pegs, the discussion highlights how the coaches were far from ‘empty vessels’ waiting to be filled. Rather, the findings reveal the active role that the respondent coaches played in terms of accepting, rejecting and resisting the knowledge, beliefs and methods espoused by the coach educators. Finally, perceiving of coach learning as a negotiated and contested activity is discussed in terms of its implications for existing and future coach education provision.