Tsangaridou (2005, pp. 24-55), argued that, although several studies have been conducted in PE describing programmes or teaching behaviours of effective or ineffective teachers, only a small body of literature exists on how classroom teachers implement PE programmes or what teaching behaviour classroom teachers exhibit while teaching PE.
Results from a descriptive analysis of non-specialist elementary PE teachers (Faucette, McKenzie & Patterson, 1990) indicated that students were usually involved in an organized group activity, sometimes in free play and they had few opportunities to engage in skill practice or gymnastics. Results also indicated that teachers who were more physically active provided more time for physical fitness in their classes and a higher
23 quality PE lesson (McKenzie, LaMaster, Sallis & Marshall, 1999). In a more recent study, Faucette, Nugent, Sallis & McKenzie (2002) concluded that an intensive two-year supportive PD programme for in-service classroom teachers could substantially improve the quality of teachers’ classroom PE programmes. It is an old problem in many countries, but PE is still not acknowledged as having full academic status (Siedentop & Tannehill, 2000). Williams (1951; as cited in Siedentop, 2002b), asserted that physical experience is physical in its outward manifestation but also emotional, social and moral, in its relationships and meanings. The general requirement is to enhance primary school teachers’ knowledge and abilities in teaching PE (Tsagarindou, 2005). To obtain empowerment, autonomy and good teaching, as stated by several authors (Mcdonald &
Tinning, 2003; Calderhead, 1996; Tsangaridou & Siedentop, 1995; Tsangaridou &
O'Sullivan, 1997), teachers should be able to reflect on their teaching. Schön (1983) differentiated between two types of reflection: reflection in action (taking place during the phase of instruction) and reflection on action (taking place after the instruction).
Numerous results (Tsagarindou, 2005; Tsangaridou & O’Sullivan, 1994; Rovegno, 1992), revealed that teachers considered reflection a necessity in teaching. Teacher education and staff development programmes need to create opportunities for teachers not only to acquire new knowledge but also to clarify their own professional theories and learn form them.
Through a reflective and empowering process, STs that are educationally sound should be reinforced while others that are inappropriate should be challenged and reconstructed (Tasangaridou & O’Sullivan, 2003). The interest was to understand the relationship between teachers beliefs and an individual’s change process and where in the sequence of the teacher change process beliefs and behaviours have had a positive impact on PE programmes. Bechtel and O’Sullivan (2006) suggested some challenges that must be addressed during the planning and implementation of more-effective PD programmes, and highlighted how complex this quality process is, as there are many factors that need to be evaluated. In this study, the challenge was to start from the needs of teachers and the contexts of their teaching lives. The author wanted to work with them stimulating their thinking and reflecting on what and why they were taught PE as they were teaching. They were assisted to shift their thinking and their practices to ensure better quality PE teaching.
Wood & Bennett (2000), in other studies, indicated the need for high quality PD courses which support the process of change in teachers’ thinking and practice at different career
24 points, with a recognition that teaching is a difficult, complex and multi-faced process. Our course stimulated improvement in the quality of reflective consideration which is seen as a necessary condition for sustained change and development to take place (Wood & Bennett, 2000). Sweeney (2003) highlighted that some of the most promising examples in PDs are innovative structures that link schools and universities (Sweeney, 2003; Putnam & Borko, 2000; McLaughlin & Talbert, 1993). The importance of well-designed formal teacher preparation/PD programmes (for both pre-service and in-service classroom teachers) cannot be overrated. An analysis of the conceptual underpinnings of various teacher education programmes by Tatto (1999) suggests that in programmes where teaching was conceived, for the most part, as an externally regulated profession, teachers had few opportunities to understand, reflect on or align their practice in response to student learning needs. In a programme where teachers were seen as professional individuals capable of making informed instructional choices, teachers had more opportunities to acquire the knowledge and skills to adjust instruction to the learner’s diverse needs.
Sweeney (2003) recognized that due to the professional nature of teaching it is necessary to include sound content knowledge, know how to effectively use appropriate pedagogical techniques and contemporary education theories. Following recommendations of an increasing number of recent educational research reports (Feldhusen, Ball, Wood, Dixon &
Larkin, 1998; White, 1998; Ethell & McMeniman, 2000), it is also useful to analyze teacher behaviours videotaped in the gym. Videotaped lessons may be also used as a professional training method and included in teacher preparation courses to instigate teachers’ reflections and for the analysis of their own personal practice theories.
The involvement of university based academics in PD is a good vehicle for contributing to sound scholarship on PD and on the interaction of theory and practice in professional classroom teaching (Sweeney, 2003). Focusing on the analysis of teachers’ STs may help make considerable contributions to understanding what constitutes PD in the profession of teaching and what renders teachers more confident, conscious and reflective about the nature and importance of their profession. We cannot generalize and include nations with different political systems and cultures (Richardson & Placier, 2001, pp. 905-947) and we need more systematic studies. The influence of additional variables on STs like national curricula, geographical culture, the influence of teachers’ beliefs and backgrounds, social
25 environment, the political context and career stages all need to be analyzed. Considering the hard challenge of the “agenda-setting dilemma” of PD between the content (subject matter of focus) and theoretical/philosophical focus (the personal development of the teacher), we proposed stimulating work that drives thinking and questions on what and why they teach and deliver PE as they do.
An intriguing research approach which might be fruitfully applied to perform research in and stimulate the development of quality primary PE teaching is the RPST (Schmitt, 2001;
Schmitt & Hanke, 2001; Schmitt & Hanke, 2003). This model, described more extensively in Chapter 3.1, can be used to understand teachers’ actions during the planning phase, the interactive phase with students (teachers’ STs) and the reflective phase.
26 3 Research Methodology