Gary D. Kinchin

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.

Situated learning as a theoretical framework for sport education

The article seeks to establish the usefulness of situated learning theory as a means of thinking differently about the alleged abstraction of school learning in a range of subjects including physical education, and the issue of transfer of learning. Following a discussion of Lave and Wenger’s notion of situated learning as legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice, the article explores the potential of Siedentop’s sport education model as a means of providing young people with educative and authentic experiences of sport as legitimate peripheral participants. It is concluded that sport education may have the potential to provide educative and authentic experiences of sport, but that further detailed empirical investigation is required to establish the conditions in which this potential might be realized.

Students' conceptions of sport and sport education

This article explores a class of Grade 5 (age 9 and 10) children’s conceptions of sport during a season of sport education at Forest Gate Primary School. The purpose, following Kirk and Kinchin (this issue), is to examine the extent to which the potential transfer of learning between school and sport as a community of practice may be possible through sport education in school physical education. With reference to student interviews and drawings we report and discuss children’s conceptions of sport, their experiences of sport outside of the school, and their emerging conceptions of sport education in light of these prior understanding and experiences. We conclude that there was an evident level of compatibility between students’ experiences of sport education and their conceptions of sport more broadly.

Making physical education meaningful for high school students.

Abstract “I think that when we talked about the conflicts in sport like funding and discrimination, I think that was really important because that not only applies to sports but to life … and you think that sports are safe … but they are not.” (9th grade boy) “I like it. 1 think the unit gives you an idea of what goes under physical education and not just the obvious. This has broadened my horizons.” (10th grade girl)

Effects of Peer-Assessed Feedback, Goal Setting and a Group Contingency on Performance and Learning by 10-12-Year-Old Academy Soccer Players.

Background: Coaches developing young talent in team sports must maximise practice and learning of essential game skills and accurately and continuously assess the performance and potential of each player. Relative age effects highlight an erroneous process of initial and on-going player assessment, based largely on subjective opinions of game performance. A more objective assessment of each players progress by measuring essential skills during practice is warranted to guide and improve coaching and assessment of talented children. Purpose: To measure the effects of the coaching intervention on performance and learning during a group technical practice. A second purpose was to repeatedly measure each players passing, first touch and an awareness response and to measure the reliability of peer assessment as an immediate source of objective feedback. Setting: Weekly coaching sessions at an English professional soccer club academy. A total of 22 practices occurred during the second half of a soccer season. Participants: Academy boys aged 10–12 years, with five players participating throughout the study. The coach was a European ‘A’ licence holder and an experienced physical education teacher. Intervention: The coach and players defined the practice requirements and how to perform each skill successfully. Players were taught to observe, assess and record the performance of their peers. After the practice, players charted their objective scores and bonus game play was awarded based on self-set goal attainment. Research design: A single-subject, multiple-baseline experiment was used to assess the effects of the intervention on performance of the three skills and the reliability of the performance measures. The design and intervention enabled the repeated measurement of all players’ performance and learning during each phase and condition of the experiment. Data collection and analysis: Baseline data were collected from video recording of practice and intervention data were collected from recording and live by a player and the coach. Percent correct scores for each skill were plotted on graphs for visual analysis. Agreements between live and primary video data were calculated to evaluate the reliability of peer-assessed scores. Findings: The intervention was shown to improve the level and consistency of performance in all five participants, which, for most players and skills, was maintained when the intervention was removed. Players were willing and able to reliably assess their peers and collect objective data on each players performance. They enjoyed receiving and charting their scores and reported a greater confidence in these skills in competitive situations. Conclusions: The findings suggest this formal accountability, feedback and reinforcement procedure provides a promising method to maximise practice and learning and accurately assess the progress of talented youth soccer players. Further research is recommended to examine the congruent validity of performance measures from more complex learning tasks to discriminate talent and tackle relative age effects. Implications for future talent development coaching and coach education include the potential for repeatable and measurable systems (a technology) to track performance and learning during coaching–practice to help develop and determine the most able children.

Using Computer Technology to Compare Student Teaching Behaviours

There are issues concerning the effectiveness of different types of lnital Teacher Training in Physical Education in England, thus there is a need to study the relative effectiveness of 4‐year undergraduate and Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) programmes. The purpose of this study was to compare student physical education teachers during school experience relative to a set of teaching behaviours. The participants were 10 first‐year undergraduates, 10 fourth‐year undergraduates and 10 PGCE student teachers from the same university in England. Each participant was videotaped teaching one lesson which met the requirements of the English National Curriculum in PE at Key Stage 3 (pupils aged 11‐14 yrs). Teaching behaviours were analysed by a team of researchers using a modified configuration of the Behavioral Evaluation Strategies and Taxonomy (BEST) software (Sharpe and Koperwas, 1999). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed no differences in the observed teaching behaviours between the fourth‐year undergraduates and the PGCE group. However, the first‐year undergraduates displayed significantly higher levels of behavioural management than both the fourth‐year and the PGCE group. Also, the first‐year undergraduates were found to have lower levels of positive skill feedback, but this was not statistically significant The results of this study suggest that there were no differences between the effectiveness of teaching produced by the fourth‐year undergraduate and the PGCE student teachers.

Irish Primary School Teachers' Experiences with Sport Education.

Recent reviews illustrate the considerable literature on Sport Education. However, research on the experiences of non-specialist physical education teachers attempting Sport Education is limited. The focus of this research was to investigate non-specialist teachers’ views on Sport Education and identify what possibilities might exist regarding Sport Education in the context of primary schooling. Eight teachers (four males and four females) from four primary schools in Ireland volunteered to take part in this study. Following in-service in Sport Education, all teachers delivered a unit of work in their schools. Data were collected using individual teacher and focus-group interviews, and each was visited during implementation. Findings indicated Sport Education was an entirely new teaching and learning experience for these teachers which they found to be professionally rewarding and pedagogically refreshing. Teachers discussed high levels of enjoyment displayed by their pupils. An enthusiasm for exploring the integrative potential for Sport Education was evident, and many teachers wished for more examples of how the characteristics of Sport Education could be further integrated across the primary curriculum.

Using Social Media within Physical Education Teacher Education

This article reports on a project investigating the use of social media within physical education teacher education (PETE). It specifically describes how a professional Facebook group was set up and used by PETE students in one university in England and another in the United States. The article outlines some of the professional topics the respective student teachers discussed and shares some of their reactions to the experience. The use of social media offers a forum for student teachers that aligns with contemporary thinking around informal professional learning and development.

Effects of Goal Setting, Individual and Group Contingencies on Learning and Effort by Talented Youth Soccer Players

Identifying and developing young sporting talent are significant and challenging endeavours, yet guidance for coaches responsible for the provision of practice for such children is sparse (Martindale, Collins & Daubney, 2005). Participants in this study were nine boys (aged 7 to 8 years) who attended a talent selection and development programme of an English professional soccer club. Parents also participated as data collectors for their sons. An alternating treatments design was used to compare the effects of goal setting alone, an individual contingency (signed player photograph) and a group contingency (extra game time) on learning and effort in practice. Results showed that the individual and group contingencies improved technical learning, the group contingency promoted greater effort in practice but goal setting alone did not promote significant learning or practice effort. Reliable agreement scores by parents demonstrated the potential for behavioural coaching practices to enhance the talent identification and development processes.

A Practical Guide for Maintaining High Activity Levels in Physical Education: Column Editor: K. Andrew R. Richards

This article present nine strategies that have been used successfully to improve activity levels in PE classes. These strategies comprise small-sided games, school warm-ups, rule adaptations, quick transitions, rewards, resources, teacher challenges, teaching by invitation and technology.