Kevin Patton

Leading by Example: Teacher Educators' Professional Learning Through Communities of Practice

There has been a limited interest in examining physical education teacher educators’ role and practices in embedding professional responsibility and commitment to continued professional learning for both teacher educators and pre-service teachers in a physical education teacher education (PETE) program (MacPhail, 2011) Directed by a landscape of community of practice (CoP) as professional development (Parker, Patton & Tannehill, 2012), this article shares four case studies that demonstrate the extent to which PETE learning can be mapped onto the landscape. In essence, a CoP is sustained over time, involves shared member goals, involves frequent discourse, is active and social, and is characterized by problems being solved by the members. The ideas in this article in tandem with Wengers (1998) CoP process can encourage teacher educators to consider whether opportunities undertaken in a PETE program, and with colleagues external to the PETE program, encourage an authentic CoP.

Mapping the landscape of communities of practice as professional development in Irish physical education

Numerous primary and post-primary communities of practice (CoP) are used as educational change mechanisms to support teachers improving physical education (PE) practice in Irish schools. This studys purpose was to examine perspectives of program facilitators and participants of Irish PE CoP created to address teachers’ interests. Specifically examined were views of successful professional development and characteristics supporting or hindering its success. Participants included 33 teachers and 7 facilitators. Analysis identified three themes: purpose and success, guideposts, and roadblocks. Views of success paralleled CoP defined purposes. Incentives, a positive learning environment, supportive emotional environment, structure of the group, and facilitation with care were guideposts. Roadblocks hindering success included: time, ineffective learning environments, policy, the status of PE, and the context of schools and teaching. Overall, varying CoP structures, leadership, and support recognized multiple aspects of teacher capacity building.

Helping Teachers Help Themselves: Professional Development That Makes a Difference.

For school administrators to facilitate impactful teacher professional development, a shift in thinking that goes beyond the acquisition of new skills and knowledge to helping teachers rethink their practice is required. Based on review of the professional development literature and our own continued observations of professional development, this scholarly article synthesizes findings and presents core features of effective professional development, including what those features might look like in practice. Strategies for teachers, administrators, and schools to begin to engage in meaningful professional development experiences are presented and discussed.

“I Learned More at Lunchtime”: Guideposts for Reimagining Professional Development

While professional development (PD) initiatives for practicing teachers are not new, an increasing body of research has contributed to a growing understanding of what constitutes effective practice in physical education. Findings indicate an enhanced recognition of the importance of providing teachers with PD opportunities where learning is aligned, coherent, and sustained. Yet, PD practice in physical education remains largely unchanged. The purpose of this article is to close the theory–practice gap by identifying what researchers have come to know as core features of effective PD and by providing examples of what these look like in practice. The article concludes with strategies for teachers and schools to begin to engage in meaningful PD experiences.

Signature pedagogies in support of teachers’ professional learning

Signature pedagogies [Shulman, L. 2005. “Signature pedagogies in the professions.” Daedalus 134 (3): 52–59.] are a focus of teacher educators seeking to improve teaching and teacher education. The purpose of this paper is to present a preliminary common language of signature pedagogies for teacher professional development (PD). In all, 24 papers from the study of physical education PD projects with clearly articulated pedagogical objectives and documentation on achieving those objectives were included in the analysis. In total 479 teachers and 48 facilitators across the US and Europe were interviewed and/or surveyed. Three discrete PD signature pedagogies holding potential to enhance teacher growth and learning within the context of PD were identified: critical dialogue (process of acquiring knowledge through communicative interactions), public sharing of work (testing out practices in classrooms and share ideas with larger audiences), and communities of learners (collective learning around a shared concern or a passion). It is our hope in providing the beginnings of a common vocabulary for pedagogies of teacher professional learning we have encouraged additional steps toward developing signature pedagogies for learning across different PD settings and content areas.