Paul G. Schempp

The Micropolitics of Teacher Induction

This study investigated the political events characterizing the start of a teaching career. An interpretative framework was used to access the perceptions and meanings teachers gave to experiences encountered in their first years on the job. Life history methodology permitted three teachers to tell their stories of professional induction. Data analysis revealed that the teachers’ thoughts and actions were influenced and sustained in three streams of consciousness: biography, role demands, and the school culture. Biography included experiences drawn upon by teachers in making their way in schools. Role demands pressed upon the teachers at two levels: classroom and institutional. Finally, the norms and expectations of school culture influenced the teachers’ professional perspectives and standards of practice. Of particular interest to the researchers were the teachers ‘perceptions of the power relationships in schools and the strategies used for appropriating the power and status necessary to become accepted and functioning school teachers.

It's All Very Well, in Theory: Theoretical Perspectives and Their Applications in Contemporary Pedagogical Research.

Current debates about educational theory are concerned with the relationship between knowledge and power and thereby issues such as who possesses a “truth” and how have they arrived at it, what questions are important to ask, and how should they best be answered. As such, these debates revolve around questions of preferred, appropriate, and useful theoretical perspectives. This paper overviews the key theoretical perspectives that are currently used in physical education pedagogy research and considers how these inform the questions we ask and shapes the conduct of research. It also addresses what is contested with respect to these perspectives. The paper concludes with some “cautions” about allegiances to and use of theories in line with concerns for the applicability of educational research to pressing social issues.

Differences in Novice and Competent Teachers' Knowledge

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the knowledge differences between competent and novice teachers. Data were collected through extended, multiple interviews with five novice and five competent teachers. The teachers were interviewed three times and each interview lasted approximately one hour. Interviews focused on the knowledge the teachers used in planning and conducting their classes. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative technique (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) and the findings were framed by Berliners (1988) theory of expertise acquisition in teaching. Differences were found between competent and novice teachers in assessing student learning difficulties, conceptions of knowledge and reflective practice. Novice teachers attributed most student learning difficulties to the student, their home environment, and society. The competent teachers held themselves responsible for learner difficulties and sought ways to solve problems their students encountered. While novice teachers...

The Self-Monitoring of Expert Sport Instructors

This study identified the major facets of professional practice monitored by expert teachers. Specifically the skills and knowledge expert sport instructors regularly scrutinized in order to improve their teaching and coaching were categorized and examined. Data were collected from 31 teachers listed by Golf Magazine as the Top 100 Golf Instructors in America. The teachers listed aspects of their teaching they regularly monitored in assessing their own strengths and weaknesses. Data were analyzed in three steps. First, responses were reviewed to identify the characteristics monitored by the teachers. Second, characteristics grouped under each theme were reviewed and clustered into representative categories. Third, all categories were reviewed to ensure every characteristic identified by the teachers was accounted for by theme or category, and that the investigators unanimously agreed to the coding of each characteristic From this process, five themes were constructed that represented the activities and qualities most often monitored by expert teachers: (a) skills (i.e., things teachers do), (b) knowledge base (i.e., things teachers know), (c) personal characteristics (i.e., things teachers are), (d) philosophy (i.e., things teachers believe), and (e) tools (i.e., things teachers use).

How the best get better: an analysis of the self-monitoring strategies used by expert golf instructors

The purpose of this study was to analyse the self-monitoring strategies that 31 expert golf instructors used to improve their teaching. Specifically, criteria characteristic of both instructional strengths and weaknesses were identified, as were the strategies these teachers used to continue to develop their strengths and improve their areas of weakness. Data were collected at Golf Magazines Top 100 Teacher Summit held at Pinehurst, NC. Teachers were asked to complete a written survey, which asked them to list aspects of their teaching they considered strengths and aspects they considered weaknesses. Subsequently, the teachers were requested to identify strategies they used to maintain their strengths and improve their weaknesses. Data were analysed by identifying themes in the teachers’ responses. Results of the analysis indicated that the teachers identified both goals and actions in their self-monitoring strategies. Self-monitoring goals included improving communication, adjustments to personal lifestyle, examining teaching perspectives and increasing learning. Self-monitoring actions incorporated seeking help from others, reading, using technology, developing business strategies and adapting teaching practices.

Learning to See: Developing the Perception of an Expert Teacher.

JOPERD • Volume 77 No. 6 • August 2006 A s renowned educational psychologist David Berliner (1994) noted, the development of acute perceptual capacities is a primary characteristic of expert teachers. It only makes sense: the better you become at interpreting the signifi cance of what you see, the better the information available to you upon which to make sound decisions in the classroom. Expert teachers see the same things you and I see. The difference is they see them differently (Carter, Cushing, Sabers, Stein, & Berliner, 1988; Livingston & Borko, 1989). Experts are able to observe a learning environment and discern critical cues that provide insight for informed and intuitive decisions (Woorons, 2001). Teachers with less expertise see the same cues, but simply fail to recognize their signifi cance for teaching and learning. The good news is that no one is born an expert. Expertise is developed and nurtured from years of experience, increased knowledge, and deliberate attempts to improve one’s performance (Ericsson & Charness, 1994). Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Roemer (1993) termed the practice that experts use to improve performance “deliberate practice.” Deliberate practice consists of effortful activities based on the performer’s current knowledge and skill level and designed to optimize performance on a single, selected skill. These activities are practiced repeatedly and correctly, with the performer receiving immediate informative feedback and knowledge of performance results. According to Ericsson (2005), research consistently indicates that differences in levels of expertise are directly attributable to the amount of deliberate practice. The skills of an expert teacher can, therefore, be developed by anyone who has the knowledge of what makes a great teacher and who makes deliberate attempts to continually and appropriately practice the skills of expert teaching. And one of the skills of an expert teacher is perception—the skill of seeing. This article identifi es the perceptual skills of expert teachers and offers suggestions for how any teacher can learn to see like an expert. Being able to read the critical cues in a learning environment allows teachers to identify present problems, anticipate potential problems, link immediate problems with previously successful solutions, and make exceptional in-class decisions (Owens, 2006). There are reasons why expert teachers achieve consistently superior results in their classrooms, and one of those reasons is their exceptional perceptual ability.

Self-Monitoring: Demystifying the Wonder of Expert Teaching.

Why? • Prompts the reader to use fix-it strategies when encountering difficult or confusing passages or words. • Students can readily identify, confirm and think about what is understood and what is confusing (thinking about thinking). • Empowers emergent readers to become independent and to read for meaning. • Elicits self-correction at miscues. • Focuses struggling readers’ attention toward meaning and proper syntax.

Swedish Golf Success: Its History and Future

Swedish elite golfers have been unusually successful on the golf circuit, despite coming from a country with only 9 million people and with a climate that makes it impossible to play golf for more than 6 months a year. The study aimed to find an explanation for this success through interviews with professional players, their coaches and other experts in the field. Results point to a number of factors, including: A): the structure and organization of Swedish golf, b) well established training programs in the clubs, c) motivated and skilful coaches, d) a priority on developing the whole person rather than a singular focus on the golfer, and e) a team spirit that made golf the most fun sport imaginable for the players. As for the future, many respondents stressed the importance of: a) all-round training, b) a higher priority on developing the mental side of the game, and c) the need for a holistic approach to developing the player Organization and structure seem to be what most respondents –players and experts alike – consider the key factor when trying to explain the success of Swedish golf. Yet, at the same time having fun emerges as an important aspect

Standards and Practice in Asian Physical Education: Standards and Practice for K-12 Physical Education in Singapore

Abstract Although physical education is required at all grade levels in Singapore, physical educators there still battle marginalization of their subject.

Experts' Content Knowledge of Fundamentals

This study examined the content knowledge of expert sport instructors in order to understand the nature of fundamentals in sport instruction. Data were collected through a questionnaire of expert golf teachers (n=50) from GOLF Magazines Top 100 Teachers list. These expert golf instructors were asked to identify what they believed were the five fundamentals of golf. Researchers found disagreement within the population. Two groups were then identified – the Element Instructors and Compound Instructors - based upon similar responses. Element Instructors were characterized by agreement within their group that grip, posture, and alignment were the fundamental skills of golf. Compound Instructors had no set of agreed-upon fundamentals. Researchers found no discernible rationales for this division-based on collected data. These results suggest that at least two “schools of thought” regarding content fundamentals exist and could indicate disagreement among expert golf instructors as a whole.