Sabine Reuker

The noticing of physical education teachers: a comparison of groups with different expertise

ABSTRACT Background: Teachers’ important diagnostic abilities include noticing and interpreting students’ behaviors and learning processes. By focusing on noticing, I refer to the theoretical framework of professional vision. Professional vision includes the ability to notice what is occurring in complex classroom situations (selective attention) and the ability to give these events meaningful importance (knowledge-based reasoning). Purpose: The purpose of this article is to investigate the noticing differences of groups with different expertise while they observe students’ activities in gym class. Participants and setting: Sixty participants with different sport-specific and pedagogical expertise were asked to describe and interpret videotaped teaching sequences. Observational data were obtained from physical education classes. The focus was on motoric and social learning processes. Research design: The groups were compared in a four-field design according to their observations and interpretations of students’ activities in gym class. Data collection: The teaching sequences function as stimuli to activate selective attention and knowledge-based reasoning. The participants were questioned in guided interviews. Data analysis: The participants’ comments were recorded, transcribed and analyzed based on qualitative content analysis. The analysis was performed with the software program MaxQDA. The comments were subsequently exported to the software program SPSS 20 for further analysis. Results: By comparing groups with different sport-specific and pedagogical expertise, this study reveals new observation foci when people exclusively monitor students’ behaviors, not teachers’ behaviors, in authentic teaching situation along with different observation foci based on expertise. Conclusions: The findings indicate that noticing is a characteristic of professionalization that should be given greater consideration in physical education teacher education (PETE) programs. Special observations tasks (e.g. focusing on social processes) and supplemental theoretical materials for specific issues in PETE programs that use video recordings could help improve learning to notice.

The Knowledge-Based Reasoning of Physical Education Teachers: A Comparison between Groups with Different Expertise.

The study addresses professional vision, including the abilities of selective attention and knowledge-based reasoning. This article focuses on the latter ability. Groups with different sport-specific and pedagogical expertise (n = 60) were compared according to their observation and interpretation of sport activities in a four-field design. The first group (novice) was composed of student teachers who had their university studies and who were characterised by low sport-specific and low pedagogical expertise. The second group (athlete) comprised athletes with high sport-specific expertise determined by league affiliation. The third group (teacher) included teachers with high pedagogical expertise based on teaching experience and further pedagogical criteria. The fourth group (expert) consisted of teachers with high pedagogical expertise, who, in addition, played and coached basketball at a high level (high sport-specific expertise). Observational data were obtained from physical education classes. The participants’ comments were recorded in a guided interview and analysed based on qualitative content analysis. The results were exported for further statistical analysis. The findings reveal general and specific differences in knowledge-based reasoning and identify different types of knowledge and beliefs used in this process. The implications for physical education teacher education programmes using video-supported reflection are discussed in light of the results.