Applying movement analysis skills in physical education teacher education: An online mastery-based learning approach

Effective physical education teachers observe, assess, analyze, and enhance gross motor skills which is critical in the development of physically literate children (PHE Canada, 2015; SHAPE America, 2014). Therefore,... [ view full abstract ]

Effective physical education teachers observe, assess, analyze, and enhance gross motor skills which is critical in the development of physically literate children (PHE Canada, 2015; SHAPE America, 2014). Therefore, pre-service teacher education programs must include experiences where teacher candidates obtain the knowledge and skills required to provide specific feedback to children (Rink, 2014). An “online educational resource (OER)” was created using a mastery-based learning approach (Bloom, 1971) to provide teacher candidates with practice in skill analysis. The OER was designed to help physical education teacher education (PETE) candidates gain an understanding of various motor skills as categorized by locomotor, manipulative, and stability skills (Gallahue, 1982). The OER included instructional videos of fundamental movement skills, associated teaching cues, critical elements, and stages of motor development. The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of the OER on undergraduate PETE students’ ability to analyze movement. Each participant (n=180) completed an online pre- and post-movement analysis test to measure the effects of the OER. The experimental group completed the OER as the intervention between the pre- and post-tests. A two-way ANOVA was used to determine the differences between the test scores of the different groups. Results indicated that there was a statistically significant difference (M = 20.05, 95% CI [10.72, 29.39], t(75) = 4.280, < .0005) between test scores of the experimental group (M = -26.00, SD = 22.85) than that of the control group (M = -5.95, SD = 17.71). The results revealed that teacher candidates benefitted from additional movement analysis practice through the use of a mastery-based learning OER. The next step in this ongoing project is to analyze the effects of the OER on the movement analysis skills of PETE students within a physical education setting.