The influence of a methods course in physical education on preservice classroom teachers' acquisition of practical knowledge

Many classroom teachers have limited content knowledge, do not have appropriate skills or knowledge for good teaching and do not feel confident teaching physical education (Tsangaridou, 2012). While teacher knowledge and... [ view full abstract ]

Many classroom teachers have limited content knowledge, do not have appropriate skills or knowledge for good teaching and do not feel confident teaching physical education (Tsangaridou, 2012). While teacher knowledge and teaching practice exists in an interdependent relationship, practical knowledge has been used in describing how teachers integrate knowledge from different sources into conceptual frameworks that guide their actions in practice (Verloop, Van Driel, & Meijer, 2001). Given the short time that preservice classroom teachers have to learn to teach physical education during teacher education program, it is worth to focus on the understanding of their learning in its natural setting. Therefore, this study was framed with an explorative approach where preservice classroom teachers participated in physical education learning activities and the intension was to investigate the construction (content) of their practical knowledge. Data collection was integrated into a methods course in physical education and included written journals in which 26 preservice teachers described significant didactical milestones (practical knowledge) that will guide their future teaching in physical education. The aim of this process was to make implicit learning explicit and to give preservice teachers the possibility to reflect on coursework in the form of structuring their practical knowledge. The qualitative analysis involved identifying the content of their milestones and categorising them based on common themes and categories. The main themes were the curriculum (what) that is taught by the teacher (who) through instructional strategies (how) to the students (whom) in the classroom (where). Preliminary results showed that the content of these preservice classroom teachers’ practical knowledge was mainly pedagogical and focused most often on instructional strategies. Therefore, by exploring and understanding preservice classroom teachers’ learning of practical knowledge in physical education, we can help to bridge the gap between theory at university and the practice of teaching.