Applying learning theories in learning how to teach physical education: a study of teacher education students collaborative learning processes in a project

ABSTRACT

The aim of our study was to explore how collaborative learning processes unfold when teacher education students apply learning theories in order to learn how to teach Physical Education in a project carried out in addition to the regular teaching in PETE. In the project’s social practice, 46 student teachers worked in groups to complete four tasks that support learning how to teach based on six learning theories. The tasks were arranged according to a logic of progressive development from understanding learning theories to applying them to develop, analyse and, conceptualize alternative ways to teach physical education (PE). In this 13-week project, the students’ interactions in the course of working with the tasks were video-recorded. Interaction analyses (Jordan, B., & Henderson, A. (1995). Interaction analysis: Foundations and practice. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 4(1), 39–103. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327809jls0401_2) were used to explore situations where students collaboratively learned how to teach in alternative ways in the project’s social practice. The results show that student teachers’ interactions were driven by three main situations that created opportunities to collectively apply learning theories to teaching PE. The first situation derived from a collective need for a shared conceptualization of the learning theories. In the second situation, students were required to create shared concepts for how learning theories could be applied to teaching PE. In the third, they needed to describe and reach consensus on the value of learning to use these theories in relation to teaching PE. In some groups, this led to discussions about innovative ways to teach in PE. The findings indicate that the students work with the tasks facilitated processes that made it possible to explore how collaborative learning processes unfolded and created situations where the students learned to teach using learning theories.

KEYWORDS:

• Physical education
• physical education teacher education
• collaborative learning
• learning theory
• theory induced reflection
• interaction analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).