Teacher educators’ enactment of pedagogies that prioritise learning about meaningful physical education

ABSTRACT

This research focused on supporting pre-service teachers' (PSTs') learning through the development of pedagogical principles of learning about meaningful physical education (LAMPE) in two physical education teacher education (PETE) programs. In this paper, we share four in-depth examples of the enactment of the pedagogical principles of LAMPE by physical education teacher educators. Data sources included teacher educator weekly reflections, critical friend responses and conversations, non-participant observations, and PST work samples developed in lessons. The four examples highlight decision-making moments and provide further direction on how the pedagogical principles of LAMPE support PST learning about meaningful physical education and illustrate the value of a coherent set of pedagogical principles, such as those offered by LAMPE, in guiding teacher educators' decision-making.

KEYWORDS:

• Self-study
• teacher education
• pedagogy
• meaning
• decision-making

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Tim Fletcher is an Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at Brock University, Canada. Tim's research interests are in teacher/teacher educator socialization and identity, pre-service teacher education, and self-study of practice methodology.

Déirdre Ní Chróinín is a physical education teacher educator at the primary level in the Department of Arts Education and Physical Education, Mary Immaculate College in Ireland. Her current research is focused on the promotion of meaningful experiences for children and young people in sport and physical activity settings.

Caitlin Price is a graduate student at Brock University. Her master's research is about the ways meaningful physical education experiences influence pre-service teachers beliefs' about teaching.

Nancy Francis is a Professor and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences at Brock University. Nancy's teaching and research is in curriculum development and effective pedagogy in the school subjects of physical education and dance education.

ORCID

Tim Fletcher http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7352-4775

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [SSHRC IDG430-2015-00490], Irish Research Council.