Japanese physical education graduate students’ learning about research skill development

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate Japanese graduate students’ research skill learning experiences in physical education teacher education at a public university. In this study, andragogy theory was utilised, which allowed the researchers to understand Japanese graduate students’ learning experiences. Five Japanese physical education master’s students (3 men and 2 women) participated in the study, which had a descriptive-qualitative design using an in-depth, semi-structured interview approach. The data sources were demographic questionnaire and face to face interviews. Interview data were analysed using a constant comparative method, and resulted in themes related to (a) strategies for physical education literature, (b) understanding the value and application of literature, and (c) learning how to replicate research studies in physical education. To better support Japanese graduate students, this study encourages physical education teacher education faculty and graduate students to learn the nature of the research projects (e.g. thesis) regarding how to develop a blueprint for the theoretical framework, research method, and presentation of results using international research sources in the graduate students’ research seminars.

KEYWORDS:

• Japanese
• graduate student
• research skill
• physical education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Takahiro Sato, PhD, CAPE, has been an associate professor in the School of Teaching, Learning & Curriculum Studies at Kent State University. Effective 1 July 2019, Takahiro Sato is a professor and faculty member in Health and Sport Sciences, Physical Education Pedagogy at University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan. Please address correspondence about this article to Dr. Takahiro Sato, University of Tsukuba, Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, Tsukuba, 305-8577, Japan. E-mail: [email protected]

Cathy McKay, EdD, CAPE, is an Assistant Professor of Kinesiology at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

ORCID

Takahiro Sato http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3358-0809

Cathy McKay http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1802-2641

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge the grant funding support of the Ohio Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.