Incidences of student support for and resistance to a curricular innovation in high school physical education

While there have been frequent calls for reform in secondary physical education. little research has focused on the implementation and assessment of curriculum from the perspective of students. Drawing upon the theoretical frame of student resistance, the porpose of this study was to describe how high school students demonstrated support for and resistance to implementation of a 20 day curricular initiative termed a cultural studies unit. This approach consist of an integrated practical and theoretical study of sport and physical activity. Data were collected through student focus group interviews, student jounals, nonparticipant observations, and informal conversations. Students responded favorably to the principles of sport education and the opportunities to critique issues of social justice. Such content was considered appropriate for physical education. Resistance to some aspects of the unit was both overt and covert. Meticulous and careful planning of content and choice of pedagogy to facilitate delivety is crucial to positioning a cultural studies unit in a high school progra

Irish primary school teachers’ experiences with sport education

Recent reviews illustrate the considerable literature on Sport Education (e.g. Kinchin, 2006; Wallhead & O’Sullivan, 2005). However, research on the experiences of non-specialist physical education teachers attempting Sport Education is limited (MacPhail et al. 2005; Strikwerda-Brown & Taggart, 2001).The focus of this research was to investigate non-specialist teachers’ views on Sport Education, and identify what possibilities might exist regarding Sport Education in the context of primary schooling. Eight teachers [4 male and 4 female] from four primary schools in Ireland volunteered to take part. Following in-service in Sport Education, all teachers delivered a unit of work in their schools. Data were collected using individual teacher and focus-group interviews and each was visited during implementation. Findings indicated Sport Education was an entirely new teaching and learning experience for these teachers which they found to be professionally rewarding and pedagogically refreshing. Teachers discussed high levels of enjoyment displayed by their pupils. An enthusiasm for exploring the integrative potential for Sport Education was evident and many teachers wished for more examples of how the characteristics of Sport Education could be further integrated across the primary curriculum

Sport education: promoting team affiliation through physical education

The development of feelings of identity, the sense of belonging to a team, and the growth of social skills are experiences that sport, if properly conducted, is well placed to offer (Siedentop, 1994). Evidence suggests that some characteristics of traditional, multiactivity forms of physical education work against realizing these goals (Locke, 1992). Siedentop’s Sport Education (SE) model is one attempt to overcome this shortcoming by recasting units as seasons and maintaining persisting groups as teams throughout the season. Extended units intended to foster team affiliation while promoting affective and social development are common objectives in physical education. We report on a 16-week SE unit that includes over 70 Year-5 students (9- to 10-year-olds) from one UK school. Our findings show that the opportunity to become affiliated with a team was an attractive feature of the pupils’ physical education experience and that, under the framework of SE, there was an obvious investment made by the Year-5 Forest Gate students in relation to their sense of identity and involvement as members of a persisting group