Reflective Practice in a Coach Education Practicum

Researchers have explored how practicing sport coaches learn through reflection (Gilbert & Trudel, 2001); however, there is a paucity of research that explains how and why higher education coach preparation students learn through reflection. The purpose of the current study was to understand how and why 21 coaching students enrolled in a practicum course at a southeastern United States institution engage in reflective practice. This research was conducted using a one group pretest posttest mix methods research design and draws upon Schön’s (1983, 1987) work on reflective practice, which underpinned a set of online structured reflective journaling prompts used as an intervention during the students’ practicum course. Each week, for 12 weeks of the practicum course, students were asked to respond to a theoretically informed prompt. Quantitative data were collected via the Self-Reflection and Insight scale (SRIS-SRE; engagement in self-reflection, SRIS-SRN; need for self-reflection, SRIS-IN; insight) and a levels of reflection rubric to assess students’ intrapersonal knowledge. Qualitative data was collected via the students’ weekly responses to the prompts and a set of post practicum reflection responses. To address the quantitative component, a one-way repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to examine the influence of time (i.e., pretest and posttest) on SRIS-SRE, SRIS-SRN, SRIS-IN, and levels of reflection. The results revealed that time did not have a significant influence on SRIS-SRE (p = .09), SRIS-SRN (p = .96), and SRIS-IN (p = .95). However, time did have a significant influence on levels of reflection (p \u3c .01). These results suggest that the use of online structured reflective journaling within the practicum course had a positive influence on one variable of intrapersonal knowledge. The qualitative findings resulted in 15 themes related to students’ role frames (e.g., creating a positive environment, performing in a dominating role), students’ self-identified weaknesses (e.g., weaknesses in role frame, weaknesses perceived by others), students’ dilemma identification (e.g., athletes’ underperformance, practicum coach’s underperformance), and students’ responses to dilemmas (e.g., enforcing a dominating role, developing a positive environment, generated strategies). These qualitative findings described what and to what extent students’ reflect in the practicum course. The findings from both the quantitative and qualitative components provide a theoretically informed explanation of how coaching students learn through reflective journal prompting. Additionally, the findings also provide evidence for the efficacy of a theoretically informed reflective practice course on student learning in the higher education setting. These findings are discussed in relation to existing research on reflective practice, student learning in higher education, intrapersonal knowledge development, and the use of technology. Furthermore, implications for future research and coach educators are offered by considering the prompts influence on the students and the use of technology to facilitate learning in coach education

Student-Athletes’ Experiences with Racial Microaggressions in Sport: A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis

Despite growing research on racial microaggressions as a subtle but prevalent form of racial discrimination, research on microaggressions in sport and their effects on the psychosocial wellbeing of athletes is scarce. Moreover, some researchers question the legitimacy of microaggressions due to their subtle nature and inconsistency in how they are experienced (Lilienfeld, 2017). The purpose of this study was to examine U.S. collegiate student-athletes-of-color experiences with racial microaggressions in sport through a new theoretical lens, Foucauldian poststructuralist theory. We theorized microaggressions as an example of the daily panoptic gaze that leads to self-surveillance and the production of normalized individuals (Foucault, 1995). Eight student-athletes-of-color participated in two interviews: a two-person focus group interview followed by an individual interview. The interviews were analyzed deductively using Sue’s (2010) microaggression typology followed by a Foucauldian discourse analysis (Willig, 2013). The results illustrated how student-athletes-of-color experiences and subjectivities were racialized. Within sport, the sport as transcending race discourse was widely circulated and legitimized through various sporting practices, which limited athletes’ ability to perceive and acknowledge race and microaggressions. This study sheds light on how racial microaggressions manifest in the lives of student-athletes and how the discourses and practices we take for granted constitute racial subjectivities

Collaboration and knowledge exchange between scholars in Britain and the empire, 1830–1914

In recent years there has been a growing interest among historians in the British Empire as a space of knowledge production and circulation. Much of this work assumes that scholarly cooperation and collaboration between individuals and institutions within the Empire had the effect (and often also the aim) of strengthening both imperial ties and the idea of empire. This chapter argues, however, that many examples of scholarly travel, exchange, and collaboration were undertaken with very different goals in mind. In particular, it highlights the continuing importance of an ideal of scientific internationalism, which stressed the benefits of scholarship for the whole of humanity and prioritized the needs and goals of individual academic and scientific disciplines. As the chapter shows, some scholars even went on to develop nuanced critiques of the imperial project while using the very structures of empire to further their own individual, disciplinary and institutional goals

Influence of a Models-based Physical Education Teacher Education Program on the Perspectives and Practices of Preservice Teachers

A recent innovation in the United States is for university faculty to deliver models-based physical education teacher education (PETE) programs. The study described in this paper evaluated the effectiveness of one such program. Participants were three cohorts of preservice teachers (PTs). The cohorts were a non-entry cohort (NEC; n = 29), an entry cohort (EC; n = 31) that were due to enter the core PETE program, and a completion cohort (CC; n = 55). Data were collected by interviewing all three cohorts about (a) their perspectives and practices regarding physical education and (b) their acculturation, and professional socialisation. Data were analysed by categorising the PTs within each cohort as having one of four orientations (i.e. hard core coaching, moderate coaching, moderate teaching and hard core teaching) to the physical education profession from which data were then further analysed within each orientation and cohort. Data were reduced to key themes by employing Leximancer text mining software and traditional interpretive techniques. Key findings were that the PETE program appeared to have an influence on PTs, none of the PTs possessed hard core coaching orientations and a relatively large percentage of PTs had moderate teaching orientations at entry into PETE

A Case Study of One High Performance Baseball Coach\u27s Experiences Within a Learning Community

The purpose of the present study was to examine the learning experiences of a high performance, head baseball coach within a learning community. We drew upon the barriers and enablers of a learning community to structure the current study\u27s learning community intervention. Our learning community was comprised of one collegiate summer league head baseball coach and three coach educators (i.e. facilitators). Data were collected via eight weekly learning community meetings (i.e. recorded and transcribed), the coach’s daily journal and post-learning community meeting journal, and the memory of his coaching experiences. The findings, which suggest a potential framework for sustaining an effective learning community, resulted in six themes (i.e. problem setting, problem sharing, questioning to prompt reflection, prescribed suggestions, collaborative solutions and psychological wellness) that describe the coach’s experiences both internal and external to the learning community. The findings are discussed in relation to research on learning communities, experiential learning and reflection. Furthermore, we provide implications for future research by considering the learning community’s influence on the head coach’s reduction of stress and the utilisation of technology to sustain a stable learning community setting

The Reflective Sport and Exercise Science Practitioner

The development of reflective practitioners within the sport and exercise sciences and allied disciplines has started to gain prominence in discussions surrounding education, training, and practice in these fields. However, while the principles associated with doing reflective practice are becoming more widely discussed in the sport and exercise literature, debate concerning what it means to be a reflective practitioner remains limited. This has perhaps resulted in ongoing conceptual and applied considerations relating to the nature and importance of reflective practice, often leading to the promotion of, and engagement in, reflection that is overly technical, restricted, and compliant. Drawing on the perspectives of those who have contributed to this text, in this chapter we (editorial team) present a series of vignettes that offer accounts of what it means to be a reflective practitioner. In doing so, our aim is to allow the reader to immerse themselves within the contributors’ own experiences, perspectives and developmental journeys. Finally, we offer our own analytical summary of the contributors’ vignettes to draw together some of the common ideas and themes concerning the attitudes, skills, perspectives, and philosophy required by the reflective practitioner