37 research outputs found
Integrating complexity thinking with teacher education practices:A collective yet unpredictable endeavour in Physical Education?
‘Change is a journey’: investigating the complex process of educational change within Scottish primary physical education
This thesis investigates the experiences of generalist primary teachers, in Scotland, as
they instigated curriculum and pedagogical change in physical education. Five
primary teachers with an additional qualification in physical education, the
Postgraduate Certificate in 3-14 physical education (PGCert), were followed within
their school contexts over an academic year. In contrast to much of the preceding
literature this research provides empirical work at the micro level on educational
change from the perspective of the individual teacher: illuminating the reciprocal
relationship between professional learning and educational change. A qualitative,
interpretivist approach underpinned the gathering and analysis of data. This approach
reflected the focus of the study which was to understand and make sense of the
multiple realities, experiences and views of participant teachers evolving from their
social, cultural and historical contexts. Data were gathered using semi-structured
interviews, unstructured interviews about teachers’ planning and observations of
physical education lessons. The theoretical framework that was used to interrogate
the data incorporated situated learning theory (Lave and Wenger, 1991), professional
learning and educational change literature; in particular the work of Fullan was
utilised to explore his concept of ‘change agentry’. The first line of analysis
establishes how the participant teachers approached teaching and learning in physical
education prior to engaging with the PGCert. Thereafter the PGCert is examined to
ascertain how the format and structure of this professional development opportunity
came to influence the participant teachers. In the final analysis, an over-view of each
teacher’s narrative in regards to their role in the change process is presented,
outlining the curricular and pedagogical changes they initiated within their school
contexts. Taken together, these findings contribute to research on educational
change providing detailed analysis over an extended period of time of the motivating
factors, constraints and complex character of change from the perspective of teachers
within their individual school contexts. In the present educational climate where
teachers are expected to be leaders of curricular and pedagogical change this study
provides empirical evidence of teachers exercising their autonomy and integrating
professional learning within their practice as they initiate and implement change
The personal visions of physical education student teachers:Putting the education at the heart of physical education
Translating change into improved practice: analysis of teachers’ attempts to generate a new emerging pedagogy in Scotland. Paper presented at British Educational Research Association (BERA) Annual Conference, September 6th-8th, Institute of Education, London.
Primary physical education:A complex learning journey for children and teachers
Primary physical education (PPE) is increasingly being recognised for the role it can potentially play in setting a foundation for lifelong engagement in physical activity. However, the majority of the literature continues to focus on the negative features of the subject within the primary context. Whilst acknowledging the existence of these barriers, this paper sets out to take a proactive approach by presenting a conceptual framework for PPE that seeks to support a renewed and positive vision for the future. Based on ideas from complexity thinking, the framework represents a move beyond the more positivist and linearapproaches that have long been reported to dominate practices in PPE and recognises learners as active agents engaged in a learning process that is collaborative, non-linear and uncertain. While acknowledging the contested nature of the complexity field, the paper explores how key principles, including self-organisation, emergence, similarity, diversity, connectedness, nestedness, ambiguous bounding, recursive elaboration and edge of chaos, offer a lens that views PPE as a complex system. With the children’s learning positioned as the focus of PPE in the educational setting, the paper discusses how complexity principles interweave with the ecological components to help us better understand and more creatively engage with the complex nature of PPE developments. Specifically, these components are identified as PPE learning experiences and their associated pedagogy, teachers and their PPE professional learning and key environmental factors that include the physical environment and key stakeholders who influence developments across the different levels of the education system. The paper concludes by suggesting that this complexity-informed PPE framework represents an open invitation for the all those involved in PPE to engage in a collective process of exploration and negotiation to positively influence developments in PPE