An integrated blended learning approach for physical education teacher education programmes: teacher educators’ and pre-service teachers’ experiences

peer-reviewedBackground: A plethora of new terms and digital pedagogies have been making recent headlines in higher education with the promise, or threat, that digital technology will revolutionise the way in which universities operate. Blended learning is part of this digital revolution and institutions of higher education worldwide are increasingly adopting it as a new mode of delivery. The exposure of blended learning as central to mainstream higher education has been heightened exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Purpose: Challenged by the argument around the concept of ‘blended’ being ill defined, and also given the lack of practical ‘blended’ experiences in physical education teacher education (PETE), this paper aims to explore physical education teacher educators’ and pre-service teachers’ (PSTs’) enactment and experiences of an integrated approach to blended learning. Method: Three physical education teacher educators and two classes of physical education PSTs participated. The integrated blended approach was designed through a block structure which allowed intended outcomes, teaching and learning activities and assessment tasks to be aligned and interconnected. Data collection occurred over two academic years for the same three physical education teacher educators and two different cohorts of PSTs. Focus groups interviews were conducted with the three teacher educators and a voluntary sample of PSTs. PSTs’ learning blogs were also analysed. Results: Findings were presented in three categories: Development of strong building blocks; Blended learning ‘releases the teaching and learning from the grips of the lecturer’; and Assessment in a blended (and non-blended) environment. We attempted to go beyond the binary humanist assumption about blended learning by designing an integrated approach with a clear but flexible structure. That is, with an organic alignment and purposeful integration of all its instructional components. Conclusions: When introducing blended learning in a (physical education) teacher education programme, we suggest designing an aligned and integrated approach structured in blocks, where all instructional components are interconnected and informing each other, enhancing prior knowledge. Given the growing role of digital technology for teaching and learning in educational policies and new PETE curricula, we advocate for the publication of more research-based experiences on blended learning in PETE programmes that might be replicated in other PETE programmes. This would encourage colleagues to explore the implications of digital technology and learn from other PETE contexts and also the sustainability of digital technology as an established mode of delivery

Examination physical education: policy, pedagogies and possibilities

Examination physical education: policy, pedagogies and possibilitie

Teacher agency and learner agency in teaching and learning a new school subject, Leaving Certificate Computer Science, in Ireland: Considerations for teacher education

A new school subject, Leaving Certificate Computer Science, was introduced in September 2018 into Irish schools in a period of curriculum reform and change. Drawing on concepts of teacher agency and learner agency, and viewed through a figurational sociology lens, this paper explored the realities of teaching LCCS and the role teacher agency and learner agency played in such enactment. Through a case study design, four teachers were interviewed in a focus group semi-structured manner. To delve deeper into the pedagogical approaches used in LCCS, a further one teacher and their nine students were interviewed. The findings highlight an influential relationship (positive and negative, encouraging and discouraging) between teachers’ agentic decisions in their process of achieving teacher agency and the students process of achieving learner agency. The paper offers a figurational viewpoint of the relationship between teacher agency and learner agency through a constructed Figure. We explicitly argue that the responsibility should not be placed on the teacher and student in achieving agency (as a product) but it is a combination of the teacher and the students and the other interdependent relationships within their figurations, alongside contextual factors, and educational social processes, which determine the fluctuation of the process of achieving teacher and learner agency. The paper provides considerations for computer science teacher education.peer-reviewed2024-07-3

An exploration (and creation) of meaningful teacher educator practises

Pedagogical principles for teacher educators have been developed to support pre-service teachers’ learning in teaching meaningful physical education (Ní Chróinín, Fletcher, & O’Sullivan, 2018). We question teacher educators’ capability to engage with such principles if such teacher educators are not aware of what practises are meaningful to them. While pedagogical principles for teacher educators have been developed (Ní Chróinín et al., 2018), there is less focus on what practises are meaningful for teacher educators. To explore this, four teacher educators (from Ireland, England, and Norway) engaged in collaborative self-study (Ovens & Fletcher, 2014). We decided to begin our self-study by engaging in narrative inquiry and exploring what teacher educator practises are meaningful to us. By gaining an understanding of this, we can then look to develop and enhance our practice to teach for meaningful teacher education experiences. We engaged in a storytelling data collection process whereby each of us shared a story of ‘meaningful’ and ‘meaningless’ teacher educator practises. These stories elicited other associated stories and we collected stories over five recorded zoom meetings, critical discussions, and note-taking. Findings highlighted the importance of (individual and collective) reflection in translating meaningless experiences into meaningful teacher educator practises, the complexities of (meaningful) teacher education, and the necessity of space for teacher educators to develop meaningful teacher educator practises. This presentation shares the complexity of becoming a teacher educator and prompts the audience to consider what is meaningful to them and the possibilities within that for an overall enhanced teacher education experience

A rhizomatic exploration of a professional development non-linear approach to learning and teaching: Two teachers’ learning journeys in 'becoming different'

Drawing on rhizomatics and figurational sociology, the concept of ‘assemblage’, ‘becoming’, and a ‘figuration’ were used to explore learning and teaching, and specifically, how teachers negotiate their learning and teaching in becoming teachers of a new school subject. We argue a ‘teacher assemblage’ is an assemblage which takes place across multiple spaces and the elements within this assemblage change depending on the space that the teacher occupies. These collaborative negotiations within an assemblage highlight the complexity in the learning and teaching process and the ongoing process of ‘becoming different’ throughout the professional development and learning journey (and beyond)

Original intentions and unintended consequences: the ‘contentious’ role of assessment in the development of Leaving Certificate Physical Education in Ireland

Ireland is set to introduce an examinable physical education curriculum (Leaving Certificate Physical Education (LCPE)) in the final two years of post-primary school. A Physical Education Development Group (PEDG) were tasked with the responsibility of constructing the LCPE specification. This paper explores the LCPE curriculum development process by drawing on Elias’s [(1978). What is sociology? New York: Columbia University Press] ‘game models’ framework to provide a theoretically informed analysis of the operations of the PEDG. Interviews were conducted with 10 PEDG members. The results revolved around curriculum content knowledge, assessment weightings, and debating the responsibility for assessing students’ work. The game models framework allowed us to understand the power-struggles in the PEDG and how they worked to arrive at a consensus about curriculum content and assessment. The outcome was one that no ‘player’ could have anticipated, and Elias’s game models framework shed light on how a curriculum with original intentions became a curriculum made up of unintended consequences

Conceptualising examinable physical education in the Irish context: Leaving Certificate Physical Education

A Physical Education Development Group (PEDG) was responsible for constructing a new school subject curriculum, Leaving Certificate Physical Education (LCPE), in Ireland. This paper provides an insight into this development group and explores the process of curriculum development, and the influence of roles and power-ratios within the group, in the construction of the LCPE curriculum. Figurational sociology concepts (Elias, 1978) were drawn on to make sense of the curriculum makers’ experiences. Interviews were conducted with 10 PEDG members. The findings suggest that the members’ roles had very little, if any, influence on the curriculum development process. Findings also revolved around the unbalanced power-ratios which existed in the PEDG and highlighted the socially powerful position of ‘strong, well-established’ (in the academic field of curriculum development–participant's words) members and the other members (predominantly representing practicing teachers). We express concern for the role of teachers in the curriculum process and argue that they play a crucial and significant role in the school subject curriculum development process. This paper supports Goodson’s (1983) and Penney’s (2006) conceptualisation of the contested and socially constructed nature of the curriculum development process

Digital technology and teacher digital competency in physical education: a holistic view of teacher and student perspectives

Digital technology is growing in popularity in the enacted teaching and learning process. However, there is ongoing debate regarding the evidence of its impact on teaching and learning in physical education. With increasing use in education, digitally competent teachers are essential to the success of its integration. The primary aim of this study was to explore perceived teacher competency levels in applying digital technology to the physical education classroom. Teachers perceived significantly low competency levels in relation to digital technology in physical education. This was a result of both personal and school hindrances which teachers identified as impeding the integration of digital technology in their physical education classes. Drawing on a holistic view of the dichotomy of pedagogy and technology, we suggest that this relationship is more complex than the one stated in most digital competence frameworks, therefore a narrow understanding of teacher digital competency in physical education.</p

Understanding (and extending) the conceptual boundaries of policy research in physical education: A scoping review

Given limited investigation into the state and status of physical education policy research internationally, we suggest there is a need for a more comprehensive empirical review of physical education policy research internationally to inform a future research agenda. The purpose of this scoping review is to map the international peer-reviewed empirical literature detailing policy research in school-based physical education between 2010 and 2020 to understand and make recommendations for extension, where appropriate, of the conceptual boundaries of how to ‘do’ policy research in this field. We followed a three-phase approach to the scoping review: (i) identifying relevant sources; (ii) charting of sources; and (iii) reporting the findings from the charting of sources. Results were interpreted through two theoretical lenses: (a) Rizvi and Lingard’s (2010) framework of policy issues and questions and (b) Diem et al.’s (2014) traditional and critical approaches to educational policy research. Findings are discussed in relation to the charting categories which included: journal; year; affiliations; country of work; funding acknowledgements; research question; policy definition; policy issues; and traditional and/or critical research. We hope this research can be useful to those looking to enter the physical education policy research space, as it introduces them to the research landscape, and to those already engaged in this space looking to fill gaps in the literature.</p