FROM A SCHOOL SITE: CONSTRUCTING PRESERVICE TEACHERS' KNOWLEDGE ABOUT TEACHING PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Rick Bell, Associate Professor

School of Physical Education

University of Victoria

Tim Hopper, Assistant Professor

School of Physical Education

University of Victoria

There has been an increasing need for collaboration between schools and universities for the implementation of school-based physical education courses (Siedentop & Locke, 1997). At the same time, there is a long held belief by student teachers that they learn the most from field-based experiences in schools. Schools offer ‘real’ children in a ‘real’ context that potentially can create ideal stimuli for learning to teach because the problems of teaching in a school do not present themselves as givens, but as “‘messy’, ‘indeterminate’ and ‘problematic’ situations which arise because of ‘conflicting values’”(Carr, 1989, p. 9). Phase I of this research project will focus on students enrolled in two field-based courses at the University of Victoria and two courses at the University of Alberta with similar field-based components. In the research project, we will collect data that will enable us to examine how student teachers in these field-based courses learn “how to teach.” The researchers will seek data to answer three questions:

1. What is common in student teachers' learning in field-based teacher education courses?

2. How do student teachers learn in field-based teacher preparation courses?

3. How do field-based components in a course affect instructors’ pedagogy?

Primary data sources will include participant observation and transcribed interviews with student teachers. Secondary data sources will include student teachers’ journals, course-listserv and instructor’s reflective notes while teaching the course. Coding of these triangulated data sources will compare and contrast recurring themes between courses. Commonalties between these courses will offer a frame of reference to understand teacher education courses with a fundamental field-based component and how student teachers construct knowledge for teaching.

Phase II of the project will compare student teachers' learning in a field-based teacher preparation course to similar courses that do not have a field-based component. This comparison will be made in two ways:

(1) Comparing student teachers' learning in non-field-based teacher preparation courses using primary and secondary data sources listed above, and

(2) Tracking student teachers from field-based teacher preparation courses, and comparing their self-reported and observed lessons in PE when compared to other student teachers, as they go through the teacher education program and start a career as a teacher.

The professional school model for preparing future teachers is not a new idea. Incorporating schools as a source of knowledge and skill acquisition while learning how to teach makes good sense. This research will seek to understand the benefits and cost to student teachers, teacher educators and teachers in a school of situating a teacher preparation course at a school.

References

Carr, W. (1989). Introduction: Understanding quality in teaching. In W. Carr (Ed.), Quality in teaching: Arguments for reflective profession (pp. 1-18). London, New York and Philadelphia: The Falmer Press.

Siedentop, D., & Locke, L. (1997). Making a difference for physical education. What professors and practitioners must build together. JOPERD, 68(4), 25-33.