The impact of nonlinear pedagogy on physical education teacher education students’ intrinsic motivation

Background: Providing motivationally supportive physical education experiences for learners is crucial since empirical evidence in sport and physical education research has associated intrinsic motivation with positive educational outcomes. Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a valuable framework for examining motivationally supportive physical education experiences through satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence and relatedness. However, the capacity of the prescriptive teaching philosophy of the dominant traditional physical education teaching approach to effectively satisfy the psychological needs of students to engage in physical education has been questioned. The constraints-led approach (CLA) has been proposed as a viable alternative teaching approach that can effectively support students’ self-motivated engagement in physical education. Purpose: We sought to investigate whether adopting the learning design and delivery of the CLA, guided by key pedagogical principles of nonlinear pedagogy (NLP), would address basic psychological needs of learners, resulting in higher self-reported levels of intrinsic motivation. The claim was investigated using action research. The teacher/researcher delivered two lessons aimed at developing hurdling skills: one taught using the CLA and the other using the traditional approach. Participants and Setting: The main participant for this study was the primary researcher and lead author who is a PETE educator, with extensive physical education teaching experience. A sample of 54 pre-service PETE students undertaking a compulsory second year practical unit at an Australian university was recruited for the study, consisting of an equal number of volunteers from each of two practical classes. A repeated measures experimental design was adopted, with both practical class groups experiencing both teaching approaches in a counterbalanced order. Data collection and analysis: Immediately after participation in each lesson, participants completed a questionnaire consisting of 22 items chosen from validated motivation measures of basic psychological needs and indices of intrinsic motivation, enjoyment and effort. All questionnaire responses were indicated on a 7-point Likert scale. A two-tailed, paired-samples t-test was used to compare the groups’ motivation subscale mean scores for each teaching approach. The size of the effect for each group was calculated using Cohen’s d. To determine whether any significant differences between the subscale mean scores of the two groups was due to an order effect, a two-tailed, independent samples t test was used. Findings: Participants’ reported substantially higher levels of self-determination and intrinsic motivation during the CLA hurdles lesson compared to during the traditional hurdles lesson. Both groups reported significantly higher motivation subscale mean scores for competence, relatedness, autonomy, enjoyment and effort after experiencing the CLA than mean scores reported after experiencing the traditional approach. This significant difference was evident regardless of the order that each teaching approach was experienced. Conclusion: The theoretically based pedagogical principles of NLP that inform learning design and delivery of the CLA may provide teachers and coaches with tools to develop more functional pedagogical climates, which result in students exhibiting more intrinsically motivated behaviours during learning.

Tacit Pedagogical Knowing: At the Core of Teacher's Professionality

The purpose of this research was to examine class teachers' interactive pedagogical thinking and action, in other words their tacit pedagogical knowing. Tacit pedagogical knowing was defined as a process in interactive teaching situation, through which a teacher finds solutions to surprising and challenging situations, pedagogical moments, so that the lesson continues. Teachers are able to describe their tacit pedagogical knowing afterwards and also find some reasons for it as well. More specifically, the aim was to study, 1) how does a class teacher's tacit pedagogical knowing appear in teacher's actions, and 2) what kinds of contents include in class teacher's tacit pedagogical knowing. The research material was gathered from four class teachers by videotaping their lessons and by stimulated recall interviews. In addition to this, the researcher spent a relatively long time in the research participants' classrooms. She conducted initial interviews and orientating observations by means of participant observation in order to get to know the participants and their contexts better. A phenomenologically oriented approach, which proceeded by following abductive logic, was used in the analysis procedures of the videotaped and stimulated recall data. In addition to this, correlation examinations were used in the validation of stimulated recall data analyses. The appearance of the tacit pedagogical knowing was observed in the videotaped data. The contents of tacit pedagogical knowing were defined by the analyses of stimulated recall data. According to the research results, a class teacher's tacit pedagogical knowing appears in the maintenance of the pedagogical relation, the teacher's relation to content, and the didactical relation. The contents of class teacher's tacit pedagogical knowing were many sided. The maintenance of the pedagogical relation, the teacher's relation to content, and the didactical relation were elements of the contents as well. In addition to these, the maintenance of teacher's pedagogical authority, the maintenance of the student's role or pedagogical authority, and the awareness of the nature of the content of instruction are included in the contents of teacher's tacit pedagogical knowing. The phenomenon of tacit pedagogical knowing was observed to be clearly a process-like and relational phenomenon. Based on the research results, a model of teacher's tacit pedagogical knowing was developed. Using the model, it is possible to illustrate the factors that are at the core of teacher's professionality. This model could be used in the context of teacher education, supervision, or in-service training.

New Frontiers or old certainties: The pre-service teacher internship

Teacher education in Australia has a rich history of evolution from apprenticeships to university education. In this chapter the teacher education internship is examined. More specifically, the chapter outlines the Western Australian Combined Universities Training School (WACUTS) project, with its focus on reducing the gap between theory and practice through a collaborative and reflective approach. The successes and challenges faced in the first six months of implementation are presented

Rethinking connectedness : an investigation into the access of teacher professional learning in regional and remote Western Australia

Many teachers working in remote and regional areas have limited access to collegial support networks. This research aimed to examine the existing strategies that were being undertaken by the Department of Education in Western Australia, to provide professional learning to teachers in regional and remote areas. It was important to establish the perceptions of teachers’ access to professional learning from those working at the coalface in geographically dispersed areas. Consequently, the possible opportunity for improving the amount and variety of professional learning, through the application of both synchronous and asynchronous technologies was proposed. The study was guided by the primary research question: “In what ways might technology be used to support professional development of regional and remote teachers in Western Australia?” Generating descriptions of current practice of professional learning along with the teacher perceptions were central to this research endeavour. The study relied on a mixed method research approach in order to attend to the research question. The data were collected in phases, referred to as an explanatory mixed methods design. Quantitative data were collected from 104 participants to provide a general picture of the research problem. To further refine this general picture, qualitative data were collected through interviews and e-interviews of 10 teachers. Participants in the study included graduate teachers, teachers who had taught more than two years, senior teachers and Level Three teachers from seven teaching districts within Western Australia. An investigation into current practice was included in this phase and technologies available to support a professional learning community over distance were documented. The final phase incorporated the formulation of a conceptual framework where a model was developed to facilitate the successful implementation of a professional learning community through the application of synchronous and asynchronous technologies. The study has identified that travel time in order to access professional development is significant and impacts on teachers’ personal time. There are limited relief teachers available in these isolated areas which impacts on the opportunities to access professional development. Teachers face inequities, in terms of promotion, because professional development is explicitly linked to promotional opportunities. Importantly, it was found that professional learning communities are valued, but are often limited by small staff numbers at the geographic locality of the school. Teachers preferred to undertake professional learning in the local context of their district, school or classroom and this professional learning must be established at the need of the individual teacher in line with the school priorities. Teachers reported they were confident in using technology and accessing professional development online if required, however, much uncertainty surrounded the use of web 2.0 technologies for this purpose. The recommendations made from the study are intended to identify how a professional learning community might be enhanced through synchronous and asynchronous technologies.

Becoming a health and physical education teacher: Student teacher ‘performances’ in the HPE subject department office

This study considered how physical education teacher education students ‘perform’ their ‘selves’ within subject department offices during the practicum or ‘teaching practice’. The research was framed by a conceptual framework informed by the work of Goffman on ‘performance’ and ‘front’. The findings revealed three common performances across the whole group across all sites. These were: performance of sports talk, bodily performances, and performance of masculine repertoires. Such performances were considered to be inconsistent with the coursework ideals and principles within the teacher education programme but in step with the general ethos of most PE department offices.

The in-service teacher trainer: profile, career path and duties

This article is the result of a doctoral thesis that aims to understand the reality of teacher trainers at a given moment, when their professional role changes from being a managing training advisor to a role that is more centred on process counselling. Using in-depth interviews, we defined the personal and professional profile of training counsellors in the Balearic Islands, their career path, the process for their inclusion in Teacher Centres (CEP) and, finally, the duties and skills that they perform as teacher trainers. The data that has been collected shows the coexistence of different professional roles in the group of education advisors. Moreover, it also indicates a lack of definition of the profile needed to access an advisor's position. There are indeed some coincidences determining the access route to such a position when it comes to the teaching profession since their leadership qualities and group dynamics expertise are a common indicator in most cases. The research also shows that they are subjected not only to a wide range of roles and tasks but also to a vast array of competences required to tackle the education advisor's tasks.

Novice teachers' perceptions of the extent to which the Brock University teacher education program focused on methods of promoting responsibility in students

The purpose of this study was to determine novice t~ache~s' perceptions of th~ extent to which the Brock University teacher education program focused on strategies for promoting responsibility in students. Individual interviews were conducted with ten randomly selected teachers who were graduates of this teacher education program between the years of 1989 and 1992, and a follow-up group discussion activity, with the same teachers, was also held. Findings revealed that the topic of personal responsibility was discussed within various components of the program, including counselling group sessions, but that these discussions were often brief, indirect and inconsistent. Some of the strategies which the teachers used in their own classrooms to promote responsibility in students were ones which they had acquired from those counselling group °sessions or from associate teachers. Various strategies included: setting ~lear expectations of students with positive and negative consequences for behaviour (e.g., material rewards and detentions, respectively), cemmunic?ting'with other teachers an~ parents, and -. suspending students from school. A teacher's choice of any particular strategy seemed to be affected by his or her personality, teaching sUbject and region of employment, as well as certain aspects of the teacher education program. It was concluded that many of the teachers appeared to be controlling rude and vio~ent- behaviour, as opposed to promoting responsible behaviour. Recommendations were made for the pre-service program, as well as induction and inservice programs, to increase teacher preparedness for promoting responsible student behaviour. One of these recommendations addressed the need to help teachers learn how to effectively communicate with their students.

What Matters? : the full-time graduate students' perceptions of teacher effectiveness

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the full-time graduate students' perceptions of teacher effectiveness at the graduate school level, to identify how graduate students perceive effective and ineffective teachers, and specifically to discover the main dimensions of teacher effectiveness that graduate students perceive as most significant. This topic was investigated because, although the teacher has been deemed as a crucial component in the teaching process, there is no common agreement on the definition and measure of teacher effectiveness. Graduate students' perceptions of teacher effectiveness have not been given much attention. The research design was based on a ground theory approach. It utilized qualitative data through interviews, field notes, andjournals. The findings ofthis study revealed that teacher effectiveness is markedly influential to graduate students. There is no universally consented definition or measure of teacher effectiveness due to the multidimensionality of teaching and learning. Nevertheless, several major dimensions ofteacher effectiveness were discovered and highlighted in this study. Such dimensions include good command of subject matter, presentation skills, challenging and motivating students, rapport with students, learning environment, course demands, as well as assessment and feedback. It was hoped that the study would move towards developing a theory that contributes to the knowledge base of graduate students' perceptions of teacher effectiveness. It was anticipated that the results would provide first-hand information for the instructor to improve teaching; for the administrator to promote the effective educational experiences and student achievements. It was intended that the findings would lay a theoretical and empirical groundwork for future research.

The graduate teacher programme in England: mentor training, quality assurance and the findings of inspection

In its recent report on the Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP), an employment-based route to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in England, the Government's Office for Standards in Education found that, although almost all trainees meet the standards required to qualify, too often they do so at an adequate level, rather than achieving the high levels of which they should be capable. The underlying reason for this is the quality of mentoring provided in the schools. The inspectors concluded that schoolbased trainers are often not adequately prepared for their role in implementing wide-ranging training programmes for trainee teachers. Despite this generally bleak picture, Ofsted concluded that 'the minority of cases of good practice in the training programmes and of high quality teaching by trainees indicate that the GTP can be an effective alternative route for training teachers'™. This article considers the strengths and weaknesses of the Graduate Teacher Programme, introduced in January 1998, and also reports on a small-scale project, funded by the Teacher Training Agency (TTA), the key objective of which was to strengthen the existing partnerships by improving the quality of school-based tutor training and continuous professional development of staff.

Distance teacher education – some experiences from Dalarna University, SwedenPaper presented at the 33rd Annual ATEE Conference Brussels, Belgium, 23rd – 27th August 2008

Distance teaching is now-a-days used in different shapes. However, it is something different from traditional campus organised education as it systematically uses Information Communication Technology (ICT) as a key element. When the distance teacher education started in Sweden many teacher educators doubted the wisdom of this. They expressed that the educational process to become a teacher would be deteriorated. For instance, they feared for high drop out rates and difficulties to examine in a proper way. The Swedish National Agency for Higher Education has recently edited a report that showed that this form of teacher education was well adapted to the labour market, but the possibilities for the teacher students to shape their education were relatively limited. However, we still know quite little about the effects of this way to educate teacher students. This paper explores the possibility of using distance teacher education.In a case study 20 students, who were the first to finish a complete a distance teacher education at Högskolan Dalarna, were asked in a questionnaire how they had apprehended their education. We also interviewed four of these students, as well as five teacher educators.One of our findings were that the distance teacher education reached new target groups, who not had been able to participate in university studies if it not had been offered in this form. Especially, this was valid for the middle-aged women, living a long distance away from a university, with social responsibilities for children or old parents. Other findings were that these students in general were target oriented and ambitious, wrote more than the campus students and developed that kind of skill better. Marratech, an ICT system for small groups, e-mail and chat were used for the communication. Marratech was considered to permit free and spontaneous communication, both of the teacher educators and the students. Initially the teacher educators were sceptical to distance teacher education, but afterwards they were surprised of how well it had worked. They declared that they had better and nearer contact with their students and more control over the students´ performance, but some parts of the teacher education were better suitable for campus education, for example, power of creating characters. Distance teacher education was considered time consuming and demanded much activity from the teacher educators as the students wanted rapid responses. This study indicates that distance teacher education works well for mature individuals with high motivation. However, it demands more time from the teacher educators, but it gives in general good results. Still, there are pedagogical challenges to overcome. Maybe we should reflect on a mix of distance teacher education and campus based teacher education, instead of separated ways of accomplishing teacher education?

Strategies used by the children's education teacher for orientation and mobility of the visually impaired student

This study aims to identify, describe, and analyse strategies used by a teacher to support the mobility of students with visual impairment in various school environments. A female student with visual impairment in Brazil, aged 5 years, and her classroom teacher participated in the study. Their interactions were videotaped, and later, their dialogue and actions were transcribed. Six themes of analysis were elaborated, one for each support strategy used by the teacher. The results revealed that the strategies employed by the teacher often hampered the child’s orientation and mobility. This was probably the result of a lack of assistance by professionals specialised in Orientation and Mobility, as stipulated in Brazilian legislation.

The Effect of College Student Demographic Variables on Teacher Enmeshment

Interactions between students and faculty outside of class appear to be linked to greater achievement during and after college (Anaya & Cole, 2001; Hathaway, Nagda, & Gregerman, 2002). However, sometimes there can be blurred personal boundaries and a lack of autonomy in relationships or what has been labeled enmeshment. The purpose of the current pilot study was to investigate the effect of race/ethnicity, gender, year in college, and college major on faculty-student relationships and teacher enmeshment. Teacher enmeshment was measured with the Teacher Enmeshment subscale of the Separation-Individuation Test of Adolescence (SITA; Levine & Saintonge, 1993). A sample of 165 undergraduate and graduate students from education and psychology classes at a small, private liberal arts institution in the Northeast participated. No significant differences among the different demographic groups were found on the total teacher enmeshment score. However, significant differences were found among students with different majors, by gender, and by race on individual items. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are provided.

Teacher emotions in the classroom: Associations with students’ engagement, classroom discipline and the interpersonal teacher-student relationship

The present study explores teacher emotions, in particular how they are predicted by students’ behaviour and the interpersonal aspect of the teacher-student relationship (TSR). One hundred thirty-two secondary teachers participated in a quantitative study relying on self-report questionnaire data. Based on the model of teacher emotions by Frenzel (2014), teachers rated their experienced joy, anger and anxiety during classroom instruction (dependent variable). Students’ motivational behaviour (= engagement), socio-emotional behaviour (= discipline in class) and relational behaviour (= closeness; interpersonal TSR) were assessed as the independent variables. Teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs served as a control variable. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the interpersonal relationship formed between teachers and students was the strongest predictor for teachers’ joy (positive relation) and anxiety (negative relation), whereas lack of discipline in class best predicted teachers’ anger experiences. Students’ engagement also proved a significant predictor of teacher emotions. The results suggest that interpersonal TSR plays a particularly important role in teachers’ emotional experiences in class.

Studies in the role of the public school teacher,

Includes bibliographies.

Literacy Content and Core Practices: Teacher Educator Pedagogy as the Bridge Between Knowing and Doing

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-04