Routledge Handbook of Physical Education Pedagogies

Catherine D. Ennis, Catherine D. Ennis

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317589501
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Physical Education

The first fully comprehensive review of theory, research and practice in physical education to be published in over a decade, this handbook represents an essential, evidence-based guide for all students, researchers and practitioners working in PE. Showcasing the latest research and theoretical work, it offers important insights into effective curriculum management, student learning, teaching and teacher development across a variety of learning environments.

This handbook not only examines the methods, influences and contexts of physical education in schools, but also discusses the implications for professional practice. It includes both the traditional and the transformative, spanning physical education pedagogies from the local to the international. It also explores key questions and analysis techniques used in PE research, illuminating the links between theory and practice. Its nine sections cover a wide range of topics including:

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• curriculum theory, development, policy and reform

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• transformative pedagogies and adapted physical activity

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• educating teachers and analysing teaching

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• the role of student and teacher cognition

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• achievement motivation.

Offering an unprecedented wealth of material, the Routledge Handbook of Physical Education Pedagogies is an essential reference for any undergraduate or postgraduate degree programme in physical education or sports coaching, and any teacher training course with a physical education element.

Part I

Designing and conducting physical education research

Introduction

One of my (Cathy’s) graduate students once asked, “Has anyone ever invented a curricular- ometer?” The student went on to explain that there must be a way to put a “sensor” on each aspect of the gymnasium environment – students, teachers, equipment, etc. – to gather “full and complete information” from and about each important aspect of the PE learning environment (Isn’t there an app for that?). The curricular-ometer would then assist researchers to integrate these to understand effective teaching and learning practices. As we write this introduction to the research part, we are fairly certain that a curricular-ometer has not yet been developed. Currently, researchers’ paper and pencils, cameras, laptops, accelerometers, tablets, and apps (to name a few), as well as their eyes, ears, and intuition will continue to be the primary data collection and analysis tools available. Yet, almost 40 years after William Anderson’s and Gary Barrette’s (1978) original question, “What’s going on in gym?” scholars are still working to answer this question. It is a question which has led us to increasingly more sophisticated insights about the interactions and events in physical education that have motivated several generations of physical education pedagogy researchers from around the world.

Conducting research in physical education can be at once a most exciting, perplexing, and exhilarating experience. The opportunity to pose and answer questions about a subject area that we greatly value is without question an energizing and, at times, frustrating experience for pedagogical scholars and researchers. The research opportunities in physical education are rich and varied. Some researchers are eager to delve deeply into the physical education classroom, broadening our perspectives with in-depth analyses of teachers, and students’ many experiences and perceptions. Others are employing statistical modeling techniques to scale research findings, linking variables across classrooms, settings, and geographic areas. They are using complex research designs to reveal insights into relationships among students’ cognitions, attitudes, motivation, and impressions of class climate. Currently, researchers are conceptualizing significant research questions using many different research designs. Their graduate students are soon to be the mid-twenty-first century scholars who are as equally comfortable conducting case studies and life histories as designing modeling studies examining complex relationships across rich data sets of pedagogical variables.

The Designing and Conducting Physical Education Research part opens with a chapter introducing readers to a few of the most important paradigms and procedures currently used to conduct physical education research – broadly defined. Templin and Richards begin with a look at research on teaching in physical education and physical education teacher education. They point out the very real challenges of “real world” research and the dizzying array of perspectives, methods, and contexts where researchers seek answers to better understand what is occurring in physical education. After a brief history, these authors begin by describing the development of physical education research questions and the explicit and implicit links from the research question to the selection of study methods. They conclude by addressing the question, “To what extent does research influence practice?”

Certainly, there have been important findings with lasting benefits to teachers and students currently implemented as evidence-based practice. Templin and Richards point out that evidence-based practice research puts children’s needs first, encouraging practitioners to adopt an orientation toward life-long learning to stay up-to-date in a rapidly evolving profession. Unfortunately, much of the research supporting best practices has not yet reached some teacher education programs or physical education classrooms. A case in point is the rapidly accumulating findings underpinning pedagogical models which appear to hold promise to revolutionize physical education, although as yet have not been widely accepted by practitioners or implemented in practice.

The second chapter in this opening part places the spotlight directly on interpretive and critical research philosophies and practices. Qualitative research has helped researchers move from their mile-high ivory tower perspective on schools and classrooms to become “up close and personal” with teachers and students in their world. Ethnographers, phenomenologists, and critical scholars have revealed in impressive detail and with riveting analyses the microcosm of the school world. In Chapter 2, Woods and Graber provide a look at qualitative research genres with emphasis on the roles and responsibilities of qualitative researchers. They direct the reader to significant research in each genre and point out essential characteristics of research conducted from each perspective. Woods and Graber conclude by assisting novice researchers to think critically and reflectively about the qualitative research process, assisting with such important elements as planning a study, selecting participants, and collecting and analyzing data. Of utmost importance are the underlying foundations of qualitative research, credibility, dependability, and confirmability essential to the design of research studies of high quality. These key elements make a meaningful difference as we work to understand teacher–learner interactions within varied school and physical education contexts.

Catherine D. Ennis

University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA

Stephen J. Silverman

Teachers College, Columbia University, USA

Reference

Anderson, W. G., & Barrette, G. T. (1978). What’s going on in gym?: Descriptive studies of physical education classes [monograph]. Motor skills: Theory into practice, 81.

1

The research enterprise in physical education

Thomas J. Templin, The University of Michigan, USA
& K. AndrewR. Richards, The University of Alabama, USA

Compared to some of the most established fields within the social sciences, research on teaching in physical education (PE) and physical education teacher education (PETE) is a relatively young discipline. Since its resurgence as an enterprise once described as a “dismal science” (Locke, 1977), we have witnessed expansive growth of research publication in mainstream PE or sport pedagogy journals. This research has addressed a myriad of topics linked to the study of curriculum, teaching, teachers, and teacher education in PE (Housner, Metzler, Schempp, & Templin, 2009; Kulinna, Scrabis-Fletcher, Kodish, Phillips, & Silverman, 2009; Silverman & Skonie, 1997; Ward & Ko, 2006). Journals such as Journal of Teaching in Physical Education (28 volumes), Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport (86 volumes), Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy (20 volumes), and the European Physical Education Review (21 volumes) represent some of the prominent publication outlets used by PE scholars. As an illustration of the broader reach of PE scholarship, Kulinna and her colleagues (Kulinna et al., 2009) noted 1,819 PE focused research articles within 94 journals worldwide.

Despite this growth, scholarship in the discipline has not come without challenges. It has been argued that the path taken by PE has been uncertain, non-linear, and, at times, tenuous at best (Kirk, Macdonald, & O’Sullivan, 2006). Many PE scholars and PETE programs continue to vie for status and resources in departments of Kinesiology in the midst of ever-changing values and identities (Lawson, 2007; Templin, Blankenship, & Richards, 2014). PE faculty and PETE programs serve two masters. They stand straddled, with one leg in kinesiology and another in educational research. Research in PE is, therefore, likely the only educational discipline informed by scholarship in both the natural and social sciences. While in some instances this diversity has positive implications for the field, the work of PETE faculty is often divorced from that of faculty in other kinesiology sub-disciplines and the practitioners for whom their work has implications (Bailey & Kirk, 2009). Equally, some of the methodologies used by PE scholars to conduct field studies are foreign to experimentalists or laboratory scientists who, in some instances, still marginalize qualitative research designs.

While challenges continue to impact the work of PE scholars, research in the discipline continues to expand through four generations of sport pedagogy scholars. This research has potential to yield important implications for both PE practice and the training of PE teachers. Research tests theories of education and instructional approaches, leading to the development of practices supported by empirical evidence. It similarly helps to uncover the student experience, identifying practices that work best in increasing student physical activity, motivation, and enjoyment (Armour & Macdonald, 2012). While much of the research in PE began rooted in positivism (i.e., an approach to research which begins with the assumption that there is a “real world” out there that can be objectively measured), the field has evolved to include a variety of interpretivist, critical, feminist, and post-modernist perspectives (Macdonald et al., 2009). To some extent, theoretical perspectives guide methodological decisions. Early scholars adopted descriptive methodologies relying on quantitative frameworks for data collection and analysis (Silverman, 1991). As evident in this volume, contemporary scholars now draw on a wider range of methodological approaches, including qualitative, modeling, and mixed-method/multi-method designs (Hemphill, Richards, Templin, & Blankenship, 2012).

Numerous textbooks have been written to address the process of conducting research in education (e.g., Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2011) and PE (e.g., Armour & Macdonald, 2012; Sparkes & Smith, 2014; Thomas, Nelson, & Silverman, 2015), as well as those that examine qualitative (Patton, 2015) and quantitative (Tabachnick & Fidell, 2007) research methodologies more generally. Rather than discuss specific research methodologies, this chapter focuses on the broader research enterprise in PE. We begin by discussing motives that influence research and then turn to the importance of crafting research questions to focus a study. Next we consider the need for evidence-based practice and the extent to which research impacts practice before concluding with some recommendations for approaching the research process.

The broad view: reasons and motives for pursuing research directions

The first step in the research process typically involves identifying an area of inquiry in which the scholar has an interest. In commenting on the directions taken by scholars in pursuing research agendas, Armour and Macdonald (2012) noted that one’s research “reflects who you are and your interests … therefore, it is important to reflect on the source of your motivation to undertake research in a particular area and for a particular purpose” (p. 9). Macdonald and McCuaig (2012) also recommend that scholars follow their interests and strengths in pursuing research topics, especially since individual research projects represent long-term commitments that could span months if not years. For many, research motives emerge from first-hand experience teaching in K-12 and PETE settings (see Casey & Fletcher, 2012). The topics scholars pursue, therefore, often arise through their work with children, teachers, and PETE students in the complex, sociopolitical contexts of schools and universities.

Beyond first-hand experience, individual researchers may have a variety of motives for asking research questions. For example, a scholar may be motivated by a desire to learn about the teachers’ and children’s lived experiences to give voice to underrepresented groups, or to diagnose potential problems in practice and formulate solutions. Siedentop (2009) explained that PETE scholars represent a research profession whose primary purpose is to serve the discipline of PE. Research and scholarship, from this perspective, relate to improving PE practices in schools. Different research traditions and theoretical orientations also lend themselves to certain types of research inspired by different motives. Critical theorists, for example, seek to critique fundamental democratic assumptions prevalent in much of the Western world, viewing research as a “form of social or cultural criticism” (Kincheloe & McLaren, 2005, p. 303). Participatory action researchers view research as being directly relevant to a particular group of people, and they seek to empower those people through the process of constructing and using knowledge (Nieuwenhuys, 2004).

Beyond an individual’s motives for pursuing a topic, scholars also acknowledge sociopolitical factors that influence research agendas. The selection of research topics and identification of research questions are influenced by a myriad of factors including epistemological beliefs, interests and methodological orientations, availability of funding, and current trends in the research literature (Armour & Macdonald, 2012). Macdonald and McCuaig (2012) argue that research in PE and sport pedagogy is “overlaid by a research context that is freque...