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The main purpose of the present study was to examine Greek physical education (PE) teachers' selfreported use of the Spectrum of teaching styles and their perceptions of the benefits of adopting these styles for their students. An additional goal was to explore the teachers' perceived ability to implement these teaching approaches. The participants of the study were 219 (132 males, 87 females) PE teachers. Using an adaptation of Kulinna and Cothran's (2003) Spectrum of teaching styles questionnaire, the PE teachers reported greater implementation of the command, inclusion, and practice styles than the self-check, learner-initiated, and self-teaching styles in their teaching. The PE teachers also perceived that the reproduction and production clusters of teaching styles were equally effective in promoting fun, skill learning, and motivation for learning in their students. Results also revealed that the teachers' self-perceived ability was highest for command style use and their perceived benefits of the styles for their students were highest for the practice approach. The findings of the present study reinforce that a variety of personal experience factors can influence PE teachers' tendency to implement a specific teaching style.

The purpose of this study was to examine Greek preservice physical education (PE) teachers’ presuppositions, beliefs and mental models about the reproduction and production teaching styles. The participants were 16 preservice PE teachers (10 males, six females). A qualitative methodology was used with data collected using semi-structured interviews. A multi-level analysis process using open coding and axial coding was sequentially conducted. Findings revealed two generative mental models about teaching styles. For the first mental model ( n = 5), learning is considered as a transmissive and unidimensional (i.e. one goal pursued at a time) process. Presuppositions supported by this mental model urge the preservice teachers to believe that the reproduction teaching styles promote effective learning, class control, students’ safety and discipline. For the second mental model ( n = 11), learning is viewed as a constructivist and multidimensional (i.e. multiple goals pursued at a time) process. Presuppositions supported by this mental model urge the participants to believe that the production teaching styles effectively promote students’ learning, critical thinking, responsibility, motivation, autonomy and discipline. The aforementioned mental models highlight the developmental nature of preservice PE teachers’ learning concerning the production and the reproduction teaching styles. These mental models reveal the diversity of PE preservice teachers’ understanding of the teaching and learning processes. Furthermore, findings support Vosniadou’s assumption that learners come to formal education not as a tabula rasa but holding a naive understanding about the world.

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In recent years, European countries have become hosting destinations for thousands of people who have been forced to leave their home countries. Greece is one of the main European hosting countries of refugees, especially children. Thus, the pupil population is gradually changing and the need for intercultural education is increasing. Physical education (PE) and sports have been recorded as suitable contexts for this process. However, there are still many challenges present in these contexts. The following study attempts to present the perceptions of PE teachers, coaches, and academics on the inclusion of refugees in PE and sports. Fifteen PE teachers/coaches and academics involved in the field of intercultural education participated in the study. A phenomenological approach was followed through semi-structured interviews. The method of thematic analysis was chosen to analyze the data. While all the participants considered PE and sports to be the most suitable contexts for the inclusion of refugees, they emphasized certain barriers to be overcome: the lack of training for PE teachers and coaches, prejudices of the parents of both natives and refugees, and refugees’ socioeconomic status and gender issues. Participants also shared their ideas for an adequate training program to improve PE teachers’ and coaches’ attitudes and promote their knowledge and skills regarding the inclusion of refugees. The participants underlined the need for intercultural education and well-structured training programs to properly manage culturally diverse environments.

This study is aiming at examining 1) physical education teachers' self-perceived verbal aggressiveness and argumentativeness, 2) students' perceptions about verbal aggressiveness and argumentativeness developed by their teachers, in order to assess the communicational accordance between students' and teachers' perceptions in elementary, junior and high schools. A combination of qualitative (study 1) and quantitative methods (study 2) has been implemented for this purpose. Fifteen PE teachers (6 females and 9 males), participated in the qualitative study; and 894 students (442 males, 452 females), participated in the quantitative study. According to the study 1, argumentativeness and verbal aggressiveness are features that co-exist to a person's behavior.

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