Conventional Thought and Practice in Physical Education: Problems of Teaching and Implications for Change

The international agenda for assessment continues to convey a growing interest in assessment for learning (AfL) as a tool to support learning and enhance teaching. Complementing this, the recent literature on assessment in physical education acknowledges the need for physical educators to integrate AfL into their teaching and assessment practice as an important part of the future development of the subject. Appreciating that physical education must be recognized as part of the larger movement culture in society and is a place to learn about movement culture, this study explores how AfL is understood and enacted by physical education teachers and the extent to which such enactment complements or challenges learning movement cultures within physical education. This study shares how three Norwegian physical education teachers used AfL to term what they were practicing with respect to assessment in physical education. We follow the interactions of the selected teachers throughout focus groups, using the empirical data as our 'dialogue partner' in reconstructing and discussing their assessment stories. We conclude that the need of embedding AfL in learning theory may well be one of the strongest challenges to enacting AfL in physical education. We acknowledge that not only are most existing theories of learning defined cognitively, but also that learning connected to physical education and activity is, to a large extent, practical and embodied, and also linked to the powerful discourses of sport and related areas such as health.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘It's the other assessment that is the key’: three Norwegian physical education teachers' engagement (or not) with assessment for learning

Leirhaug

MacPhail

2015

“…In this article, taking the context in which action occurs into account also means paying special attention to the prevailing movement cultures (Crum, 1993). A movement culture, for example, the practice of different forms of sports, exercise and outdoor activities, is characterised by certain intrinsic logics.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communicating aims and learning goals in physical education: part of a subject for learning?

Redelius

Quennerstedt

Öhman

2015

Based on a socio-cultural perspective on learning, the aim of this article is to examine how aims and learning goals are communicated in physical education (PE) practice. A special focus is on scrutinising how teaching practices are framed in terms of whether and how the aims and learning goals are made explicit or not to students. The aim is also to relate these kinds of communications to different movement cultures. The result shows that many of the students taking part in the study do not understand what they are supposed to learn in PE. However, if the goals are well articulated by teachers, the students are more likely to both understand and be aware of the learning outcomes and what to learn in PE. The opposite is also true. If the goals and objectives are not clarified, students find it difficult to state the learning objectives and know what they are supposed to learn.

“…A lingering pedagogy Larsson and Karlefors (2015) claim the situation in Sweden today is very similar to that described by Crum (1993) some 20 years earlier as 'characterised by a lack of time devoted to task, an overuse of direct teaching and inappropriate feedback or accountability ' (p. 344). In thinking about the term 'direct teaching', we are most likely referring to what Hoffman (1971) called 'traditional methodology' which he, like Crum, observed to be the most widely used pedagogical method in PE.…”

Section: Commentary On Research Into Learning In Physical Education 677mentioning

confidence: 95%

Commentary on research into learning in physical education: towards a mature field of knowledge

Tinning

2015

In this commentary, I consider each of the papers in this special issue in regard to their contribution to a debate on the nature of learning in physical education (PE). I also discuss how we might take this aspiration further by moving beyond a 'mere' debate over learning theories to a knowledge building process in which knowledge claims are 'tested' against their compatibility (or non-compatibility) with other 'knowings'. In this regard, I introduce the idea of vertical integration or compatibility as a consideration for building a more mature field of study of learning in PE.