Greek preservice physical education teachers’ mental models of production and reproduction teaching styles

Abstract

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.

Exploring beliefs about teaching sports

“…Throughout the undergraduate course, Anna changed her initial beliefs related to the purposes, strategies, and organization of content through different processes of conceptual change, in which some beliefs related to the prioritized content and students' learning underwent little change. This shows that conceptual change comprises an active, long, slow, and gradual professional learning process that involves the continuous review of beliefs (SYRMPAS et al, 2019;VOSNIADOU et al, 2020).…”

“…These beliefs can be considered naive (VOSNIADOU et al, 2020) because although they have subjective validity, they often do not agree with scientific knowledge of the literature in the area (SYRMPAS et al, 2019;VOSNIADOU et al, 2020). Studies reveal that undergraduate students have beliefs that conflict with contemporary conceptual perspectives on sports teaching and learning (SILVA; FARIAS; MESQUITA, 2021) and converge with the teaching of technique and analytical teaching tasks (MOY et al, 2016;SOUZA et al, 2017;FEU et al, 2019); prescriptive and corrective verbal interventions (SOUZA et al, 2018); controlled environment management, teachercentered decisions and student passivity (SYRMPAS et al, 2019).…”

“…Therefore, conceptual change should be the objective of teacher education programs in the field of Physical Education (HUSHMAN; NAPPER-OWEN; HUSHMAN, 2013). The theory of conceptual change (POSNER et al, 1982;VOSNIADOU, 1994) has been used to understand learning in Physical Education teacher education (HUSHMAN; NAPPER-OWEN;HUSHMAN, 2013;SINCLAIR;THORNTON, 2016;SYRMPAS et al, 2019) and explore how learning occurs when future teachers' previous beliefs are exposed to new information, allowing us to understand how individuals change their beliefs over time about a given domain (VOSNIADOU et al, 2020). Among the different perspectives on conceptual change, in this study the re-framing approach was adopted, which, from a constructivist learning orientation, interprets conceptual change as an active and gradual process that involves the revision of beliefs (VOSNIADOU, 2013).…”

“…Internationally, studies on the conceptual change in the Physical Education teacher education have investigated teaching styles (SYRMPAS et al, 2019;DIGELIDIS, 2020), instruction models (GURVITCH et al, 2008), the constructivist teaching (SINCLAIR; THORNTON, 2016), and effective teaching of ISSN: 1982-8918 Exploring beliefs about teaching sports: an approach to conceptual change in teacher education 03 Physical Education (HUSHMAN; NAPPER-OWEN;HUSHMAN, 2013;LEE, 2018) in some specific stages of training, from a transversal or longitudinal design. Evidences reveals that the training program experiences facilitated processes of conceptual change, allowing future teachers to reach understandings about the strategies and models typical of constructivist teaching practices and effective teaching (HUSHMAN; NAPPER-OWEN;HUSHMAN, 2013), understanding learning as a process in which students are actively involved and the teacher should be a guide or mediator of a collaborative teaching environment where students share their ideas and work in groups in the construction of knowledge (SINCLAIR; THORNTON, 2016;SYRMPAS et al, 2019). However, there are gaps in the investigation of the conceptual change on sports teaching throughout all stages of initial training.…”

O ensino dos jogos esportivos coletivos no ensino fundamental: um estudo com universitários em Educação Física

“…Nessa relação unidirecional, o professor é responsável pelo conjunto de tomada de decisões e ações enquanto os alunos assumem um papel mais passivo, perseguindo os direcionamentos do professor 1 . Estudos indicam que os universitários concluem os programas de formação acreditando que a transmissão de conhecimentos e a centralidade do processo devem ser condutas assumidas pelo professor no ensino da Educação Física para as séries inicias e finais do Ensino Fundamental 34,35 . Sugerem também que as experiências pessoais de prática esportivas contribuíram para o entendimento na forma de se relacionar com os alunos, assim como verificado no caso dos universitários deste estudo.…”