Influence of a training programme on a preservice teacher’s ability to promote moral and sporting behaviour in sport education

Abstract

Sport education (SE) has been touted as a model particularly conducive to realizing affective objectives. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the influence of a training programme on one preservice physical education (PE) teacher's ability to promote moral and sporting behaviour in SE. The participants in the study were the teacher, Alex, and the 75 middle school students he taught within two 20-lesson SE Ultimate Frisbee seasons. The theories of structural development and social learning guided data collection and analysis. Data were collected with nine qualitative methods and reduced to themes by employing analytic induction and constant comparison. Many of the students in the study had been socialized into norms of sporting participation that were mostly negative and believed that it was acceptable to behave in an unfair and unsporting manner. During the course of the two seasons, Alex managed to get many of them to question this thinking and to engage in positive sporting behaviours. That he did not change the thinking or behaviours of some highly skilled students, and that the behaviours of other students of similar skill level regressed once the seasons became more competitive, illustrated how powerful the negative influences of the institution of organized youth and school sport can be.

Moral development and sporting behavior in sport education: A case study of a preservice teacher with a coaching orientation

“…Finally, there were some instances of students defining moral and sporting behavior in terms of engaging in positive behaviors. These students appeared to be operating at Kohlberg’s (1976) postconventional level of moral development and, similar to some of the students studied previously within SE seasons (Brock and Hastie, 2007; Schwamberger and Curtner-Smith, 2017, in press; Sinelnikov and Hastie, 2008; Vidoni and Ward, 2009), tended to focus almost exclusively on ‘respecting’ officials, opponents, and teammates and being supportive of ‘equality’ in terms of ensuring all students got ‘playing time’ within the unit:There’s some people, like myself, who aren’t as skilled as others and if they like made a basket or made a really good pass, everyone would cheer them on. Like even if they weren’t on my team I’d still like cheer them on cos I know that it would like just make their confidence go up.…”

“…Moreover, Farias et al (2017) worked successfully with inservice teachers to promote student autonomy and cooperation. Similarly, Schwamberger and Curtner-Smith (2017) found that a package of interventions they used with one preservice teacher enabled him to improve the sporting behavior of all but the most athletic students he taught. Again, however, this study indicated that the behaviors of students of all abilities regressed when the SE season reached its most competitive point.…”

“…An often claimed goal for physical education (PE) is the development of behaviors within the affective domain (Jacobs et al, 2013; Schwamberger and Curtner-Smith, 2017). Two elements championed within the affective domain have been moral development in general and the display of sporting behavior in particular (Schwamberger and Curtner-Smith, 2017; Shields and Bredemeier, 1995). Sport pedagogists have struggled to define moral development within the PE setting.…”

“…A number of scholars have suggested that PE is a good medium through which teachers can promote moral development (Jacobs et al, 2013; Schwamberger and Curtner-Smith, 2017; Vidoni and Ward, 2009). Indeed, Shields and Bredemeier (1995) argued that the subject was ‘probably the most significant physical activity context [in schools] for developing moral character’ (p. 199).…”

“…supporting and praising students who demonstrate sporting behavior). On the downside, Schwamberger and Curtner-Smith (2017) noted that PE teachers who do not require their students to deal with moral dilemmas and use direct teaching styles are unlikely to enhance their charges’ moral development. Moreover, teachers who overtly or implicitly support immoral behavior in sporting contexts (e.g.…”