Japanese elementary teachers’ development experiences in relation to teaching physical education

Japanese elementary teachers’ experiences during online professional development regarding involvement of immigrant parents in physical education

“…In Japan, Kenshu (teacher training) is one of the main strategies of PD for elementary school teachers. For example, the so-called 'lesson study' (commonly included in Kenshu by Japanese teachers) has played an important role for Japanese teachers to refine their knowledge of teaching in PE through colleagues' and mentors' feedback and suggestions (Sato et al, 2020a). Typically, lesson study involves a group of teachers meeting regularly to discuss the implementation of research lessons in teachers' own classrooms.…”

“…This study used andragogy theory (Knowles et al, 2020), which has been used in some previous studies investigating elementary teachers’ PD experiences including lesson studies in PE (Sato et al, 2020a), context-specific PE in depopulated school districts (Tsuda et al, 2019), reflective learning through PE portfolios (Sato et al, 2020b), and traditional Japanese dance in secondary schools (Sato et al, 2021) in Japan. From these studies, establishing PD communities is a key factor that facilitates Japanese teachers’ self-directed learning in various professional environments.…”

Public elementary school teachers’ positioning in teaching physical education to Japanese language learners

“…One teacher is assigned to a classroom consisting of around 30-40 children, including JLLs. Elementary school teachers are responsible for teaching and assessment of all academic subject areas, including PE (MEXT, 2020;Sato et al, 2020aSato et al, , 2020b. PE lessons are typically 45 minutes long in public elementary schools (Nakai and Metzler, 2005).…”

“…Japan is known for a collaborative approach to professional development called "lesson study" ( jugyo kenkyu in Japanese), which is also adopted in the PE curriculum for elementary school teachers in Japan (Sato et al, 2020a(Sato et al, , 2020b. Lesson study is a well-organized professional development opportunity that has emerged in Japan for in-service teachers (Saito, 2012) and has played an important role for elementary school teachers in Japan who are not licensed to teach a specific subject area, such as PE.…”

“…Elementary teachers need to work effectively with the parents of JLL children. For example, teachers need to discuss good character traits, safe physical activity practices, and healthy eating habits with parents (Sato et al, 2020a(Sato et al, , 2020b. Furthermore, teachers may need to communicate with parents if their children have injuries, illness, or other incidents during PE class (Kojima and Aino, 2018).…”