Purpose orientated PETE

The articulation challenge:

One of the many challenges for those of us who are involved in the induction of new PE Teachers (be that lecturer, teacher educator or subject mentor) is that individuals come into the profession having already observed thousands of hours worth of teaching. The advantage of this “apprenticeship of observation” is that novice teachers have a wide range of experiences to draw upon and use to make sense of when learning about teaching and learning. This is even more important, if they come from undergrad courses which are heavy on scientific subject content and light on curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.

Due to their observations they arrive with strong beliefs about what the subject is about and how to teach it already in place. Much of it based on their own personal experience as a pupil and therefore having powerful preferences already formed. The type of PE they had as a pupil at school, where they often experienced success and a sense of belonging, is typically what they try to reproduce. This is based on the seen elements of teaching PE – 1) the tasks and activities their PE teachers asked them to do and 2) the behaviours of their PE teachers (for example: instruction, feedback, praise, sanction, demonstration, feedback).

In addition it is these seen element of teaching PE that are prioritised within their induction to teaching PE. Good lecturers, teacher educators and subject mentors will explicitly model good teaching approaches for novices to imitate and practice within their own teaching. Imitation of good practice is an important start for any novice, but it shouldn’t be blind imitation that lacks any criticality of whether that sort of PE practice is effective, meaningful and inclusive to more children, more often.

To do that well there needs to thinking, deep and intentional thinking, about the purpose of the practices being modelled, imitated and implemented. However this thinking is the unseen element of teaching PE that novices were not privy to when observing their own PE teachers and is often not made explicit by lecturers, teacher educators and subject mentors. A good induction into teaching PE has to include not just the modelling of teaching tasks and teaching behaviours but also the teacher’s thinking behind them. Effectiveness of a task or behaviour can’t solely be judged on what we can observe, we also need to understand the purposes behind them if we are to help support and develop teaching practice. This requires all involved in the induction process to share their own thinking, but also help the novice teacher to articulate theirs so it can be shared, understood and developed. Making the unseen element of teaching explicit – thinking and cognition – is the articulation challenge.

An articulation scaffold:

One framework that is useful (but by no means perfect) for meeting the articulation challenge is Shulman’s (1987) model of pedagogical reasoning. In order to develop a knowledge based for teaching we need to articulate both the seen and the unseen elements. The model he proposed is a way of making the unseen elements more explicit which then can be examined and analysed. Gotwald (2023) defines pedagogical reasoning as “the process by which teachers engage knowledge to consider and make pedagogical decisions in pursuit of pedagogical purposes“. Therefore, pedagogical reasoning then includes judgement, decision making, planning, the use of knowledge (from different disciplines), attention and evaluation.

Shulman’s (1987) model comprises of a cycle of activities (see below), however as thinking is messy and nonlinear not all activities need to occur in order all of the time. It provides a scaffold to support those responsible for the induction of new PE teachers into the profession to engage with the unseen element of good teaching; the processes of thinking, judging, decision making, analysing, problem solving and evaluating. Getting a novice PE teacher to articulate their pedagogical reasoning can enable them to develop a clearer and more defined comprehension of the subject that are teaching.

A pedagogical reasoning informed review:

How can lecturers, teacher educators and mentors use the model of pedagogical reasoning to support the development of novice PE teachers and the unseen element of good teaching practice? One main way is to review their teaching experience through this lens. This means moving beyond what is typically seen in an observation feedback session, which is either the ‘laundry list‘ style of feedback where the observer lists everything the novice teacher has done right or wrong or the ‘recipe list‘ style of feedback where the observer goes through the lesson in chronological order describing what they did and whether it was good or not. Neither of these two approach make the unseen element of teaching explicit in a way that can be understood, critiqued and developed.

The 4A-I Feedback Framework can support the articulation and development of pedagogical reasoning through a structured review after teaching. It is a framework built on the observer asking a series of questions around aim, approach, impact, alternatives and action points and assisting the PE teacher to answer as explicitly as they can (see below). This is to move beyond what a PE teacher does (the seen element of teaching practice) to also understand their decision making process behind their action (the unseen element of teaching practice).

Q1 – Clarify Aim	Aim – what was your aim? Why was that your aim? How does it link to purpose/big picture?
Q2 – Reason Approach	Approach – what approaches did you use to meet your aim? Why did you choose them? What alternatives did you consider?
Q3 – Judge Impact	Impact – what impact did your approach have? Did it work towards your aim or something else? How do you know – what evidence do you have to judge your impact?
Q4 – Explore Alternatives	Alternatives – how will you know if your aim & approach was the right one? Did you consider alternatives? Did anything emerge when teaching that made you question your choices?
Q5 – Set Action Points	Action point – what have you learnt about your aim, approach, impact & alternatives? How will you enhance them? How will you close the gap between aim and reality going forward?

A purpose orientated PETE:

The seen and unseen elements of PE teachers teaching should not be seen as dichotomous but as complimentary. Trying to teach 30 individual young people how to become a physically educated person is complex, value laden and full of unsolvable problems. Focusing on the either the practices of teaching or the pedagogical reasoning behind teaching is insufficient as both are necessary. Instructional techniques, practices and strategies are important but so is the pedagogical reasoning behind them. There is a bi-direction relationship between the unseen element of teaching influencing the seen element and vice-versa. Those responsible for inducting new PE teachers into the profession need to focus on both purpose and practice, particularly if we care about the quality of PE provision children and young people experience.