THE UNIVERSITY of WINCHESTER the Faculty of Education, Health
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THE UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER The Faculty of Education, Health and Social Care Becoming a Primary Physical Educator: Sourcing professional knowledge and confidence Victoria Katherine Randall Doctor of Education April 2016 This Thesis has been completed as a requirement for a postgraduate research degree of the University of Winchester 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER ABSTRACT FOR THESIS Becoming a Primary Physical Educator: Sourcing professional knowledge and confidence Victoria Katherine Randall Faculty of Education, Health and Social Care Doctor of Education April 2016 Despite a number of reforms to education, concern over teachers’ knowledge and confidence to teach physical education persists. This thesis examines the process of becoming a primary physical educator at the initial stage of a teacher’s career. The aim of which is to consider the ways beginning teachers source their professional knowledge and the implications this has on their confidence to teach. The study argues for a clear articulation of the subject’s knowledge-base and proposes a framework for the development of knowledge in primary physical education initial teacher education. Participants were drawn from a range of providers in England and were in the final year of their programme. The research adopted a mixed method approach using an online survey to obtain quantitative data and interviews to elicit constructs about beliefs from four case-study participants. The study identified that beginning teachers had perceived high levels of confidence across the subject’s knowledge-base, but areas of most and least confidence were varied and personal to the individual. The sourcing of knowledge was mainly drawn from school and university settings, but in many cases personal interests and prior experiences formed a central role in sourcing content knowledge when no opportunity was presented. Despite the varying routes that exist to become a primary physical educator, this research argues that all beginning teachers require a breadth of knowledge during initial teacher preparation, with university and school partnerships offering explicit roles in developing professional knowledge to a secure level. It further argues that it is through a focus on individual teacher transformation, not merely reflection that will ensure inherent challenges faced by primary physical education will be addressed. 13 Contents Page Abstract 1 List of appendices 4 List of figures 5 Chapter One: Introduction - Research context 9 - My professional context 10 - Research aims and objectives 11 - Research questions 12 - Structure of the thesis 13 Chapter Two: Making Sense of Primary Physical Education Initial Teacher Education - Introduction 19 - Initial teacher education within a political landscape 19 - Developing beginning teachers in primary physical 21 education - Teacher confidence in primary physical education 25 - Primary physical education policy and outsourcing 28 - Chapter summary 33 Chapter Three: Professional Knowledge of Primary Physical Education - Introduction 35 - Teaching as a profession 35 - Defining professional knowledge 38 - Articulating a knowledge base for primary physical 45 education - The emerging stage 47 - The secure stage 50 - The aspirational stage 51 - Chapter summary 52 Chapter Four: Towards a Critical Understanding of Knowledge - Introduction 53 - Critical theory as a theoretical framework 53 - The researcher 58 - Ideology critique 59 - Transformative learning 61 - Communicative action and rationality 62 - Chapter summary 64 2 Chapter Five: Perspectives of the Beginning Teacher - Introduction 67 - Developing a communicative methodology 67 - Data collection 68 - Ethical considerations 71 - The sample 73 - Developing the online survey 76 - Constructing beliefs about professional knowledge 78 - Repertory grid technique 80 - Elements 82 - Construct elicitation 83 - The beginning teacher as a self-reflective knower 85 - Chapter summary 86 Chapter Six: Surveying Primary Physical Education Initial Teacher Education - Introduction 87 - Survey responses 87 - Emerging professional confidence 95 - Case-study interviews 101 - Professional knowledge confidence 103 - Sourcing professional knowledge confidence 108 - Beliefs about professional knowledge development 112 - Chapter summary 116 Chapter Seven: Constructing Knowledge of Primary Physical Education - Introduction 119 - Knowledge perspectives 119 - Knowledge validation 121 - Knowledge context 124 - Knowledge application 125 - Chapter summary 128 Chapter Eight: Towards Utopia - Introduction 129 - What breadth of professional knowledge do beginning 129 teachers have? - What professional knowledge to beginning teachers have 131 most/least confidence in? - Where do beginning teachers source their professional 133 knowledge of primary physical education? - What beliefs do beginning teachers have about their 134 professional knowledge development? - Recommendations 135 - Limitations of the study and future research 139 - Contribution to knowledge 141 - My personal learning 143 - Chapter summary 143 References 145 3 List of Appendices Page 1 Professional Knowledge Model 171 2 Collated feedback from the sector 172 3 Photos from AfPE networking conference 175 4 Email to ‘Gatekeepers’ 177 5 Email to online survey participants 178 6 Timeline of data collection 179 7 Online survey introduction 180 8 Online survey structure 181 9 Participant information sheet (survey) 182 10 Participant information sheet (interview) 184 11 Participant consent form (interview) 186 12 Interview schedule 188 13 Repertory grid template 189 14 Professional knowledge audit and action plan 192 15 Online survey responses as mode and median 194 16 Source citations per question 107 17 Graphs showing sources of knowledge per professional knowledge 108 domain 18 Amy’s transcript 228 19 Amy’s case-study 253 20 Ben’s transcript 266 21 Ben’s case-study 292 22 Charles’s transcript 304 23 Charles’s case-study 339 24 Daisy’s transcript 354 25 Daisy’s case-study 372 Supplementary Material on CD EdD programme forms Level 8 assignments Online survey raw data Physical Education Matters article (Spring 2015) Conferences and presentations - 4 List of Figures Page Figure 1.1 Theoretical framework for the research 13 Figure 1.2 Summary of pilot study findings 14 Figure 2.1 Overview of Morgan and Hansen (2008) challenges to 27 implementation of primary physical education programmes Figure 2.2 Revised overview of Morgan and Hansen (2008) challenges to 28 implementation of primary physical education programmes Figure 3.1 Models of teacher knowledge 40 Figure 3.2 Professional Knowledge Model for Primary PE 47 Figure 3.3 Primary PE framework (Jess, Keay et al. 2014) 51 Figure 5.1 The conventional view of the research process (Bergman 2008) 68 Figure 5.2 Adapted Bergman (2008) model of research 69 Figure 5.3 Sample breakdown of ITE programme routes 76 Figure 5.4 Considerations for the online survey design 77 Figure 5.5 An example repertory grid used at interview 84 Figure 5.6 A completed repertory grid showing elicited constructs and 85 rankings Figure 5.7 The development of an action plan 86 Figure 6.1 Survey responses from low to high confidence 88 Figure 6.2 Distribution of modes 89 Figure 6.3 Example of organised data showing mode and median 90 responses Figure 6.4 Mode, median and top three citation responses for reflective 91 and academic engagement Figure 6.5 Mode, median and top three citation responses for content 92 knowledge Figure 6.6 Mode, median and top three citation responses for subject 93 pedagogy Figure 6.7 Mode, median and top three citation responses for developing 94 practice in context Figure 6.8 Most and least areas of professional knowledge confidence 95 Figure 6.9 Raw data showing the total number of citations of sources 97 across the knowledge domains 5 Page Figure 6.10 Total number of citations of each source in the domain of 98 reflective and academic engagement Figure 6.11 Total number of citations of each source in the domain of 99 content knowledge Figure 6.12 Total number of citations of each source in the domain of 100 subject pedagogy Figure 6.13 Total number of citations of each source in the domain of 100 developing practice in context Figure 6.14 Survey responses showing most/least confident areas for case- 104 study participants Figure 6.15 Table showing the overall survey and case-study findings for 108 most/least cited knowledge sources Figure 6.16 Elicited constructs from case-study interviews 112 Figure 8.1 Defining a subject specialist primary physical educator based 131 upon the Professional Knowledge Model 6 No portion of the work referred to in the Thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. I confirm that this Thesis is entirely my own work. Copyright in text of this Thesis rests with the author. Copies (by any process) either in full, or of extracts, may be made only in accordance with instructions given by the author. Details may be obtained from the RKE Office. This page must form part of any such copies made. Further copies (by any process) of copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the permission (in writing) of the author. 7 Acknowledgements I would like to give my sincere thanks to Dr Bridget Egan, Professor Jeanne Keay and Dr Vasiliki Tzibazi for their guidance, knowledge and encouragement throughout the writing of this thesis. They have believed in me from the start and helped