Practising in physical education: A study of a teacher's experiences and role enactment

Abstract

Teachers are designers and an essential act of the profession is the crafting of learning experiences to meet specific purposes. In this study, we follow a Norwegian physical education (PE) teacher in the design and teaching of a unit informed by a pedagogical model called the practising model (PM). Two research questions guided the study: (1) How does a teacher experience conducting a teaching unit informed by the PM? (2) How does the teacher's role enactment develop throughout the teaching unit? Qualitative data were gathered from workshops, observations from PE sessions in a 10th-grade class, and interviews with the teacher and his students. By applying the joint action in didactics framework, we discuss three key findings: (1) a rough start – feelings of chaos and inadequacy, (2) a shift in the teacher's role enactment, and (3) closing in on the students’ practising. The study concludes that applying the PM framework challenged the usual PE practice of this class. Too many different learning trajectories and didactic sub-milieus, a reconceptualisation of roles and teaching strategies, and epistemological breaches and task overload challenged the teacher considerably. The turning point for the teacher emerged as a conceptual shift, leaving behind the role of an organiser, and instead pursuing the role of a close, curious, and questioning teacher, drawing on different teaching styles to meet students’ needs. Modelling new pedagogical reforms and establishing adequate pedagogical tact certainly requires practising the practice, allowing new roles, expectations, requirements, and strategies to settle as the new normal.