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Content in physical education has been the subject of research for some years, with most studies being carried out under two scientific programs. One, in North America, concerned primarily with pedagogical content knowledge; the other, in France, studying the didactics of physical education. The purpose of this paper is to describe the theoretical framework, methodology, and principal results of these programs. It examines their similarities, differences, and the contribution of each to the teaching and learning of content in physical education. Researchers in both fields state that pedagogical content in physical education (a) is highly domain-specific to the activity being taught. (b) falls within an analysis of the situated-action, (c) undergoes long-term evolution in relation to professional competence, and (d) depends on constraints inherent in the system. Beyond the specifics of each program, there are some similarities that open up possibilities for fruitful collaboration between researchers in the two communities.

Teacher beliefs are a major influence on teacher actions. Because context influences beliefs, it was the purpose of this study to explore teachers' beliefs about Mosston's Spectrum of Teaching Styles from an international perspective. Over 1,400 teachers from 7 countries completed a survey related to their self-reported use of and beliefs about various teaching styles. Data suggested a shared core of reproduction teaching style use. The use of and beliefs about the production styles of teaching were more varied. Teachers' use of styles was significantly related to their beliefs about the styles.

The "didactic milieu": from an empirical study in a deprived urban area to reflection about the conceptIn this paper, we continue theoretical work already initiated by didactics research on the concept of "milieu". It is founded on an empirical study comparing the teaching during ordinary Physical Education and Physics lessons. The two teachers observed worked in the 2 same middle school, located in a deprived urban area. We postulated that, in this urban, context, the critical aspects of the mesogenetic process sustaining the teacher's and students' joint action could be highlighted and grasped in depth. We describe some of these aspects and discuss the concepts of "didactic milieu" and "mesogenesis" as elaborated by current theories in didactics. This discussion allows us go beyond the theoretical debate by considering the complementarities of the "institutional" and "situativity" dimensions of the two concepts. From this discussion and the findings of our empirical study, we consider the "didactic milieu" as the result of a dynamic and differential process embedded in various temporal scales linking together some components of action and activity theories in a rationale. (Mercier, Schubauer-Leoni et Sensevy, 2002) en contexte dit "difficile". Nos travaux s'inscrivent délibérément dans une approche considérant que la diffusion des savoirs est au coeur de l'activité enseignante -y compris et plus encore -dans ces contextes. Aussi proposons-nous tout d'abord un point sur la question des pratiques d'enseignement et d'apprentissage qui y sont développées avant de préciser la problématique à laquelle répond notre recherche. Nous décrivons ensuite les caractéristiques de l'environnement scolaire dans lequel nous avons mené l'étude ainsi que la manière dont nous avons recueilli puis traité les données. Nous poursuivons en discutant, à la lumière de quelques extraits de séances, la façon dont les interactions élèves, professeur, savoir sont susceptibles d'expliquer quelques traits de fonctionnement déjà mis en évidence par d'autres recherches. Nous centrons l'analyse sur le milieu, en ce qu'il résulte d'une production conjointe du professeur et des élèves, pour mettre en évidence quelques traits génériques de l'action didactique en contexte difficile tant en EPS qu'en physique, tout en soulignant leur spécificité irréductible. Nous terminons enfin en revenant sur les concepts de milieu et de Keywords