No abstract

Physical education in early years makes a unique contribution to the learning experience of children and support physical, cognitive, and social development. Teacher plays an essential role, but early childhood teacher professional development remains unclear. Literature review has shown that it is influenced by individual and social factors. Teacher professional development may have an impact on student motor development in this stage. The objectives of this chapter were to study early childhood teachers' professional development in PE and to analyze the influence and impact of early childhood teachers' professional development on their students' motor development. This chapter describes the results and conclusions of two different studies which have been developed. They highlighted that the variables that affect professional development are initial training and professional development, external perception of physical education, and personal perspective. Furthermore, findings have revealed that these three variables condition their students' motor development most.

No abstract

Physical education in early years makes a unique contribution to the learning experience of children and support physical, cognitive, and social development. Teacher plays an essential role, but early childhood teacher professional development remains unclear. Literature review has shown that it is influenced by individual and social factors. Teacher professional development may have an impact on student motor development in this stage. The objectives of this chapter were to study early childhood teachers' professional development in PE and to analyze the influence and impact of early childhood teachers' professional development on their students' motor development. This chapter describes the results and conclusions of two different studies which have been developed. They highlighted that the variables that affect professional development are initial training and professional development, external perception of physical education, and personal perspective. Furthermore, findings have revealed that these three variables condition their students' motor development most.

The literature has highlighted that gamification is an innovative methodology that might improve social and emotional skills. The aim was to analyse the impact of a gamified intervention in physical education on social and emotional domains with students of 5th grade of primary education. A gamified intervention during eight weeks was developed with the experimental group composed of 25 students. A control group was also established with 27 students who followed regular physical education sessions. Regarding instruments, the positive and negative affect schedule (PANAS) scale was used to assess emotional skills and the classroom assessment scoring system (CLASS) to analyze social skills. Results highlighted that the experimental group scored higher in social and emotional skills after the intervention in comparison with the control group. The findings have shed light on the importance of using innovative methodologies such as gamification to develop social and emotional skills.