Effects of Improving Teachers' Content Knowledge on Teaching and Student Learning in Physical Education

Abstract

Our findings show that the enacted PCK of a teacher can be changed from immature to mature as a function of learning CK and that this change has a significant and meaningful impact on student learning.

Is practical subject matter knowledge still important? Examining the Siedentopian perspective on the role of content knowledge in physical education teacher education

“…Confirming theoretical deliberations on the role of content knowledge (Kirk, 2010a, b), as well as recent primary research (Iserbyt, Ward and Martens 2015;Ward et al 2015;Sinelnikov et al 2015), PSTs in this study recognised a connection between content knowledge and various dimensions of their teaching, especially PCK. Such perceptions are consistent with Siedentopian (2002Siedentopian ( /1989 notions of content knowledge and its facilitative effects on learning and teaching.…”

“…However, the specific role that content knowledge has to play in this remains unclear. For instance, Siedentop (2002Siedentop ( /1989) makes direct links between content knowledge and the enacted pedagogical knowledge by using the term PCK (Shulman, 1987); such an association has been supported by more recent studies into the relationship between content knowledge and PCK (Iserbyt, Ward and Martens 2015;Iserbyt, Ward and Li 2015;Ward et al 2015).…”

“…Restrictions in content knowledge also made it harder to recognise the conceptual and motor learning problems that the pupils experienced, a phenomenon that has also been recognised by previous and more recent research (Rovegno 1993;McCaughtry and Rovegno 2003;Sloan 2007;Herold and Waring 2011;Ward et al 2015 Despite their improved knowledge profiles across the range of knowledge bases, PSTs continued to report negative impacts of limited content knowledge on PCK. Although these were now less severe in nature, they were nevertheless still of importance to PSTs.…”

The Influence of Occupational Socialization on Novice Teachers’ Practical Knowledge, Confidence and Teaching in Physical Education

“…Interestingly, CK mastery is typically acquired outside the TE program through a long history of participation in T sport and/or coaching (Siedentop & Eldar, 1989). There is concern in TE that when pre-service teachers enter a teacher preparation program with indepth CK in only one or two sports (Kim, Lee, Ward, & Li, 2015) they will finish their program short of developing an adequate understanding of the content taught in school PE (Kim, 2016;Siedentop, 2002). Therefore, PE teachers often teach content outside their areas of expertise and sports where they lack personal performance skills (Reuker, 2016) or CK (Siedentop, 2002;Sinelnikov, Kim, Ward, Curtner-Smith, & Li, 2015).…”

“…Relevant CK is assumed to provide much of the basis for the development of pedagogical CK (Ayvazo & Ward, 2011;Graber, 1995;Siedentop, 2002;Rovegno, 1995). Ward, Kim, Ko and Li (2015) defined pedagogical CK in PE as teachers' understanding of what content to include and how it is to be instructed to specific students in particular contexts. The term helps to distinguish a teacher's own ability in a content area (e.g., throwing a ball or dribbling) from the knowledge of the skill that is needed in order to teach it to students (Rovegno, Chen, & Todorovich, 2003).…”