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Abstract

Reform efforts to improve physical education often rely on facilitators to promote positive change. Although it is becoming more common, little is currently understood about the facilitation role. Our purpose was to examine facilitators' collective knowledge and experience with ongoing physical education professional development (PD), specifically regarding conceptions of their role in the process. Participants included 12 experienced PD facilitators. Data sources included formal semistructured and informal conversational interviews and participants' curriculum vitae. Results indicated that facilitators held common beliefs about teacher learning and self-identified actions aligned with those beliefs. Adhering to constructivist views of learning, facilitators underscored the role of prior knowledge and the active and social nature of learning. Their remarkably similar views emphasized multiple aspects of teacher capacity building.

Learning to Become Instructional Coaches in Health and Physical Education

“…Moreover, participants acknowledged the job-embedded nature of instructional coaching, which enabled coaches to work with teachers on issues teachers themselves wanted support with rather than on issues dictated by an external body, such as a school board or government ministry. This finding builds on and lends support to claims made by Patton et al (2012) and Patton and Parker (2014) about the conceptualizations of teacher learning that tend to be held by professional learning facilitators in physical education, holding constructivist beliefs that emphasize the social nature of learning and privileging of the needs of teachers in their own contexts.…”

“…Parker , Patton, and O'Sullivan (2016) identify critical dialogue, public sharing of work, and communities of learners as signature pedagogies of professional learning in physical education. Patton, Parker, and Neutzling (2012), and Patton and Parker (2014) suggest that facilitators of professional learning (a role we suggest is played by instructional coaches) take on a critical but largely unexplored role in times of reform. Patton et al (2012) emphasize the important role played in the selection of facilitators of professional learning, particularly in terms of the beliefs about teacher learning held by the facilitators.…”

“…Patton, Parker, and Neutzling (2012), and Patton and Parker (2014) suggest that facilitators of professional learning (a role we suggest is played by instructional coaches) take on a critical but largely unexplored role in times of reform. Patton et al (2012) emphasize the important role played in the selection of facilitators of professional learning, particularly in terms of the beliefs about teacher learning held by the facilitators. Patton et al (2012) found that facilitators of professional learning in physical education tended to take a constructivist approach to teacher learning, believing that meaning is constructed in a social environment based on prior knowledge and experiences situated in the contexts of one's own teaching practice.…”

“…Patton et al (2012) emphasize the important role played in the selection of facilitators of professional learning, particularly in terms of the beliefs about teacher learning held by the facilitators. Patton et al (2012) found that facilitators of professional learning in physical education tended to take a constructivist approach to teacher learning, believing that meaning is constructed in a social environment based on prior knowledge and experiences situated in the contexts of one's own teaching practice. Of particular importance was a view held by facilitators that professional learning is best conceptualized as teacher-centered and focused on the needs of teachers as they relate to the particular circumstances they face in their own contexts.…”

Sustained Professional Development on Cooperative Learning: Impact on Six Teachers' Practices and Students' Learning

“…As a result, external facilitators who introduce and intend to support the development of a new curriculum practices need to support teacher's individual needs (McLaughlin & Talbort, 2006;MacPhail, Patton, Parker, & Tannehill, 2014). As Patton, Parker, and Neutzling (2012) suggest, facilitators should move beyond a focus on teachers' knowledge and skills to focus on capacity building; encouraging teachers to be active seekers of knowledge, empowering teachers in the process of self-improvement, and helping teachers to focus on their learners' needs. Goodyear, Casey, and Kirk (2014) also argued that boundary spanners -for example, university-based researchers who cross their institutional boundaries to work with teachers in schools -need to support the development of school-based learning communities.…”