Teaching and Learning How to Teach Sport Education: An Ecological Analysis, Motivational Climate and Professional Development

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the attempts to introduce Sport Education into a Russian physical education curriculum. Three studies are included. The first provides an ecological account of the introduction of the Sport Education curriculum model into two ninth grade Russian high school physical education classes. The second study, based on a theoretical framework of achievement goal theory, provides a motivational climate analysis of a season of Sport Education. The third study presents a description of the on-site professional development program as two physical education teachers learned to teach Sport Education. The examination of the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of such a professional development program was also investigated. While results of the first study supported earlier research on Sport Education in English speaking countries, other findings also demonstrated a disruption of the student social system. Results from the motivational climate study demonstrated that the objective motivational climate of Sport Education season was mastery oriented. Further, students’ self-determined types of motivation (intrinsic motivation and identified regulation) remained high while levels of amotivation were low during different contexts of the season. While mastery oriented variables such as improvement and teamwork were evident during practice and practice game phases, the performance oriented construct of winning was meaningful to students during competition. Results from study three demonstrated the effectiveness of the enacted professional development program as teachers were able to implement Sport Education in their respective sixth grade classes. Four themes were generated about teacher learning and how to enhance it: (a) the need for sample lesson observance in the training phase, (b) teaching-to-model congruency validation, (c) difficulties of “letting go of the control”, and (d) the establishment of the new partnership relationships between teachers and students. Overall, Sport Education seem to be a viable and motivating curriculum option for Russian secondary physical education, one that has the potential to create a mastery oriented climate in the gym. Moreover, given the professional development support and resources Russian physical education teachers are able to implement the model in their schools.