Background/Purpose Models-based instruction (MBI) has been successfully implemented with positive outcomes (e.g., Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility, Sport Education). To acquire pedagogical content knowledge and learn to teach within MBI framework seems to be an intricate and a dynamic process. It presents a challenge to educators learning to use MBI, especially to those who are just starting their profession. The purpose of the study was to examine the perceptions of pre-service physical education teachers (PTs) about their first MBI experiences, in this case using Sport Education during early field experiences. Shulman's work on teacher knowledge base provided theoretical framework for the study.
Method The participants were 24 physical education majors (19 males, 5 females; M age = 20.3, SD = 1.4) from a southeastern university in the United States. Data collection included 24 formal interviews (45-60 min. each), informal interviews, direct observations of teaching with field notes (46 lessons), and document analysis (264 unit and lesson plans). The data were analyzed using constant comparison and analytic induction methods.
Analysis/Results The following themes were identified: (a) preference of MBI over traditional teaching, (b) difficulty shifting from teacher centered to student centered curriculum, (c) lack of pedagogical content knowledge, (d) recognition of importance of teaching responsibility to students, and (e) concern for keeping students active.
Conclusions The findings of the study extended previous research in understanding how PTs learn to teach a model based curricula and while PTs seemed to prefer teaching MBI and recognized the benefits of it, the transition was problematic for some.