Background/Purpose Caring learning environments provide students with opportunities to interact, helping, encouraging, and caring for each other. Noddings' Ethic of Care guided this research examining characteristics of learning environments created by three middle school physical education teachers.
Method Data collected from three sources included observations, written questionnaires, and interviews with three physical education teachers and a representative sample of twenty-eight of the Sixth-grade students. All 6th graders in these three schools (N= 162) completed a written questionnaire, eliciting students' perspectives on class climate and recommendations for physical education. Data were analyzed using open and axial coding, resulting in the identification of categories and themes.
Analysis/Results Tim's focus on skillfulness required very tight control, preventing the students from interacting with Tim or each other. Although Barbara wanted to create a cooperative classroom environment, she relied on discipline rather than personal connection to make students follow her directions. Shannon's students interacted personally with their teacher, and they practiced caring for other students. Therefore, they enjoyed sharing in a sense of community with other students in a caring way, contributing to the construction of the caring community
Conclusions In each instance, the teachers wanted their students to engage and learn, but students' perceptions varied based on their interpretation of relationships with their teachers and the nature of the climate. Students who experienced meaningful, reciprocal relationships in caring climates maintained by caring teachers were able to expand their educational experiences and share them with others.