Achieving the ‘Aha' Moment: Seeing is Believing in PETE

Background/Purpose: When considering teacher education programs a common challenge is how to best address the reality of the theory-to-practice gap. The theory-to-practice gap has been widely referenced in nursing education literature and has recently been discussed in PETE and the general teacher education literature (i.e., Cheng, Cheng & Tang, 2010; Standal, Moen & Moe, 2014). In the context of one physical education teacher education (PETE) program, the faculty struggled with getting students to buy-in to using a variety of strategies and curriculum models that were being taught in methods classes when their observation and field experience sites lacked curricular diversity – a challenge that creates relevance for this study. The purpose of this project was to attempt to achieve the “Aha!” moment – or the moment when someone is finally able to see theory they have been learning in university classrooms effectively translated to practice.

Method: In order to achieve this, seven PETE students travelled from a relatively small town in the north-central United States to a large metropolitan center in the Southwest United States where they participated in a variety of professional development opportunities. These activities included visiting local schools to observe physical education lessons taught by accomplished physical educators who employed a variety of strategies and curriculum models, participating in PETE methods classes at large university with an accomplished PETE program, assisting in the facilitation of out-of-class physical activity programs, and attending an in-service development seminar. Multiple data were collected from all participants and included journal entries, field notes from debriefing sessions and interviews.

Analysis/Results: These data were analyzed inductively using an interpretive approach (Erickson, 1986; LeCompte & Schensul, 1999) from which the notion of “seeing is believing” emerged as a pattern associated with achieving the “Aha!” moment across all data types. This led to the assertion that pre-service teachers need opportunities to physically observe and engage in diverse experiences in order to bridge the theory-to-practice gap.

Conclusions: Finding ways to bridge the theory-to-practice gap in PETE is relevant when considering the development of prospective physical education teachers. The authors are not suggesting that programs that lack access to curricular and programmatic diversity in the schools surrounding their university must replicate this novel experience. Rather, the intention of this work is to begin a discussion within PETE of how we can effectively prepare physical education teachers by employing best practices relative to engaging with theory and practice.