Method: The study was conducted at a University in the Midwest. A total of 17 students in the PETE program enrolled in a physical activity CK course designed to teach K-12 volleyball skills were recruited. Prior to the instruction, each student generated a content map of volleyball skills showing the scope and sequence of task progressions (pretest). After completing initial content maps, the content map designed by the course instructor was presented to the students. During a 7-week unit, task progressions were taught in the sequence on the content map. Each week the students were asked to duplicate the content map by describing the task progressions. At the end of the unit, the students were asked to generate a new content map (posttest) based on what they were taught during the course. Three trained raters scored each student’s content maps using the developed rubric. Interrater agreement was calculated on 41.2% of data with 88.8% of agreement.
Analysis/Results:
There were two main categories of analysis: (a) how much percentage of the contents were matched with the instructor’s contents in the content maps (i.e., matching category), and (b) how much percentage of the contents were matched and congruent with the instructor’s contents in the content maps (i.e., matching & congruent category). There were meaningful gains from pretest (M= 23.76) to posttest (M= 50.47) of the content maps for matching category. There were also meaningful gains from pretest (M= 31.88) to posttest (M= 56.94) of the content maps for matching & congruent category.
Conclusions: The data show that students acquired volleyball SCK from this course. Though the gains in student’s SCK were substantial, they were less than what they were taught. The results confirm that the content maps can be used to effectively teach SCK and accurately measure SCK. Further research with large sample and with different units is warranted to explain the roles of the content maps as a teaching and assessment tool in PETE.