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Support, or lack thereof, is often cited as the main reason for teachers to leave the profession early on (Ingersoll, 2003). Feiman-Nemser (2001) identifies five Central Tasks associated with Learning to Teach (CTLT) that could focus the support novice teachers need during their induction years: learning the teaching context (TC), designing responsive instructional program (IP), creating a classroom learning community (CC), enacting a beginning repertoire (BR) and developing their professional identity (PI). The purpose of the study is to examine the CTLT that novice physical education teachers use in their first and second years of their teaching career. Twenty-one physical education teachers accepted the study parameters to be observed and interviewed during their first year of teaching, and 15 teachers continued the data collection into their second year. Interviews revealed that these teachers focused mainly on BR and TC. Little focus was given to IP, CC, and PI. Results indicate the need for effective mentoring and continuous support through their induction years on BR and TC, but also expand novice teachers’ focus to address the additional categories.

This longitudinal research explored beginning elementary classroom teachers’ beliefs about learning to teach physical education (PE) across time. Understanding how beliefs shape the process of learning to teach PE can inform the design of more impactful physical education teacher education (PETE). We mapped beliefs over six years including the three years of an undergraduate elementary teacher education program and the first three years teaching in schools through reflective writing tasks and semistructured interviews. Across time these beginning teachers believed that learning to teach PE required active participation in PE content, building of a resource bank of content ideas, and practice of teaching the content. Building competence in PE content through active participation combined with development of more complex understandings of PE content through PETE pedagogies can better support elementary teachers learning to teach PE.

Purpose: Informed by the constructivist learning theory, the purpose of this study was to determine the impact of three continuing professional development (CPD) approaches on student learning in a healthful living physical education curriculum. Methods: Physical education teachers (n = 19) received one of the following CPD trainings: (a) Full Training, (b) Expedited Training, or (c) Self-Training. The effect of each CPD method was determined by tracking student learning (N = 3,418) with a two-level linear mixed model. Results: The results showed that Full Training CPD was able to generate the largest knowledge gain in both the Healthy Lifestyles Unit (β = 0.214, p < .001) and Cardio Fitness Club Unit (β = 0.184, p < .01) in comparison with the other two CPD approaches. Discussion: These findings advance our understanding of the role different CPD approaches play in enhancing student learning in the subjects of cardiorespiratory fitness and health lifestyles. Conclusions: The Full-Training CPD appears to benefit student learning the most followed by the Expedited-Training. The Self-Training would yield the least learning achievement.

Sixty-two preservice teachers were asked to complete a questionnaire in order to examine their perceptions of how they felt that the school-based experiences within a predominantly school-based, government-imposed physical educator education program helped them learn to teach. The preservice teachers placed much emphasis on the accumulation of experiences and “coming to terms” with the realities of teaching, serviced by the university element of the course. Although some higher education institution–school partnerships were helping preservice teachers to look beyond the immediate context, the quality of the collaborative venture was being affected by the variability in mentoring processes, school contexts, and the personal histories of both mentors and preservice teachers. It is suggested that the continual extension of school-based experiences is not only privileging the practical over theory and emphasizing doing more than thinking, but is replacing complexity with simplicity.

In addressing the theory-practice divide, this research provides valuable insight into preservice teachers’ (PSTs) learning through an experiential learning (EL) framework during teacher education. Utilizing an interpretivist approach, this study aims at providing insight on how PSTs link the manner in which they learned during teacher education to how they teach during school placement. Evidence suggested participants valued faciliating enjoyable and meaningful learning experiences for their students in the course of learning through an EL approach. Learning through an experiential approach provided the PSTs with confidence in what to teach. However, the PSTs also assumed their own students would have similar responses to the learning experiences they had themselves when completing tasks during teacher education. PSTs were limited in their ability to recognize student learning and in understanding student capacity for progression. Implications of the findings for teacher education are discussed.