Search

The purpose of this paper is to analyse and discuss physical education teacher education (PETE) students’ conceptions of teaching and assessment of movement capability as a part of content knowledge in aquatics, dance and ice-skating at a university in Sweden. The theoretical perspective involves Shulman’s concept of content knowledge, the further elaboration of content knowledge into common content knowledge, and the theoretical perspective underpinning movement capability. The sample consists of two groups with a total of seven PETE students who volunteered to take part in group interviews. Semi-structured interviews with the two groups were conducted on three occasions. Findings display that the students’ conceptions of movement capability seem to be focused around performance of movements. Further, the participants felt the messages to be unclear in terms of what they are to know regarding movement capability before entering PETE. There was also a contradiction in that the PETE students felt it to be obvious that they would ‘know’ certain movements, and at the same time they requested clear and distinct criteria when it came to the performance of movements. This study shows that expectations in terms of PETE students’ levels of movement content knowledge need to be further investigated and discussed. This study also highlights the importance of conceptualising what PETE students need to learn if they are to see the need to develop their movement capability on their own. Assessments of students’ reflections on what it means to master movements are discussed as an alternative to assessment of performance of movements.

The aim of this paper is to explore and develop ways to describe what there is to know, from the perspective of the one who knows, when knowing how to carry out a complex movement. The paper will challenge the distinction between mental and physical skills, drawing on theories of tacit knowing (Polanyi, 1969), knowing how ( Ryle, 1949 ) and knowing-in-action (Schön, 1991), together with empirical data from the context of elite sport. One assumption is that exploring knowing in movement, in this context, can contribute to developing students’ movement education in physical education (PE). Pole-vaulting provides examples of what there is to know, in terms of embodied capabilities possible to explicate and develop as an educational objective in PE, irrespective of the context of competitive sports. Explicating the knowing (or capabilities) involved in the “capability to move,” as exemplified in this study, could emphasize an educational aim concerning practical knowledge, such as knowing in movement, and not necessarily specific skills related to competitive sport activities.