Search

Background: In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the evolution of physical education teaching practice from a traditional "teacher-centred approach" to a "student-centred approach." Consequently, research has focused on questions about the changing conceptions of the teaching and learning process, that is, from how 'we' teach to how 'they' learn. A contemporary theoretical model of the teaching and learning process could underpin learning design and delivery adopted in physical education. The constraints-led approach (CLA) is a viable alternative as its practice design and delivery is grounded in the contemporary motor learning theory of ecological dynamics within a nonlinear pedagogy framework. However, its implementation is thought to present unique challenges to physical education practitioners due to the dynamic individual learner-environment interactions from which learning occurs. For this reason, it has been suggested that researchers work symbiotically with practitioners to help facilitate the adoption of nonlinear pedagogies and provide valuable information regarding the application of theory into practice. Purpose: This study sought to explore two PETE students' experiences learning to implement a nonlinear informed pedagogical approach, specifically the CLA, with physical education students in a school practicum setting. The two PETE students were provided with support from the primary researcher during the experience. Participants and setting: A purposive sample of two second-year PETE students from an Australian university were recruited for the study. Participant selection was based on meeting the pre-specified selection criteria of a demonstrated receptiveness to the CLA and a demonstrated confidence, ability and enthusiasm to implement the approach within a school setting. The two study participants were given the opportunity to implement the CLA within a supportive school culture while on their first physical education teaching practicum. Data collection and analysis: The data collection methods utilised were documentary evidence, in the form of PETE students' post lesson written reflections, primary researcher observations with written reflections and semi-structured student interviews undertaken within 1 week of the culmination of the practicum. These data sources were analysed collectively using thematic analysis to identify repeated patterns of meaning within the data. Findings As expected, implementing the CLA presented significant challenges to novice practitioners, due to the complex nature of student learning within a nonlinear informed approach. Specifically, the PETE students rarely detected any of the multiple pupil responses that 'unexpectedly' emerged from their modified learning environments. They also had difficulty manipulating the learning environment to facilitate the emergence of learners' tactical problem-solving behaviour through the natural learning processes underpinning the CLA. Conclusion For an evolution of physical education teaching practice to progress, it is important that PETE educators work together with the physical education department of a local school to support PETE students to effectively implement nonlinear informed approaches in a school environment. Opportunities need to be provided to allow PETE students to progressively develop their experiential knowledge and conceptual understanding of the exploratory learning processes underpinning a nonlinear approach.

Background: Providing motivationally supportive physical education experiences for learners is crucial, since empirical evidence in sport and physical education research has associated intrinsic motivation with positive educational outcomes. Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a valuable framework for examining motivationally supportive physical education experiences through satisfaction of three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence and relatedness. However, the capacity of the prescriptive teaching philosophy of the dominant traditional physical education teaching approach to effectively satisfy the psychological needs of students to engage in physical education has been questioned. The constraints-led approach (CLA) has been proposed as a viable alternative teaching approach that can effectively support students' self-motivated engagement in physical education. Purpose: We sought to investigate whether adopting the learning design and delivery of the CLA, guided by key pedagogical principles of nonlinear pedagogy (NLP), would address basic psychological needs of learners, resulting in higher self-reported levels of intrinsic motivation. The claim was investigated using action research. The teacher/researcher delivered two lessons aimed at developing hurdling skills: one taught using the CLA and the other using the traditional approach. Participants and setting: The main participant for this study was the primary researcher and lead author who is a PETE educator, with extensive physical education teaching experience. A sample of 54 pre-service PETE students undertaking a compulsory second-year practical unit at an Australian university was recruited for the study, consisting of an equal number of volunteers from each of two practical classes. A repeated measures experimental design was adopted, with both practical class groups experiencing both teaching approaches in a counterbalanced order. Data collection and analysis: Immediately after participation in each lesson, participants completed a questionnaire consisting of 22 items chosen from validated motivation measures of basic psychological needs and indices of intrinsic motivation, enjoyment and effort. All questionnaire responses were indicated on a 7-point Likert scale. A two-tailed, paired-samples "t"-test was used to compare the groups' motivation subscale mean scores for each teaching approach. The size of the effect for each group was calculated using Cohen's "d". To determine whether any significant differences between the subscale mean scores of the two groups was due to an order effect, a two-tailed, independent samples "t"-test was used. Findings: Participants' reported substantially higher levels of self-determination and intrinsic motivation during the CLA hurdles lesson compared to during the traditional hurdles lesson. Both groups reported significantly higher motivation subscale mean scores for competence, relatedness, autonomy, enjoyment and effort after experiencing the CLA than mean scores reported after experiencing the traditional approach. This significant difference was evident regardless of the order that each teaching approach was experienced. Conclusion: The theoretically based pedagogical principles of NLP that inform learning design and delivery of the CLA may provide teachers and coaches with tools to develop more functional pedagogical climates, which result in students exhibiting more intrinsically motivated behaviours during learning.

Background: Physical education teacher education (PETE) programmes have been identified as a critical platform to encourage the exploration of alternative teaching approaches by pre-service teachers. However, the socio-cultural constraint of acculturation or past physical education and sporting experiences results in the maintenance of the status quo of a teacher-driven, reproductive paradigm. Previous studies have reported successfully overcoming the powerful influence of acculturation, resulting in a change in PETE students' custodial teaching beliefs and receptiveness to alternative teaching approaches. However, to date, limited information has been reported about how PETE students' acculturation shaped their receptiveness to an alternative teaching approach. This is particularly the case for PETE recruits identified in the literature as most resistant to change. Participants and setting: A purposive sample of 10 Australian PETE students was recruited for the study. All participants initially had strong, custodial, traditional physical education teaching beliefs, and were successful sporting products of this teaching approach. After experiencing the CLA as learners during a games unit, participants demonstrated receptiveness to the alternative pedagogy. Data collection and analysis: Semi-structured interviews and written reflections were sources of data collection. Each participant was interviewed separately, once prior to participation in the games unit to explore their positive physical education experiences, and then again after participation to explore the specific games unit learning experiences that influenced their receptiveness to the alternative pedagogy. Participants completed written reflections about their personal experiences after selected practical sessions. Data were qualitatively analysed using grounded theory. Findings: Thorough examination of the data resulted in establishment of two prominent themes related to the appeal of the CLA for the participants: (i) psychomotor (effective in developing skill) and (ii) inclusivity (included students of varying skill level). The efficacy of the CLA in skill development was clearly an important mediator of receptiveness for highly successful products of a traditional culture. This significant finding could be explained by three key factors: the acculturation of the participants, the motor learning theory underpinning the alternative pedagogy and the unit learning design and delivery. The inclusive nature of the CLA provided a solution to the problem of exclusion, which also made the approach attractive to participants. Conclusions: PETE educators could consider these findings when introducing an alternative pedagogy aimed at challenging PETE recruits' custodial, traditional teaching beliefs. To mediate receptiveness, it is important that the learning theory underpinning the alternative approach is operationalised in a research-informed pedagogical learning design that facilitates students' perceptions of the effectiveness of the approach through experiencing and or observing it working.

Background: The development of intelligent, thinking performers as a central theme in physical education curriculum documents worldwide has highlighted the need for an evolution of teaching styles from the dominant reproductive approach. This has prompted an Australian university to change the content and delivery of a games unit within their physical education teacher education (PETE) course and adopt a productive student-centred approach that is compatible with current curriculum directives. The significance of prospective physical educators' biographies on their receptiveness to this pedagogical innovation was studied. Purpose: To investigate whether past school and sporting experiences are powerful influences on Australian PETE recruits' initial perspectives about effective physical education teaching practice and their receptiveness to an alternative pedagogical approach. Participants and setting: A total of 49 first year pre-service PETE students volunteered to take part in the study and were grouped according to their highest level of representation in games, either school/club, regional, or state/national. Students experienced the constraints-led approach during an eight-week games unit informed by nonlinear pedagogy and underpinned by motor learning theory. Data collection and Analysis: Prior to the commencement of the unit, participants completed a mixed response questionnaire aimed at gathering data about their physical education and sporting background. The data were summarised using descriptive statistics. Before and after taking part in the games unit, participants also completed a questionnaire, responding with their opinion of the importance of each sub-component of the traditional, reproductive style for an effective games teaching session. This resulted in a "traditional reproductive games teaching" belief score. For each sub-component, participants were invited to respond in more detail to justify their opinions. A one-way between-groups analysis of variance, Tukey's HSD Post Hoc Test and a two-tailed, paired-samples t-test were used to analyse the quantitative data. Content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. Findings: The traditional, reproductive approach was the most frequently reported teaching approach used by the physical education teachers and sports coaches of participants in all groups. Prior to the commencement of the alternative games unit, participants in each representative level group held very strong beliefs in this reproductive approach, responding that an effective games teaching session should consist of a visual demonstration of the "ideal" performance model, repetitive practice of the model using isolated drills with corrective feedback by the teacher, before the playing of the actual game. After experiencing the alternative games unit, there were statistically significant differences in the traditional reproductive games teaching belief mean scores for each group. This combined with participants' qualitative responses indicated receptiveness to the alternative pedagogy. Conclusions: The results of this present study show that, contrary to the mixed success found in previous research undertaken in North America, in Australia, we found strong evidence to show that it is possible for PETE educators to change beliefs in order to overcome the constraint of acculturation. Participation in the alternative games unit provided PETE students with the knowledge, understanding and belief in an alternative approach to teaching games compatible with curriculum documents.

Purpose: Previous research demonstrating that specific performance outcome goals can be achieved in different ways is functionally significant for springboard divers whose performance environment can vary extensively. This body of work raises questions about the traditional approach of balking (terminating the takeoff) by elite divers aiming to perform only identical, invariant movement patterns during practice. Method: A 12-week training program (2 times per day; 6.5 hr per day) was implemented with 4 elite female springboard divers to encourage them to adapt movement patterns under variable takeoff conditions and complete intended dives, rather than balk. Results: Intraindividual analyses revealed small increases in variability in the board-work component of each diver's pretraining and posttraining program reverse-dive takeoffs. No topological differences were observed between movement patterns of dives completed pretraining and posttraining. Differences were noted in the amount of movement variability under different training conditions (evidenced by higher normalized root mean square error indexes posttraining). An increase in the number of completed dives (from 78.91%-86.84% to 95.59%-99.29%) and a decrease in the frequency of balked takeoffs (from 13.16%-19.41% to 0.63%-4.41%) showed that the elite athletes were able to adapt their behaviors during the training program. These findings coincided with greater consistency in the divers' performance during practice as scored by qualified judges. Conclusion: Results suggested that on completion of training, athletes were capable of successfully adapting their movement patterns under more varied takeoff conditions to achieve greater consistency and stability of performance outcomes.

This study examined the experiential knowledge of eight Australian national-level football referees (3.2 yrs mean national-level experience) about the notion of consistent decision-making during competitive matches. Using a grounded theory approach, the analysis revealed that participants view "consistency" as context-dependent, rather than a rigid process of uniformly responding to isolated foul-play transgressions with putatively correct responses. Our results present two key conceptual abstractions—"referential and game dependent" and "purpose and context"—as a framework for understanding referee decision-making consistency. Results evidence that in higher level referees, consistent decision-making performance is an emergent process defined by the decision-making actions of the referee, and exploitation of specifying contextual game factors. Our discussion outlines how this process can be understood as dynamical transactions within a complex system (i.e. competitive football game), in which varying decision-making responses to superficially similar incidents is a marker of expertise, rather than inconsistency. These findings draw attention to the limitations of isolated foul-play video assessment, suggesting that training orientated toward complete uniform agreement on game incidents may reduce attention (attunement) to key contextual information that is necessary to prospectively control player behaviors and thus, the emergent trajectory of each game. Instead, findings support more representative game opportunities for referees to practice making decisions with key contextual information sources present. Future research could consider the extent context and/or variability define performance at different levels of competition and across sports with distinct cultural structures. Australian national-level referees consider consistent decision-making as more than just the similar identification of fouls. These higher level referees draw on contextual factors to institute a foul "standard" unique to each game, in the interests of maintaining each game's control and integrity. Referees portray consistency as remaining faithful to the reference points they have co-developed with the players and the conditions that defined them. Training and/or assessment that views uniform agreement on fouls as optimal may work to reduce attention to contextual factors that allow referees to meet their strategic performance intentions, such as positively influencing each game's trajectory. Assessment of decision-making accuracy and/or consistency should include key contextual factors. Emphasis on recognizing recurring game states and the contextual factors that define them, would ensure decision-making focusses less on "what the foul is" and more on "what the foul can offer" in terms of running the game. These findings draw attention to the limitations of isolated foul-play video assessment for training and advocate for more representative game opportunities for referees to practice making calls with key information sources present. Universal agreement between experts on match incidents may be counterproductive. Instead, modified game-based opportunities for referees to practice making decisions, shaped by "context" and at game speed, would encourage referees to explore a broad range of workable decision-making responses to superficially similar incidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A fundamental challenge for practitioners in high-level sporting environments concerns how to support athletes in adapting behaviours to solve emergent problems during competitive performance. Guided by an ecological dynamics framework, the design and integration of competitive performance preparation models that place athlete-environment interactions at the heart of the learning process may address this challenge. This ecological conceptualisation of performance preparation signifies a shift in a coach's role; evolving from a consistent solution provider to a learning environment designer who fosters local athlete-environment interactions. However, despite the past decades of research within the ecological dynamics framework developing an evidence-based, theoretical conceptualisation of skill acquisition, expertise and talent development, an ongoing challenge resides within its practical integration into sporting environments. This article provides two case examples in which high-level sports organisations have utilised an ecological dynamics framework for performance preparation in Australian football and Association Football. A unique perspective is offered on experiences of professional sport organisations attempting to challenge traditional ideologies for athlete performance preparation by progressing the theoretical application of ecological dynamics. These case examples intend to promote the sharing of methodological ideas to improve athlete development, affording opportunities for practitioners and applied scientists to accept, reject or adapt the approaches presented here to suit their specific ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two distinctly separate training facilities (dry-land and aquatic) are routinely used in springboard diving and pose an interesting problem for learning, given the inherent differences in landing (head first vs. feet first) imposed by the different task constraints. Although divers may practise the same preparation phase, take-off and initial aerial rotation in both environments, there is no evidence to suggest that the tasks completed in the dry-land training environment are representative of those performed in the aquatic competition environment. The aim of this study was to compare the kinematics of the preparation phase of reverse dives routinely practised in each environment. Despite their high skill level, it was predicted that individual analyses of elite springboard divers would reveal differences in the joint coordination and board-work between take-offs. The two-dimensional kinematic characteristics were recorded during normal training sessions and used for intra-individual analysis. Kinematic characteristics of the preparatory take-off phase revealed differences in board-work (step lengths, jump height, board depression angles) for all participants at key events. However, the presence of scaled global topological characteristics suggested that all participants adopted similar joint coordination patterns in both environments. These findings suggest that the task constraints of wet and dry training environments are not similar, and highlight the need for coaches to consider representative learning designs in high performance diving programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consistency and invariance in movements are traditionally viewed as essential features of skill acquisition and elite sports performance. This emphasis on the stabilization of action has resulted in important processes of adaptation in movement coordination during performance being overlooked in investigations of elite sport performance. Here we investigate whether differences exist between the movement kinematics displayed by five, elite springboard divers (age 17 ± 2.4 years) in the preparation phases of baulked and completed take-offs. The two-dimensional kinematic characteristics of the reverse somersault take-off phases (approach and hurdle) were recorded during normal training sessions and used for intra-individual analysis. All participants displayed observable differences in movement patterns at key events during the approach phase; however, the presence of similar global topological characteristics suggested that, overall, participants did not perform distinctly different movement patterns during completed and baulked dives. These findings provide a powerful rationale for coaches to consider assessing functional variability or adaptability of motor behaviour as a key criterion of successful performance in sports such as diving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to determine whether spatiotemporal interactions between footballers and the ball in 1 vs. 1 sub-phases are influenced by their proximity to the goal area. Twelve participants (age 15.3 ± 0.5 years) performed as attackers and defenders in 1 vs. 1 dyads across three field positions: (a) attacking the goal, (b) in midfield, and (c) advancing away from the goal area. In each position, the dribbler was required to move beyond an immediate defender with the ball towards the opposition goal. Interactions of attacker–defender dyads were filmed with player and ball displacement trajectories digitized using manual tracking software. One-way repeated measures analysis of variance was used to examine differences in mean defender-to-ball distance after this value had stabilized. Maximum attacker-to-ball distance was also compared as a function of proximity-to-goal. Significant differences were observed for defender-to-ball distance between locations (a) and (c) at the moment when the defender-to-ball distance had stabilized (a: 1.69 ± 0.64 m; c: 1.15 ± 0.59 m; P < 0.05). Findings indicate that proximity-to-goal influenced the performance of players, particularly when attacking or advancing away from goal areas, providing implications for training design in football. In this study, the task constraints of football revealed subtly different player interactions than observed in previous studies of dyadic systems in basketball and rugby union. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Understanding how individuals navigate challenging accuracy demands required to register a legal jump is important in furthering knowledge of competitive long jumping. Identification of co-ordination tendencies unique to each individual emphasises the need to examine the presence of unique movement solutions and presents important information for individualisation of training environments. In this study, key measures of gait were recorded during the long jump run-ups of 8 athletes at 8 national level competitions in the 2015 and 2016 Australian track and field seasons. These gait measures were examined to identify whether different visual regulation strategies emerged for legal and foul jumps for each competitor. Emergence of different footfall variability data curves, illustrating how step adjustments were distributed across the run-up for each athlete, suggests that athletes interacted differently with features of the competition environment. This observation highlights the importance of movement adaptability as constraints change and emerge across each performance trial. Results provided further support in conceptualising the run-up as a continuous interceptive action task consisting of a series of interconnected events (i.e., individual step lengths) influencing the regulation of gait towards the take-off board. This information can be used by coaches and practitioners in designing training environments that promote athlete adaptation of more functional movement solutions closely matched to the dynamics of competition environments. Results suggest that training designs that help athletes to search, explore and exploit key sources of information from the competition environment will enhance the fit between the individual and the environment and the development of rich, adaptable movement solutions for competitive performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]