Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

Background. Principles such as instructional alignment and step-by-step progression are often seen as crucial features of good assessment practices in school physical education (PE). These features are problematic from nonlinear educational perspectives, which are based on the idea that movement learning cannot be expected to take place in the same manner for all students. Without some resolution of the contradiction between nonlinear pedagogies and principles of good assessment, the likelihood of physical educators fully embracing any kind of nonlinear approach to movement education remains doubtful.

Purpose and research question. Our purpose in this paper is to illustrate how assessment for and of learning (AfL and AoL) can look when implemented in nonlinear movement education practices.

Methods. Illustrations of AfL and AoL are drawn from an investigation in which one educator implements a nonlinear movement education module. The module focuses on juggling for students at high school (grade nine students aged approximately 15 years). The module provided students with 10 x 50-minute lessons to explore juggling. Data were generated through observations (film clips and field notes) and ethnographic-type interviews that were conducted with the students during the lessons.

Findings. In the context of the nonlinear movement education module, AfL became: Interacting with students in joint exploration; Introducing learning strategies; Encouraging students to clarify and verbalise the object of learning; Helping students identify critical aspects of the movement activity, and; Inviting students to consider alternative learning trajectories. The educator then evaluates the students' learning experiences in the context of a group performance at the end of the module. This performance can be seen as an instance of holistic assessment within a nonlinear movement education practice.

Conclusions. The suggested holistic perspective on PE assessment could help educators to: circumvent dichotomies such as mind-body and theory-practice; approach students as active meaning-makers; re-frame students' actions as emergent and context-dependent; and replace direct instruction with explorative teaching and learning methods. The major contribution of this study is that it shows how assessment for and of learning can be implemented in nonlinear movement education practices within a linear, goal-related and criterion-referenced, education system.

Creative dance, that is to say, movements, with or without music, which allow participants to express ideas, thoughts, and feelings, are sometimes accompanied by a ‘there is no right or wrong way to move’ rhetoric. This may reinforce the impression among physical education teacher education (PETE) students, who often have limited experience of (creative) dance, that there is nothing to practise in creative dance and that this activity is merely directionless movement. In this paper, however, based on Aggerholm's notion of practising movements, we explore an occasion in a PETE course where a magic moment occurred, indicating that the students had practised and ‘figured out’ something that made this moment possible. The purpose of the paper is to explore the knowledge in movement that PETE students were practising as they participated in creative dance. The purpose is also to shed light on what pedagogical practice contributed to enabling such practising. Video documentation and short interviews with students in one PETE course and one continuing professional development course for physical education teachers indicate that the magic moment was made possible as the students’ practised making sense of moving in non-predetermined – creative – ways and appreciating the expressive dimension of movement. Laban's movement analysis framework seemed, along with the teachers’ knowledge of movement, to be an important element in the pedagogical practice that made the magic moment possible.

Various attempts have been made to emphasise the educational purpose of physical education (PE). Ennis (2011) has noted that understandings of content shift depending on curriculum. The aim of the paper is to explore what the enacted content becomes when the Practising Model is implemented in PE. Four PE teachers, in two Swedish secondary schools, enacted the Practising Model with five classes for 10–17 lessons. Qualitative data were generated in the form of video recordings of lessons, interviews with students and teachers, and student-produced material.

The findings are presented as three main content areas: (a) general-subject content, typically teacher-initiated and involving planning and evaluation; (b) subject-specific content, largely student- initiated and encompassing the adoption, appreciation, exploration, understanding, and grasping of movement qualities; and (c) persona-developing content, focusing on character development through persisting and daring. A discussion of the findings using Categorical Bildung is presented, illustrating the added value the enacted content may bring students in terms of their Bildung. The study highlights the diversity of content engagement and the fluidity between content categories.

This diversity also introduces a challenge in the changing relationship between content and teaching. The organising centre for PE and its relation to content are discussed. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research.

I det här kapitlet riktar vi blicken mot de normer och föreställningar om funktionsduglighet som påverkar människors villkor att vara fysiskt aktiva.

Tackling inequities and inequalities related to adolescents' engagement in physical activity and sport is highlighted in recent research. However, rarely addressed are the issues of intersecting hierarchal systems of power that interlocks on both micro and macro levels, affecting how physical activity patterns express social memberships across several contexts. Therefore, this study aimed to explore how adolescents' physical activity during leisure and school hours expressed intersecting social positions and institutional school segregation, using a critical intersectionality approach. Nested in a larger study, a cross-sectional design was applied, including a total of 1139 adolescents in grade 7 (age 13-14) from Swedish school settings. Data was retrieved from surveys, accelerometers, and national registries. Descriptive statistics and stratified analyses were performed to examine levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) during school and leisure hours connected to intersecting social positions and school segregation contexts. The statistical analysis indicated that MVPA, to varying extents, expressed both individual social position and school segregation across the sub-groups explored. Inequalities in MVPA were closer connected to intercategorical gendered social positions in school contexts, rather than during leisure hours. However, there were significant intracategorical differences among girls during leisure hours across segregated contexts. Our results suggest that the power structures of school segregation together with educational and sport logics intertwined seem to 'disadvantage' especially girls with a non-ethnically Swedish background. Yet, it also highlights a need to problematize 'the absent minority girl' in equity focused physical activity research. This study emphasizes how an intersectionality approach can shed light on social (dis)advantages connected to adolescents' MVPA from two poles of power, contributing to a more comprehensive and critical understanding of social inequities in physical activity and health research.

INTRODUCTION: School contexts are addressed as important for encouraging adolescents' physically active lives, where whole-school approaches have emerged as globally recognized strategies. Recent research emphasizes the need to further understand the contexts relating to physical activity (PA) and strategies to enhance students' and staff's agency in relation to PA opportunities. In the current study, we explore early adolescent students' daily PA from an ecological perspective, examining the negotiated opportunities and barriers to PA within differing school contexts and how individual agency is expressed in relation to PA.

METHODS: This ethnographic collective case study was conducted in four Swedish middle schools that varied in size, resource denseness, and whether they were independent or public providers. The main empirical material was collected through ∼720 h of fieldwork during a school year, along with 86 interviews involving 50 students and 52 staff members. A comparative reflexive thematic analytical approach was used.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The transition between educational stages brought changes that influenced students and staff's agency related to PA. Against this backdrop, the analytical findings were organized into four themes. Students' PA was negotiated against the logic associated with being a "good" middle school student and teacher. Realizing daily PA also stood in relation to an anything-is-possible spirit, which was pitted against the lack of an organizational structure and high hopes for PA outcomes-creating a tension between vision and practicality, where student voices were overlooked. While all four schools claimed a commitment to providing PA opportunities for all, students negotiated their agency based on gender, age, social status, and previous experiences with traditional sports, which dominated recess activities. Students' PA during and after school was closely interconnected, especially expressed in physical education and health classes. This connection often benefited already active students in resource-rich environments while marginalizing those who were less active, further creating an uneven playing field regarding PA opportunities. Various schools shared challenges connected to students' daily PA, but challenges differed between and within schools. Future school policies, practices, and research should aim at addressing cultural, structural, and material dimensions focusing on sustainability, equity, and pedagogical issues, enabling young people to develop autonomy and ability to shape their PA experiences in ways that are meaningful to them.

The purpose of this study is to contribute knowledge regarding how physical education teacher education (PETE) matters, what matters in PETE, and for what PETE matters. We explore, illustrate and discuss campus-based and school-based teacher education, the transitions between these different parts of teacher education as well as transitions from teacher education to the first years working as a PE teacher in school.

In the study, we draw on results and re-analysis of generated data from several research projects on PETE in Sweden, which explore either campus-based education, school placement and/or the transition from education to the profession. The study includes nine PhD projects and two longitudinal research projects funded by the Swedish Research Council. As part of our re-analysis, a two-day workshop was conducted where the researchers from the projects met to collaborate, drawing on their respective generated data. The results following the workshop were further analyzed in-depth by the three project leaders (Engdahl, Quennerstedt and Larsson). 

Preliminary results show that teacher education seems to have a substantial impact on teachers' future teaching practice in different respects. Four preliminary themes have been particularly significant so far in the analysis: (a) content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge in cooperation, (b) the importance of content knowledge in movement, (c) campus teaching combined with school field experiences and field studies with a focus on the integration of theory and practice, and (d) explorative ways of working with a focus on becoming a reflective practitioner with emphasis on teachers’ professional identity.

This presentation will provide PETE educators and PE scholars with insights into the profound impact of transitions, or boundary passages (Lawson, 1983), of how PETE can matter for the life-long process of becoming a teacher.

Reference:

Lawson, H. A. (1983). Toward a model of teacher socialization in physical education: Entry into Schools, Teachers’ Role Orientations, and Longevity in Teaching (part 2), Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 3, 3–15.