Background: Research on pedagogy in physical education and sport has increasingly been informed by contemporary learning theory with the socio-cultural perspective being prominent. Over a similar period research on the social dimensions of physical education and youth sport has drawn on a range of social theory yet there has been little systematic…

Purpose: Following an explanation of the current policy context the paper addresses three particularly pressing challenges: the curriculum focus for physical education as part of health and wellbeing; the major implications for subject knowledge; and how translating curriculum change into professional learning and practice might feasibly occur. In…

Background: The outsourcing of health, sport and physical educational (HSPE) work has been a feature of physical education (PE) "futures talk" for over 20 years. However, HSPE work outsourcing has been the focus of little empirical research and only occasional commentary. That small amount of empirical research that has been conducted has been…

Background: In the contemporary "knowledge-driven" European society, the quality and relevance of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for teachers and Physical Education teachers (PE-CPD) has come under scrutiny. National contexts within Europe vary considerably, however, so there is a need to gain analytical insights into PE-CPD structures…

Background: Teacher education is expected to support pre-service teachers (PSTs) as they respond to the challenges of becoming self-reliant learners, and position them within the context of a professional learning approach. In doing so, teacher educators need to exemplify lifelong characteristics of learning in our practice and attitudes,…

Background: The teaching strategies of modeling and the use of cue words are employed by both experienced and inexperienced teachers. While these strategies have received some attention in the literature, the effectiveness of these strategies in terms of the resultant change in the quality or kinematics of the motor skill performance has been…

Background: Physical activity declines during adolescence and strategies to combat this occurrence are both educational and public health priorities. Schools have been identified as central institutions for the promotion of physical activity among youth. While physical education is considered to be the major vehicle for physical activity promotion…

Background: Past research has revealed the positive impact that interest development can have on achievement outcomes with early-adolescents in physical education (PE). Interest is considered a psychological state of engaging and willingness to reengage in specific content that develops over time; however, little work to date has examined interest…

Background: Even though all school-aged children in most countries experience some form of curricular physical education many do not maintain a lifelong involvement in sport or physical activity. From a theoretical perspective, the development models that dominate sport are limited by their staged and linear approaches to development (e.g. Cote's…

Background: Games represent a very important part of the physical education curriculum and the process by which they are learnt is very complex. Constructive teaching theories highlight the existence of knowledge prior to instruction that the pupil actively transforms through verbalisation and interaction with classmates. The results of research…

Background: Despite the support in primary education that student-designed games enhance student contextualisation of skills and tactics, there has been little support in secondary education, nor any empirical research exploring these claims. This paper attempts to rekindle these beliefs and explores the use of student-designed games in an English…

Background: Studies have shown that some children do not participate in sport or exercise because they did not establish early coordination and basic motor skills while at school. Basic motor skills form significant parts of the goals for students to achieve in the Swedish school subject Physical Education and Health (PEH). Aims: The aim was to…

Background: There are several factors that influence teaching urban physical education. Violence, poverty and irrelevant curricula influence the teaching-learning environment in urban physical education. One approach to urban physical education is to look carefully at the ecology that exists within an urban physical education class. This ecology…

Background: The application of a social theory of learning and the notion of situated learning as a theoretical basis for understanding students' learning in PE is broadly recognised. Nevertheless, it is far more unusual for this theoretical approach to provide a basis for understanding learning processes in talent development in elite sport.…

Background: Physical education (PE) is a subject which has a long history of legitimising itself on the grounds of its contribution to pupils' social and moral welfare. It therefore seems probable that PE teacher education (PETE) might embrace recent calls for the need to re-moralise society due to the conditions of the late-modern age and not…