THE DEVELOPMENT OF IN-SERVICE TEACHERS KNOWLEDGE OF A CONSTRUCTIVIST APPROACH TO PHYSICAL-EDUCATION - TEACHING BEYOND ACTIVITIES

The purpose of this paper is to describe three aspects of learning a m ovement approach that were salient and initially problematic for 1 exp erienced teacher, 2 early career teachers, and 1 student teacher. A co nstructivist perspective was the theoretical base. Across 3 years, the researcher conducted 11 weeks of observations, 15 formal interviews, 3 group interviews, and daily informal interviews. Three problematic a spects were: (1) knowing to what extent they should give information a nd tell children what to do when teaching less structured content, (2) knowing the whole of the approach and how components connected, and ( 3) knowing content (i.e., pedagogical content knowledge) in enough dep th and detail. Knowledge development was facilitated by more experienc ed teachers, experience, and a set of key ideas.