The purpose of this study was to investigate sources of knowledge acquisition of high school team sport coaches. Six teacher/coaches were interviewed using a semi-structured open-ended interview format. Cote, Salmela, and Russell's (1995) guidelines were used to inductively analyze and interpret the data. Results revealed three higher-order categories: (a) sources of knowledge acquisition, which highlighted the different ways coaches acquired their knowledge, including their physical education teacher training, observations and interactions with other coaches, as well as clinics and books; (b) personal and contextual factors, which included the internal and external factors influencing coaches' motivation and commitment to coach, including the challenges faced when teaching and/or coaching; (c) coaching tasks and duties which highlighted coaches' interactions with athletes, as well as their approach to training and competition. Interestingly, many of the findings in the current study were similar to those highlighted in previous studies pertaining to elite coach development, regardless of their undergraduate physical education teacher education (PETE) program or the fact that this sample was coaching high school athletes. However, results provided evidence to support the relative importance of practical coaching experience and interactions with other coaches as central in the development of these coaches. From a practical perspective, these findings could potentially enhance the quality and standard of formal coach education and PETE programs by incorporating more practical elements into the training of coaches and teacher/coaches.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.112596 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Wilson, Laurie M. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002762974, proquestno: AAIMR51413, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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