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Perception, implementation and mentoring: a constructivist approach to pre-service physical education teachers. / CUHK electronic theses & dissertations collection

Given the findings, The implication of this study include: first, government should provide professional development on the PE curriculum innovation to pre-service teachers and TGfU training program to shool PE teachers; second, the major content and instructional strategies of the TGfU professional development program should be adjusted in universities, and third, the school environment context should be developed. / The first study (Chapter 3) examined pre-service teachers' perception of TGfU and factors influencing their perception of TGfU. Piaget's (1970) cognitive constructivism and Vygotsky's (1978) social constructivism provided a theoretical framework to steer the research purposes and design. By adopting a qualitative approach, 20 pre-service PE teachers (F=8, M=12) were recruited for individual semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using content analysis (Patton, 2002). Findings indicated TGfU is beneficial for students due to its propensity to make students feel fun, stimulate their thinking, and to be wholly inclusive. However, difficulties in understanding the nature of TGfU and implementing TGfU were encountered. Most of the pre-service teachers reported they would use TGfU in the future while some of them preferred to implement the skill-based approach during the teaching practicum due to the limited perceived support from cooperative teachers towards TGfU and short time of teaching practicum. Finally, individual factors including game knowledge, teacher beliefs, prior teaching and learning experience and social factors such as government policy, school context, and support from peers, teacher educators, and cooperative teachers were identified to influence pre-service teacher perception of TGfU. / The second study (Chapter 4) investigated pre-service PE teachers' teaching behavior towards TGfU and the factors determining their teaching behavior towards TGfU. Theory of Planned Behavior by Ajzen (1991) was applied to guide the formulation of research purpose and design. The case study design (Merriam, 1998) was conducted with six pre-service teachers. Data collection consisted of documentation, systematic observation and semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. Findings from the case studies indicate that pre-service teachers cannot implement the TGfU model effectively. Three groups of factors including attitude (pre-service teachers' attitude towards TGfU), subjective norm (the support from cooperating teachers, university supervisors, other school PE teachers, and students), and perceived behavior control (space, class time, equipments, game knowledge, TGfU conceptual understanding, students skill level, and classroom discipline) were identified to determine intention of pre-service teachers to adopt TGfU and subsequent TGfU teaching behavior. Among these factors, perceived behavior control was important because most of the pre-service teachers could not implement TGfU effectively mainly due to the constraints of resources and TGfU conceptual understanding. / The third study (Chapter 5) focuses on three groups of teachers including pre-service teachers, cooperating teachers and university supervisors. The purpose of this study is to examine the awareness, attitude, and understanding of the three groups of teachers regarding TGfU, as well as to investigate the mutual interactions among them during mentoring in TGfU teaching. The theoretical framework of this study was based on situated learning theory (Wenger, 1998). Ten pre-service teachers, nine cooperating teachers, and three university supervisors were invited as participants. The written artifacts and semi-structured interviews (Patton, 2002) were conducted for data collection. Qualitative data were analyzed using data analysis (Patton, 2002). Findings indicate that there is a mutual interaction between pre-service teachers and their mentors. Mentoring provided by university supervisors has positive impact on the understanding and implementation of TGfU by pre-service teachers. Meanwhile, cooperating teachers and university supervisors also obtained benefits from mentoring in the TGfU teaching. However, the impact of mentoring provided by cooperating teachers on the implementation of pre-service teachers of TGfU is limited. The mutual interaction may be attributed to the following differences of the three groups in terms of awareness, attitude, and understanding towards TGfU including: first, pre-service teachers and university supervisors are more aware of TGfU compared with cooperating teachers due to relevant pedagogical courses and practical teaching experience; second, although the three groups of teachers all have positive attitudes towards TGfU, the reasons associated with such attitudes differ; and third, the three groups of teachers all hold constructivist views on TGfU but cooperating teachers seemed to be confused with the concept of TGfU. / This work has three objectives: to examine the perceptions of pre-service Physical Education (PE) teachers on Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU), including the factors influencing their perceptions; to investigate the teaching behaviors of pre-service teachers towards TGfU, including the determinants predicting such behaviors; and to explore the mutual interactions among pre-service teachers, cooperating teachers, and university supervisors during mentoring in TGfU teaching. / Wang, Lijuan. / Adviser: Sau Ching Amy Ha. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-03, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 230-261). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese; appendixes B, E, H, and J in Chinese.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:cuhk.edu.hk/oai:cuhk-dr:cuhk_344935
Date January 2010
ContributorsWang, Lijuan, Chinese University of Hong Kong Graduate School. Division of Education.
Source SetsThe Chinese University of Hong Kong
LanguageEnglish, Chinese, Chinese
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, theses
Formatelectronic resource, microform, microfiche, 1 online resource (xv, 274 leaves : ill.)
RightsUse of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons “Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International” License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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