Exploring pupils' and physical education teachers' views on the contribution of physical education to health and wellbeing in the affective domain

Teraoka, Eishin and Kirk, David (2022) Exploring pupils' and physical education teachers' views on the contribution of physical education to health and wellbeing in the affective domain. Sport, Education and Society, 27 (8). pp. 935-945. ISSN 1357-3322 (https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2021.1940917)

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Abstract

Physical education is expected to play a significant role in developing pupils' health. This is the case in Scotland, where physical education is located in a prioritised cross-curricular area of Health and Wellbeing (HWB). However, there is a lack of evidence on the extent to which physical education contributes to pupils’ HWB under the new curriculum. Given that there is a growing interest in exploring how teachers enact pedagogies as a response to mental health issues, this study seeks to examine the practices of teachers who identify as being committed to pedagogies of affect within a sample of Scottish secondary schools. The purpose of this study was to report how pupils and teachers talk about the contribution of physical education to pupils' HWB, with a particular focus on the affective domain. The study on which this paper is based used qualitative methods within a grounded theory approach. Six physical education teachers who were from four different secondary schools participated in semi-structured interviews. Pupils were selected by the teachers and participated in focus group interviews. We outlined two main themes: (1) teachers' and pupils' practices in building confidence in pupils, which was exclusive to the female pupils and teachers; (2) teachers' concerns with building relationships with pupils. A notable finding was that teachers who had an explicit and direct intention for affective learning among their pupils sought to build a trusting relationship with pupils as a basic concern to implement teaching for affective learning, rather than the need for an emphasis on lesson contents and specific teaching approaches. This study could be a valuable resource for teacher professional learning as the findings referred to teachers' regular practices and their knowledge of the curriculum, especially for those who recognise a need to enact pedagogies of affect.

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