Exploring Pedagogy and Practice: Meaningful Physical Education in Elementary Preservice Teacher Education

• In Event: Paper Session 2: Curriculum Models, Meaningful Physical Education, and External Provisions

Abstract

This paper explores how three teacher educators, working in different Irish universities, used a collaborative self-study approach to explore how they adopted a new pedagogical approach (Meaningful Physical Education) over the course of an entire semester. The findings demonstrate how they struggled initially to cover sufficient curriculum content, before recognising that the pedagogical principles underpinning the approach could lead to a richer learning environment for themselves and their students. Secondly, they valued the supportive structures of their collaboration because of the opportunities provided to reflect on their own learning. This work adds to a growing body of research focusing on the potential of the Meaningful Physical Education to enrich curriculum delivery in a variety of education and teacher education contexts.

Authors

• Tony Sweeney, Maynooth University, Ireland

• Richard Bowles, Mary Immaculate College

• Maura Coulter, Dublin City University