Class management of in-service physical education student teachers

Classroom management is essential to effective teaching. However, there is little information about how physical education student teachers manage their classes. Berliner (1988) proposed five stages of learning to teach and argued that experience is a predominant element to the development of expertise in pedagogy. Cruz (2000) suggested that the in-service student teachers taught better than their pre-service counter-parts as they had more in-field experience. The purpose of the study was to examine the class management practices of in-service physical education student teachers. Three in-service student teachers were randomly selected and invited to participate in the study. They were observed teaching two ball games lessons and took part in two pre-lesson interviews and two post-lesson stimulated recall sessions. Qualitative data were collected through lesson observations and interviews. Constant comparison and analytic induction were used to organize and categorize the data. Results showed that there were common managerial behaviours and management strategies adopted by the student teachers during teaching. Teaching style, organization and supporting were the identical managerial behaviours observed, whilst the preventive management, equipment management and interactive class management were the common class management strategies identified. The findings hold implications for the preparation of physical education teachers. Copyright © 2005 Department of Physical Education, Hong Kong Baptist University.