Researching and promoting Mosston's Spectrum of teaching styles in Hong Kong

Mosston’s “Spectrum of Teaching Styles” has been regarded as a universal and systematic pedagogical theory of physical education (PE) in the Western World. It composes of 11 Styles categorized from A to K highlighting the chain of decisions made by teachers and/or students in the teaching and learning processes. With sets of comprehensive pedagogies with behavioural, social, cognitive and constructivist orientations of learning, the Spectrum has received little attention from PE practitioners in Hong Kong. This project aimed to inquire how teachers and students experienced respective Teaching Styles. Secondary (3), Primary (3), pre-service PE teachers (2), teacher educators (3) and 3 students with sports skill levels identified as “high”; “medium” and “low” from each of them were invited to join the project. Interviewing, writing of reflective journals and video recording of the lessons were adopted for data collection. The findings illustrated that most of the teachers were found trying hard to understand respective Styles better. They purposefully structured their lessons with typical characteristics of the Style and successfully implemented the lessons. The lessons included teaching of dance, athletics, soccer, fundamental movements, volleyball, physical fitness and table tennis. All students except some low skill ones were capable of identifying the expected learning outcomes and the typical characteristics of the lessons of respective Styles. They liked and satisfied with the kinds of experiences encountered which were different from their run-of-the-mill lessons. Two teachers experienced their unwillingness of leaving most of the decision to the students worrying possible problems of injury and discipline. However, all of them were able to put forward suggestions for improving the implementation of individual Styles and the promotion of the Spectrum of Teaching Styles in Hong Kong. The study illustrates how innovative pedagogies can be researched and the sharing culture can be promoted among PE practitioners.