Pupils' Motivational and Emotional Responses to Pedagogies of Affect in Physical Education in Scottish Secondary Schools.

Cara A Lamb,David Kirk,Eishin Teraoka,Kimberly L Oliver

doi:10.3390/ijerph18105183

Abstract

This paper reports on the findings of two studies concerned with pupils’ motivational and emotional responses to pedagogies of affect in physical education in Scottish secondary schools. Pedagogies of affect explicitly focus on learning in the affective domain, or what is known in Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) as ‘personal qualities’. Personal qualities include motivation, confidence and self-esteem, determination and resilience, responsibility and leadership, respect and tolerance, and communication. In one study, led by Teraoka, the researchers explored the ways in which pupils responded, through focus group interviews based on Self-Determination Theory, to teachers who claimed to value and be committed to teaching explicitly for affective learning outcomes. In another study, led by Lamb, the researchers investigated the impact of an activist intervention on girls’ experiences of physical education, through their conversations in focus group discussions. Both studies reveal that pupils responded favorably, both in motivation and emotion, to pedagogies of affect in physical education, and that these responses offer a promising basis for future developments.

Highlights

In terms of their contribution to the health and wellbeing of children and young people (CYP), since at least the 1980s, physical educators around the world have been exhorted to attend to obesity as the major public health issue of the day (e.g., References [1,2,3])
In the context of an emerging crisis in the health and wellbeing of CYP, and in particular, mental health, we have argued in this paper that physical educators’ response must go beyond Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity (MVPA)-centered programs
Study 1 showed there are teachers already practicing pedagogies of affect, albeit within programs that tend to remain dominated by traditional practices

Summary

Introduction

In terms of their contribution to the health and wellbeing of children and young people (CYP), since at least the 1980s, physical educators around the world have been exhorted to attend to obesity as the major public health issue of the day (e.g., References [1,2,3]). Despite the widespread adoption of initiatives, such as Fitnessgram® , in the USA [4], and the increasing visibility of physical activity and physical fitness concepts in national curricular policy in a range of countries [5] the physical education practitioner community has been somewhat ambivalent about the obesity focus of their contribution to CYP’s health and wellbeing (e.g., Reference [6]).

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Discussion

Conclusion