The development of curricular knowledge: a case of problematic pedagogical content knowledge during advanced knowledge acquisition.

Abstract

The study examined what and how 12 K-8 physical education teacher education (PETE) majors learned about a movement approach that was discrepant from their experiences with physical education. This article describes one portion of the findings: what and how PETE majors learned about a movement approach to game play/strategy and mechanisms of advanced knowledge acquisition that contributed to confusion about this topic. Analytic induction and constant comparison were used to analyze qualitative data from interviews, observations, and relevant documents. Eleven PETE majors initially maintained partial or inaccurate conceptions about a movement approach to game play/strategy or taught this content in ways that were inconsistent with their goals for physical education, their knowledge about learning and teaching game skills, and the information presented by faculty and cooperating teachers. Interacting with students' prior knowledge and what and how faculty taught, the following learning mechanisms contributed to confusion: (a) overgeneralizing a contrast between a movement and traditional approach, (b) forming associations prior to adequate differentiation, and (c) overrelying on bottom-up thinking when initially developing lesson/unit progressions.