Physical Education: Teaching and Learning

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue seeks to provide a forum for high-quality research, which contributes important and innovative insights into teaching and learning in Physical Education (PE), as well as addressing new scientific perspectives and evidence-based practices in PE.

Evidence-based practices in PE are an important focus of this Special Issue, as most teaching and learning are carried out without reference to evidence, and most teachers use practices that have either not been found to work or found not to work. Evidence-based practice is a systematic method of reviewing the best evidence, combining it with the art of athletic training or your clinical expertise, and making informed choices. Evidence-based PE models report on different PE instructions, designs, and interventions and their impact on students’ psychomotor, cognitive, affective, and social outcomes.

Additionally, teaching quality is seen as a central determinant of successful learning in school. However, instructional research shows that the learning performance of pupils is influenced less using specific teaching methods than the quality of teaching. Regarding the social legitimation of PE teaching, it is stressed that PE cannot evade the demand of working to improve the quality of teaching and accounting for the results. Determining characteristics of quality PE teaching and systematically analyzing their importance for successful learning, thus, has far-reaching significance for PE, on both motor and cognitive activation.

Moreover, quality implementation of different phases of PE teacher education (PETE; initial teacher education, induction, continuous professional development, and in-service education) has a significant impact on the quality of teaching and learning in PE in all educational levels. Based on this, PETE programmes and their impact on pre-service and in-service PE teachers are another focus of this Special Issue.

Thus, we aim to develop public pedagogies and knowledge in the interests of critical educational intervention. For this reason, we look forward to receiving high-quality original research studies (e.g., longitudinal, randomized control trials; mixed methods; qualitative; systematic reviews; and meta-analyses) focused on PE and PETE. We encourage contributions addressing core problems in PE related to learners’ experiences, pedagogy, inclusion, policy, and evidence-based practice. Although studies related to the promotion of healthy habits within PE are welcome, priority will be given to the following topics that need further research within PE: 1) teaching and learning PE school-based implementation and interventions; 2) outcomes associated with the use of different pedagogical models and formative assessment in PE; and 3) innovative teaching and learning methods used in the context of PE. The section will further consider papers that investigate how pedagogical practices are shaped by broader political, economic, socio-cultural, discursive, affective, material, and technological dimensions. In addition, papers from different social science disciplines and methodological approaches, including interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research, are welcome.

We look forward to receiving your contributions. 

Dr. Manolis Adamakis
Dr. Claude Scheuer
Prof. Dr. Richard Peter Bailey
Guest Editors

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• physical education
• educational research
• learning
• teaching
• teacher education
• pedagogy
• evidence-based practices
• pedagogical models
• assessment