Rationale behind the project

In Norway, physical education (PE) is one of the subjects in mandatory schooling that experiences to a large degree being taught by teachers without formal training. As much as 50% of the PE teachers in primary school have no specific pedagogical education within PE (Perlic, 2019). This creates an imperative to design more accessible ways to provide continuing professional development (CPD) and/or extended education to in-service PE teachers. Especially since PE, as part of the practical and aesthetical subjects, traditionally receives less attention when it comes to these opportunities given to in-service teachers. While we know that, in Norway, the practical- aesthetical subjects constitute about 25% of the total class time in mandatory schooling, only less than 10% of the ongoing additional- and extended education, or CPD, for in-service teachers are dedicated those very teachers (Karlsen et al., 2020). In Australia, schooling is largely a State Government responsibility and the qualification levels of HPE teachers vary by state. For example, in Queensland, government primary and secondary schools are required to appoint HPE-qualified teachers wherever possible in accordance with their employment laws. In other states, particularly in primary schools, HPE is largely delivered by classroom teachers.

Following the experiences and call for more research into hybrid models in PETE,  e.g., from Calderón et al. (2020) and Howells et al. (2022), and the potential of digital literacies to accelerate learning in HPE (Chambers et al., 2014), this project aims to explore new hybrid and online approaches in PETE. This include exploring how this can create opportunities for more people to attend PETE - lowering barriers like geography, race, ethnicity, migration status, gender, and age - and creating online communities of practice to bring together PETE educators and PE teachers (c.f. Whatman, 2016). This project also responds to ILUs management statement, with NTNU's international development plan  as a backdrop, that there is a goal that all NTNU's departments should have a professional environment at a high international level, and that digital solutions must be part of the international education offer at NTNU.

Together, drawing from our international experiences when designing courses using digital technology in a Health and Physical Education pedagogical framework, we intend to reach the following outcomes through this timeline:

Ethical considerations

Research data generated in the project will be managed according to best practice and be as open as possible and as closed as necessary. Data containing personal information will be processed according to GDPR, Griffith University and NTNU guidelines . This include development a Data Management Plan  describing how the research data will be managed and stored, and that research data will be published and shared openly in our repository for research data, NTNU Open Data.

References

Armour, K., Quennerstedt, M., Chambers, F. & Makopoulou, K. (2017). What is ‘effective’CPD for contemporary physical education teachers? A Deweyan framework. Sport, Education and Society, 22(7), 799-811.

Calderón, A., Scanlon, D., MacPhail, A. & Moody, B. (2020). An integrated blended learning approach for physical education teacher education programmes: Teacher educators’ and pre-service teachers’ experiences. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 26(6), 562-577.

Chambers, F. C., Murphy, N., Nolan, Y. & Murphy, O. (2014). “William”. I K. Armour (Red.), Pedagogical cases in physical education and youth sport (s. 184-197). Routledge.

Howells, K., Murray, A., Pearson, J. & Whewell, E. (2022). Making the impossible, possible. Lessons learnt to ensure embodied physical education teacher education within COVID-19 times and beyond, regardless of the learning medium. PRACTICE, 1-11.

Karlsen, K. H., Skregelid, L. & Holdhus, K. (2020, 23. january 2020). Styrking av praktisk og estetisk innhold i skolen: Velment, men uforpliktende strategi. Utdanningsnytt.no.

Perlic, B. (2019). Lærerkompetanse i grunnskolen. Hovedresultater 2018/ 2019. Statistisk Sentralbyrå (SSB).

Whatman, S. (2016). Establishing online communities of practice: The case of a virtual sports coaching community. I L. Rowan & P. Grootenboer (Red.), Student Engagement and Educational Rapport in Higher Education (s. 45-65). Palgrave Macmillan.

Project description with footnotes (PDF)

Publications

Overview of all publications

Presentations

• Østerlie, O. (2024, December 1-5). “It’s like being there, but not in the way”. Exploring the use of virtual reality tools to stimulate reflection in Norwegian physical education teacher education [Oral presentation]. The 2024 Annual Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) Conference, Sydney, Australia.
• Østerlie, O., Killian, C. M., & Sargent, J. (2024, May 13-17). Learning from the past to support our digital future: Online and digital technologies in physical education practices [Symposium creator and chair]. AIESEP 2024 International Conference "Past Meets the Future", Jyväskylä, Finland.
• Østerlie, O., Kristensen, G. O., Holland, S. K., Camacho-Miñano, M. J., & Whatman, S. (2024, May 13-17). Digital technology in physical education teacher education: A scoping review [Oral presentation]. AIESEP 2024 International Conference "Past Meets the Future", Jyväskylä, Finland.
• Østerlie, O., & Portals-Riomao, A. (2024, May 13-17). Exploring the use of virtual reality tools to stimulate reflection in physical education teacher education: An intervention study on Norwegian students’ perceptions [Oral presentation]. AIESEP 2024 International Conference "Past Meets the Future", Jyväskylä, Finland.

• Research group DiTePES , Department of Teacher Education (ILU), Norwegian University of Science and Technology, represented by Dr Ove Østerlie
• Griffith Institute of Educational Research (GIER)  and the School of Education and Professional Studies, represented by Dr Sue Whatman , Doctor of Education Program Director, and co-leader of EDJEE in GIER
• Complutense University of Madrid, Faculty of Education, represented by Dr Maria José Camacho-Miñano

In addition, this project has a letter of intention with the 1,5mill€ EU Erasmus+ funded “Phys-Ed Academy” teacher academy project  led by Dr Mats Hordvik  at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences. This intention is to ensure that by keeping both entities informed during over the project lifespan, the knowledge developed in both projects will increase in quality.