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Teaching context characteristics and feedback delivery in physical education
Abstract   Peer reviewed

Teaching context characteristics and feedback delivery in physical education

D.K. Drost, D. Zak and John R. Todorovich
Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport Supplement, Vol.86, p.164
2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02701367.2018.1450043

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Abstract

Background/Purpose: Feedback in physical education can be a key influence on both student learning (Skipper & Douglas, 2012) and motivation (Barzouka, Sotiropoulos, & Kioumourtzoglou, 2015). However, negative effects of feedback provided to students have been proposed, specifically when learning motor skills. For example, researchers have reported both advantages and disadvantages of increased feedback frequency. Disadvantages include diminished retention of learned skills due to a suggested controlling nature of frequent feedback (Weinstein & Schmidt, 1990). In a typical physical education class in the United States, students often participate in large classes of short duration and, as a result, receive less instruction and feedback from their teachers. Hence, physical education teachers must ensure students understand and practice motor skills appropriately during physical education. The purpose of this study was to examine potential relationships between middle school physical education teaching context characteristics and teachers’ non-managerial feedback frequency. Method: Physical education teachers were recruited from all middle schools in a northwest Florida county. Attrition of the sample resulted in 13 teachers (8 males, 5 females) who participated in the research resulting in 52% of the original participant recruitment pool. Each teacher was observed five times teaching the same students during an eight-week period. Observation days were selected based on an average week as determined through teacher interviews prior to commencing the observations. A systematic observation research design was employed to collect data for the study. The instrument required observers to audio record teacher lessons and then tally teacher verbal feedback that was motivational, general, and instructional. Analysis/Results: Demographics included gender, physical education teaching experience, and physical education teacher education training. Feedback data were prepared by transforming feedback frequency into rate per minute totals. Total teaching, total practice time, and total game time were calculated. No significant time or feedback differences were found between schools’ combined totals. Independent t-tests were not significant and revealed that neither PETE training [t(11) = 1.320, p = .214] nor gender [t(11) = 1.822, p = .096, M(males) = .713, M(females) = 1.35] were responsible for feedback rate differences. A positive Pearson correlation [r(11) = .58, p = .037] indicated a moderate relationship between feedback rate and physical education teaching experience. Significant Pearson correlations were also found between feedback rate and total time spent in practice tasks [r(11) = .56, p = .046] and total time spent in game tasks [r(11) = –.70, p = .010]. Conclusions: Although there were no differences in PETE training with regard to feedback rate, gender differences were noteworthy. Within this sample, female teachers delivered nearly double the feedback rate that male teachers provided to students. Teacher experience was also related to the rate of quality verbal feedback delivered to students. Interestingly, relationships between feedback frequencies in practice- and game-heavy curricula suggest that teachers who spend more time in practice have the tendency to deliver more feedback to students. In conclusion, teacher educators could provide training or support to increase feedback to students in game play and promote more opportunities for practice within the curriculum.

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