The perceived relationship between the mobile website and content

and their ability to teach PE more broadly. PE pre-service teachers believed that good content knowledge levels would have many positive affects upon their teaching praxis, whilst conversely recognising the negative consequences attached to a limited level of content knowledge.

6.2.1 The perceived relationship between the mobile website and content knowledge.

Before uncovering the value of content knowledge in more detail, it is important that the reader of this thesis is clear on what PE pre-service teachers and the teacher educator understood by content knowledge, given its significance to this study. Similar to the findings by Hayes et al. (2008), PE pre-service teachers in this study conceptualised the term ‘subject knowledge’ to mean content knowledge. Shulman’s (1987, p. 8) definition of content knowledge is “the specific subject matter knowledge, understanding and skills that are to be learned by school children” and whilst PE pre-service teachers used the term subject knowledge in the data, what they were referring to was content knowledge. Thus, when striving to achieve competence in the teaching standard “Develop good subject and curriculum knowledge” (DfE, 2011b, p.11),

117 they were prioritising knowledge of the isolated skills/movement vocabulary. This is not to say that PE pre-service teachers dismissed other aspects of teaching, but they did hold content knowledge in high regards, positioning it above all other knowledge bases. In the following quote, Levi expresses the importance of content knowledge in gymnastics, whilst referring to it as subject knowledge:

“…. because if you try and teach a gymnastics lesson and you don’t know what you're doing, or you’ve got no subject knowledge of gymnastics, it’s not possible to teach anything. Before the unit that we did at uni, if I was asked to teach a gymnastics lesson, I would have had to research it for hours just to … I wouldn’t have known what to do. I wouldn’t have known where to start. It’s like when you know what you're doing with football or rugby, you know where you can start with passing, then you move onto tackling, then you move on to defence and attack. In gymnastics I wouldn’t have known what you start on … that your first lesson was on balances or different ways to travel. I would have probably got the apparatus out and started doing runs and flips over it…... Whereas I don’t think you do that, do you? (Levi, pre-service teacher, interview 1).

On commencement of the PGCE course, Levi referred to his content knowledge in gymnastics as lacking the required depth to teach it effectively. In fact, most PE pre-service teachers felt that gymnastics required specialist knowledge and tended to prioritise it as an activity requiring development. This was revealed through the multiple references to their lack of specialism, inability to perform and subsequent excitement at the prospect of a support tool that could assist them in their development. For example, Kelly drew upon her content knowledge deficits, highlighting that:

“Obviously for me gymnastics isn't my specialism… and with this she prioritised content knowledge in order to... deliver the right subject knowledge and the right technique” (Kelly, pre-service teacher, focus group 1).

Similarly, Liz was adamant that the lack of opportunity for pupils to take part in curricular gymnastics was down to:

“a teacher’s knowledge, I think. Definitely knowledge. I think they're scared as well...……. I don’t think from previous experience in schools, a lot of teachers might not move on to handsprings because they don’t know

118 how to support it. Or the progressions to it, they don’t know the progressions to support it” (Liz, pre-service teacher, focus group 3).

Like Levi, it was not unusual for PE pre-service teachers to align their content knowledge levels with different activities. For the males, gymnastics was usually compared to their expert knowledge in games activities, with both male and females putting this down to past experiences at school or sports clubs. For example, most female PE pre-service teachers had actively engaged in some form of gymnastics and dance at school and aside from Kelly, had positively reflected upon those experiences. Most males had limited experience of gymnastics and dance at school and those who had taken part tended to express negative attitudes. Below are typical examples of the contrasting experiences and the gendered perspectives had by both a male and female PE pre-service teacher:

“I do think a lot of the girls, as gymnasts though, have a lot better experience than boys. They are going to think they are a lot more comfortable delivering some of the demonstrations…” (Dillon, pre-service teacher, focus group 4).

“Well in my opinion boys are more inclined to take part in games and that kind of thing, and maybe they’ve got limited experience of gymnastics in school, or when they’ve come out they haven’t got any teaching or like level one qualification, so they don’t have the subject knowledge to do it” (Naomi, pre-service teacher, focus group 1).

The males almost always attached negative connotations of gymnastics content knowledge to their gymnastics experiences, with most females agreeing that the males were more likely to have been accustomed to a games culture throughout their childhood. In some cases, these views were detrimental to how males positioned gymnastics in the PE curriculum. For example, Matt, a mature PE pre-service teacher, having only had poor experiences of gymnastics at school, was more than happy to bypass it on placement:

“I think it’s put me off teaching it at all. In the school that I’m at now, they don’t do gymnastics at all for the boys, and for me that’s fine. Maybe that’s a generational thing but yeah, my past experience has put me off either doing it or teaching it” (Matt, pre-service teacher, focus group 2).

119 These perceptions of gymnastics were reinforced to Dillon on his first teaching placement when the head of department “had taken it off the curriculum”. Dillon went on to say, “they don’t do it all, not even in year 7”, as apparently “the lads just don’t like it” (pre-service teacher, focus group 2). Whilst the lack of opportunity for males to do gymnastics in schools certainly affected how they valued gymnastics, the heteronormative views that were shared amongst male and female PE pre-service teachers, similarly caused apprehensions for some of the females. For Lorraine, not being competent at gymnastics meant that she ‘failed’ as a female. This anxiety was expressed in one of the practical sessions when she said, “I should be good at this and the lads are better. I need to go and take some extra classes” (Lorraine, pre-service teacher, observation 4). Similarly, Kelly associated her current fear of vaulting with her school experiences:

“….because I’d never seen a vault until I was in uni, so as a result I am scared to death of doing it, because now obviously I’ve grown up and now I’m more scared than what I would be when I was younger. So, I think it does have a lasting impact” (Kelly, pre-service teacher, focus group 2). Whilst PE pre-service teachers entered the PGCE course from diverse backgrounds and a range of sporting degrees, including several prestigious universities, in most cases it was their childhood experiences that were most influential to how they perceived their level of content knowledge across sports. For example, only one PE pre-service teacher referred to her undergraduate degree’s influence in developing her content knowledge profile in gymnastics:

“When I was a lot younger, maybe about the age of seven, my parents always took me to various extra-curricular, so I did swimming, badminton, gymnastics. I only did it for a short period of time though because I didn’t really enjoy it. Coaching obviously, it was a lot different to teaching, what I experienced when I went to secondary school. I didn’t really enjoy the coaching aspect of it when I was in this club. I can’t even remember whether I was particularly good at it, but I know when I went to secondary school my experiences of it were, taught by female teachers, and we had a lot of the old equipment. I can’t really remember doing much based around travel or rolling, it was all on ropes, on walls, equipment, stuff like that. Nothing has really particularly stuck with me that would help me at this stage. But it did on my undergrad as we had Gary Kirby and he did

120 some really good sessions with us. We taught sessions as well, so I’ve got a little bit of experience of doing that, and it was based more around acrobatics….” (Sarah, pre-service teacher, focus group 2).

For Sarah, the wealth of experience meant that she was able to reflect upon pedagogical practices rather than basing her reflections solely on the actual content matter. Aside from Sarah, content knowledge was prioritised, and