Abstract:
Research on how teachers’ and coaches’ beliefs about teaching and learning shape their responses to Game Based Approaches (GBA) to teaching team sport identifies how experience over time in particular institutional and socio-cultural settings shapes their beliefs and practice over their professional lives (see, Hassanin & Light, 2015). Research on teacher socialization suggests that physical education teachers’ socialization is a life-long process (see, Richards, Templin & Gaudreault, 2013) within which Teacher Education has a limited influence on long-term practice and beliefs (Richards et al. 2014). The study that this presentation reports on challenges this assumption by identifying the significant influence of Teacher Education on the beliefs of the five teachers in the study and their interpretation of GBA. Formal training proved to have been crucial in the participants’ development of beliefs about teaching and coaching with a lasting effect being reflected in their practice. In this study, professional socialization (Lawson, 1983) formed an influential stage in shaping the participants’ beliefs about teaching team sports. This study suggests that when considered within the context of early experiences and the influence of school contexts as in-service teachers, Teacher Education formed a significant influence on their beliefs and attitudes and use of GBA.