Date of Award

1-1-1993

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Teaching & Learning

Abstract

This study attempted to gain a greater understanding of how four secondary physical education student teachers made interactive decisions without the background of teaching experiences which is essential in building a repertoire of heuristic strategies. Four descriptive accounts provided examples of the ecological influences for each student teacher's decisions concerning his or her preactive lesson planning, interactive teaching, and postactive evaluations. Qualitative methodology, in a comparative case study approach, utilized non-participant observation and stimulated recall procedures in collecting the data.Results showed the four most frequent ecological influences on the student teachers' planning decisions were: student behavior cues, the number of students participating, school activities, and the cooperating teacher. Lacking a repertoire of teaching experiences, i.e., mental image of lesson alternatives, the student teachers in this study tended to continue the lesson as planned when one or more of the ecological influences threatened the implementation of the lesson.The student teachers' frame of reference for their planning decisions was personal, not theoretical. Their personal memories, inclusive of both positive and negative past life experiences, served as the reference for their preactive, interactive, and postactive decisions. Rarely, if ever, did the student teachers refer to any theoretical precepts as the basis for their planning decisions.If physical education teacher educators are going to impact their preservice candidates with knowledge from a researched knowledge base, they must first attend to the influence of the preservice candidates' past life experiences. Teacher educators would do well to guide their preservice candidates in reflecting on both their positive and the negative past life experiences in light of the theoretical knowledge. With such guidance, preservice candidates would be better able to choose the pedagogical theories that most closely agree with their own personal and professional beliefs and not adopt those pedagogical traditions that engender the sorts of negative memories these student teachers have described in this study.

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