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Scaffolding student–coaches’ instructional leadership toward student-centred peer interactions: a yearlong action-research intervention in sport education

  • Claudio Farias
    ,
  • Peter A. Hastie
    ,
  • Isabel Mesquita
Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Open access

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to provide a year-long examination of the scaffolding processes used by a teacher in order to support student coaches in their instructional leadership responsibilities during seasons of Sport Education. The intervention sought to enable coaches to conduct problem-solving activities and instructional interactions that would actively involve teammates in the discovery of knowledge and construction of their own learning experiences. Method: Twenty-six seventh grade students participated in four consecutive seasons of Sport Education (Basketball, Handball, Soccer, and Volleyball). The research involved four action-research iterative cycles of planning, acting, monitoring, and fact-finding. Data collection included semi-structured interviews with teams as well as exclusively with the coaches, lesson observations, and a field diary kept by the first author who assumed the role of practitioner-researcher. Results: The findings showed it was necessary to explicitly teach the coaches specific instructional strategies for constructivist peer interactions to emerge. However as coaches became increasingly self-assisted, they were able to promote activities more relevant to the learning needs of teammates. Further, the involvement of the students in taking responsibility for peer-teaching emerged late in the school year. The scaffolding process was found to be a non-linear process contingently adjusted in reference to aspects such as coaches’ mastery of processes, the complexity of the domain-specific content, and nature of the sport. Conclusions: This study gives credence to the advocacy that specific training is necessary if students are to develop the ability to engage teammates actively in learning interactions.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 269-291

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

European Physical Education Review (Volume 24, Issue 3)

Publication milestones

  • Published - 13/01/2017

Publication status

Published - 13/01/2017

ISSN

1356-336X

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/622120
  • Scopus: 85050405198

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