What expectations and difficulties were perceived by pre-service Physical Education teachers when they implement the pedagogical model of Teaching Games for Understanding? A qualitative study

Abstract

The evidence has shown the benefits to implement a pedagogical model of Teaching Games for Understanding. However, pre-service teachers perceived difficulties over its implementation. The aim of the study was to examine the expectations before using the model of Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU), as well as identifying the difficulties after its implementation. Four pre-service Physical Education teachers participated in the study. Two focus groups were carried out to collect data and a thematic analysis was realized. Two main themes were identified: 1) Expectations for the future implementation of TGfU over teaching unit; 2) Difficulties perceived by pre-service Physical Education teachers after the first implementation of TGfU. Pre-service teachers expected the students understand better the internal logic of sports, as well as, creating positive experiences. However, participants emphasized they spent more time to design the sessions and, they felt a lack of familiarization of questioning technique by students. It is recommended that training programmes include practices where future teachers can implement tasks based on TGfU. This will allow to offer them more tools to be able to adapt the tasks to the reality of the classroom.