Assessing the influence of planning on selected instructional behaviours of physical education student-interns from University of Education, Winneba, Ghana

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the influence that planning have on some selected instructional behaviours of student-interns within two different teaching episodes, one planned and the second unplanned. Eight physical education student interns from the Department of Health, Physical education, Recreation and Sports of University of Education, Winneba taught two 30-minutes lesson to Senior High School and College of Education students. Teacher planning, including lesson note preparation was done for the first lesson by the student-interns but no planning was done for the second lesson. The two teaching episodes were videotaped for all the student-interns and were employed in data analyses. A mixed-methods design was used to report the project. Two instruments were used for the analysis of selected teaching behaviours: The Qualitative Dimensions of Lesson Introduction, Task Presentation, and Lesson Closure (QDITC) system and an interview. Graphs, tables, frequency counts, percentages and t-test analysis were used to analyse data gathered. The results showed significant differences in the selected instructional behaviours of all the eight student-interns across the two teaching episodes. It was evident that planning had a positive influence on the four instructional behaviours selected for the student-interns. This implies that a considerable amount of time must be devoted to teaching how to plan during Physical Education Teacher Education programmes so that teachers in training can be effective and can acquire proper planning skills before they become in-service.