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Three physical education programs’ adaptive approaches to change: ‘how can I spin that so it works for me?’

This study examined five of 12 physical education teachers participating in the Assessment Initiative for Middle School Physical Education (AIMS-PE), a reform-based teacher development project designed to help teachers examine and reframe their assessment practices and to design and implement curricular programs that encourage active teaching and learning. The purpose of this study was to examine teachers’ experiences with change to understand how they used the espoused curriculum and assessments, and how they addressed project goals. Data included interviews with teachers, students, principals, assigned project researchers and mentors from three schools, school artefacts, and descriptive field notes from observations. Interview transcripts and field notes were analysed using open, axial and selective coding (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Results indicated that teachers from each of the three participating schools demonstrated, in varying abilities, adaptive approaches to implementation. First, teachers were provided opportunities to adapt project curricula and assessments to their particular situations and required a certain amount of negotiation and flexibility on the part of both teachers and facilitators. During implementation, teachers’ abilities to adapt project materials proved to have a direct and powerful effect on the adoption of project goals and curricula. Second, factors which influenced teachers’ efforts to adapt project materials included professional discourse of new instructional and assessment ideas and practices, time, power of student reaction and the role of the principal. Finally, results indicate an importance for teacher development projects to assist teachers in becoming knowledgeable about change and empowered in their own ability to adapt to problems which may arise within the change process. Adaptive approaches to change, such as the one described in this study assumes that variability among teacher and schools is inevitable and that specificity of project methods and goals should evolve over time, paying particular attention to local conditions and individual needs.