Motivating movement: Exploring educators’ perspectives on supporting preservice elementary teachers to pedagogically integrate digital technology into physical education
| dc.contributor.author | Little, Tatiana Alexis Watson | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Wiebe, Michelle | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-05-01T22:44:59Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-05-01T22:44:59Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025 | |
| dc.degree.department | Department of Curriculum and Instruction | |
| dc.degree.level | Doctor of Philosophy PhD | |
| dc.description.abstract | The pandemic of physical inactivity is a critical health issue; one that is negatively impacting the health of children worldwide. The continued decrease of children engaging in physical activity is not only negatively impacting their physical health but is seriously impacting their overall wellbeing (Government of Canada, 2023a). Digital technology is a means that has shown to be useful in promoting physical activity in all ages of people, including children in elementary school (Lewis et al., 2017; Parker et al., 2017). Teachers have been both entrusted with finding effective ways of addressing the crucial need for their students to be more physically active (Government of British Columbia, 2022; Government of British Columbia, 2023e) and tasked with integrating digital technology into all aspects of education, including into physical education (Government of British Columbia, 2023b), which has the central goal of promoting lifelong physical activity (Katzmarzyk, 2019; Kretschmann, 2015). Despite the need for Education programs to be preparing elementary teachers to integrate digital technology for physical education purposes, there exists limited research on how preservice elementary teachers are being prepared (Armour et al., 2017; Baek et al., 2018b; Krause, O’Neil & Jones, 2020). Research for this study was conducted in the province of British Columbia (BC), Canada where elementary school refers to grades K–7 (Government of British Columbia, 2016). BC elementary schools have a comprehensive school approach to physical activity, which means that all elementary teachers need to be prepared to teach physical education and promote physical activity throughout the school day. This study used a multi-case descriptive case study research design to explore the perspectives of teacher-educators on supporting preservice teachers to integrate digital technology for physical education purposes. Three teacher-educators participated in this study, all of whom teach physical education to preservice teachers in Education programs at three different universities in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviews and direct observation. The theoretical foundation of this study was Mishra & Koehler’s TPACK framework (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) and Vygotsky's Social Constructivism (Vygotsky, 1978). Armour (2011) and Casey et al. (2017a) provide the conceptualization of pedagogy that informs this study. Findings generated from this study brought to the forefront factors that are impacting teacher-educators’ ability to prepare preservice teachers to integrate digital technology. Specifically, the external factors of university resources, program structure, and sociocultural influence; and the internal factors of beliefs, embracing the facilitator role and the willingness to vulnerably explore emerged as impactful. The concept of vulnerable exploration of digital technology integration emerged as an innovative strategy for teachers to consider; this refers to teachers vulnerably exploring digital technology integration alongside their students in a symmetrical zone of proximal development. Teacher-educators in this study fostered pedagogical integration through two main strategies: 1) exposing preservice teachers to various digital technologies and 2) providing preservice teachers with guided exploration time. Teacher-educators aimed to encourage preservice teachers to critically consider how technology is impacting their students’ physical activity within and beyond the walls of the classroom. This research led to a suggested adaption of the TPACK framework, one that highlights the importance of pedagogical integration and the significance of sociocultural context; this adapted framework operationalises TPACK and presents an adaption of TPACK in a flower design to visually portray the significance of Growing with Evolving Education. The implications of these findings to practice are that teacher-educators need to constantly adapt and grow to support preservice teachers so that they remain socially relevant and maintain credibility in the lives of 21st century learners. | |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Graduate | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1828/22095 | |
| dc.language | English | eng |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.rights | Available to the World Wide Web | |
| dc.subject | Physical Education | |
| dc.subject | Digital Technology | |
| dc.subject | Pedagogy | |
| dc.subject | TPACK | |
| dc.subject | Symmetrical Zone of Proximal Development | |
| dc.subject | Sociocultural Context | |
| dc.subject | Vulnerable Exploration | |
| dc.subject | Pedogogical Integration | |
| dc.subject | Education | |
| dc.title | Motivating movement: Exploring educators’ perspectives on supporting preservice elementary teachers to pedagogically integrate digital technology into physical education | |
| dc.type | Thesis |