A professional development system to optimize the implementation of a daily physical activity program in a school setting
This paper describes a school-based action-research-training conducted with an elementary school team in order to optimize the implementation of a daily physical activity program. A dual professional development system was deployed in collaboration with the physical education and health teacher to support six classroom teachers. The collective component consisted of six group meetings; the individual component was deployed in subgroups, dyads, and solo. Data were gathered using summary reports, observation notes, researchers’ and participants’ logs. The results show that the members of the school team have developed and implemented, individually and collectively, different strategies to solve their problems and, thus, to support the implementation of the project. The results emphasized the importance of formulating indicators of success that can be observed among students to sustain teachers’ engagement and practice changes. One of the structuring effects of the project is the creation of a system that the school environment considers effective in supporting its staff on a daily basis.
Keywords
- action-research
- professional development
- educational coaching
- physical activity