Practice-Based Teacher Education in Physical Education

Background: Teacher education is a complex endeavor designed to prepare preservice teachers for the task of teaching physical education to students in K–12 schools. Yet, there is widespread criticism of teacher education outcomes within the United States and around the world. Consequently, teacher educators have been increasingly called upon to use evidence-based approaches in teacher education. Purpose: In this article, we discuss a teacher education reform called practice-based teacher education from macro and micro perspectives. Discussion: Practice-based teacher education emphasizes a curriculum that is focused on relevance defined in terms of what a teacher needs to know and do to be able to teach physical education. Evidence for curricular changes to physical education teacher education and to the content and pedagogies of methods and content classes are presented. We conclude with a discussion of how practice-based teacher education can address social injustice.