Context as a Factor in Teachers’ Perceptions of the Teaching of Thinking Skills in Physical Education

The purpose of the study was to understand how contextual factors influenced three teachers’ willingness to embrace and implement a curriculum based on the teaching of thinking skills within middle school physical education. The teachers were selected because teaching thinking skills was an important part of the central mission of their schools, and they were involved in planning and teaching thinking skills in physical education. Observations of lessons, formal interviews with the teachers and administrators, and curriculum documents provided the data base for analysis using constant comparison and analytic induction. In addition, the value orientations of all teachers within each department were obtained using the Value Orientation Inventory (Ennis & Chen, 1993). Results indicated that school and community support, teacher value orientation and collegiality, and teacher’s perception of the relationship of physical education to broader curricular innovation influenced the teachers’ acceptance of teaching thinking skills as a curricular focus.