Readiness of Physical Education Teachers to Implement the «Embodied Learning» Concept in Lessons with Adolescents

The organizational and implementation capacities of teachers to introduce embodied learning into practical activities were determined. Research objective – to determine the readiness of physical education teachers to implement the embodied learning concept in physical education lessons for adolescents. Materials and methods. The study involved 45 Ukrainian and 14 Chinese physical education teachers. Their professional teaching experience was at least 6–10 years (8 persons), 11–20 years for 45 persons, and more than 20 years for the remaining 6 persons. A questionnaire developed by the authors was used to examine their readiness to implement the embodied learning concept in physical education lessons for adolescents. To improve the objectivity of the survey results, a methodological seminar was conducted before the survey. The seminar covered the principles of the embodied learning concept, scientific materials, and practical recommendations for its implementation in the educational process. During the following 12 days, the teachers thoroughly studied the information received, reflected on it, and modelled the organization of the process and the methods for implementing embodied learning in their practice. Only after this process had been completed did the teachers answer the questionnaire items. Results. 86.4 % of the respondents indicated that embodied learning could be implemented in physical education lessons for adolescents only to a limited extent. Its implementation should primarily involve practical action and exploration (100 % of respondents), as well as the integration of motor actions with tasks from other school subjects and various cognitive tasks (91.8 %). Such activities for adolescents should be organized in different ways (88.1 %), primarily individually, in pairs, in small groups, and as a whole class. The most effective teacher actions are explaining how to perform a task and observing the process followed by individual feedback (96.6 % of respondents); directly demonstrating correct task performance to students (37.1 %); and asking students questions and, based on their responses, guiding their actions toward solving the task (59.5 %). According to 68.1 % of respondents, whether adolescents’ activities should be assessed in lessons implementing embodied learning depends on the nature of the task, whereas 10.2 % consider such assessment inappropriate. Factors negatively affecting the implementation of embodied learning include a large number of students in the class and differing levels of student motivation (30.5 %), as well as an insufficient amount of methodological materials and inadequate preparedness of physical education teachers (32.2 %). Conclusion. The current situation regarding the implementation of embodied learning differs from what is required, which limits the potential for physical education teachers to apply solutions identified by researchers. These teachers require specialized training and, to some extent, optimization of the organizational component of adolescents’ physical education lessons