An Ecological Perspective on Physical Education

This paper reviews the use of the classroom ecology paradigm in teaching research in physical education. The review traces the development of a research program beginning in the United States at the Ohio State University, through the development of more sophisticated techniques, to answer the following key question:‘Why do some physical education classes seem so remarkably alive with learning potential and others seem so devoid of that very characteristic?’The classroom ecology paradigm examines the collective life of teachers and students as interaction among three interrelated systems (managerial, instructional, and student social) in which change in one system has distinct repercussions for the development of the others. Central to this representation is the issue of accountability, and this review provides a longitudinal account of research relating to this feature of the paradigm.The major findings of this review present a picture of physical education in which considerable negotiation takes place within many classes, where teachers trade off a reduction in the demands of the instructional system for cooperation in the management system.What accountability remains focuses primarily on orderly management, student cooperation, and at least minimal effort in activity tasks.Lack of alignment between unit objectives,practice tasks, and accountability measures accounts for typically poor student performance. Instructional ecologies at the elementary school level are more rigorous than at the secondary level. Finally, this review provides suggestions for future research in physical education, urging a focus more on student responses than teacher actions in our efforts to understand instructional effectiveness.