An examination of the coaching styles of school sports coaching in Singapore

51 p.Mosston’s (2002) Spectrum of Teaching Styles is based on the axiom that teaching and learning involve a series of decision making. The main decision maker affects the learning outcomes and Mosston classifies the teaching styles either under the reproduction or production cluster. This study investigated school sports coaches’ experiences and perceptions of the Spectrum of 11 teaching styles. 101 coaches (23 females and 78 males), who are involved in coaching Secondary school athletes across different sports have completed an adapted Kulinna and Cothrans’s (2003) “Physical Education Teachers’ Perceptions of Teaching Styles” Instrument. This study concluded that School sports coaches in Singapore reported higher use of coaching styles as compared to PE teachers. Among the 11 styles, in the reproduction cluster, Command and Practice Styles, and in the production cluster, Convergent Discovery and Divergent Discovery Styles were ranked the highest in the coaches’ experiences. Similar to PE teachers in the United States and Finland, the overall perception trend of School sports coaches in Singapore was higher in the reproduction cluster than in the production cluster. This study suggests that it is favourable for coaches to apply this Spectrum in school sports coaching context. Future studies would require verification of coaching styles used by school sports coaches through observation.Bachelor of Science (Sport Science and Management