A description of four high school physical education teachers from the perspective of disciplinary mastery and ecological integration value orientations /

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the teaching tasks used by disciplinary mastery (DM) and ecological integration (EI) oriented teachers. Specifically, this case study of four high school physical educators examined (a) the types of instructional tasks used, (b) the extent to which the instructional tasks were reflected in their teaching, and (c) the extent to which their articulated goals translated into action. Primary data sources involved the Value Orientation Inventory-2 (Ennis & Chen, 1993b), class observations (TSOBS; Jones, 1992), interviews with the teachers, and field notes that were analyzed using constant comparison. The most notable finding of this research was that EI teachers were just as likely as DM teachers to articulate learning goals consistent with their respective orientations and select teaching tasks that facilitated the implementation of their beliefs in their operational setting. The DM teachers shaped their programs to emphasize motor skill development and cognitive knowledge. This was confirmed by interview statements and the use of tasks that enabled them to exercise their value orientation in their teaching. The EI teachers structured their programs to address the inter-relatedness of the learner, content, and context by selecting specific tasks and teaching strategies that related to their value orientation. The persistence shown by all four teachers in terms of maintaining the strength of their beliefs as they made curricular, instructional, and evaluative decisions, is what determined the extent to which their value orientations were reflected in their teaching