Contenido nutricional del forraje de materiales de Brachiaria sp. y Panicum maximum

Brighton from 1972 to 201015

Year 1972 1975 1977 1983 1990 1993 2003 2011

Amounts of Hours 540 650 590 510 428 408 364 364

Duration and Degree 3 years, CEO 4 years, BED 4 years, BA

Table 8 highlights that the number of hours of physical activity has gradually reduced from 600 hours in the 1970s to about 350 hours in the 2010s. Despite moving from a three year course in the 1970s, the number of hours were more 100~200 hours than the 4 year BEd course in 1983~1992 and more 200~300 hours than the 4 year BA course in 1993~2011. This means that the number of hours have drastically reduced since 1972.

Table 9. The change of numbers of areas based on the frame of NCPE from 1977 to 2011 1977/78 (3 years, COE)* 1983/84 (4 years, BEd) 1990 (4 years, BEd)** 2011/12 (4 years, BA)

units hours units hours units hours units hours

Athletics 3 - 5 35 2 35 2 52 Gymnastics 6 - 6 90 8 115 2 52 Swimming 4 - 3 25 2 30 2 52 OAA 3 - 3 35 2 22 2 52 Dance 5 - 6 110 8 115 2 52 Games 15 - 6 115 8 118 2 52 options - - 5 100 2 52 all 36 590 32 510 30 428 14 364

* There were no specific hours of each unit in 1977/78.

** Students could select between theoretical and physical activities options in 1990 meaning that student teachers could engage in more than 428 hours.

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Firstly, the numbers of units have reduced from 36 units in 1977 to 14 units in 2011. The most dramatic reductions are evident in Gymnastics, Games and Dance with more parity developing between the practical areas.

Many lecturers who were a student teacher in the 1980s mentioned that student teachers’ abilities of physical activities in their era were better than now, but present student teachers’ teaching abilities of physical activities were better than those students in the 1980s.

I think generally the physical ability of PE students in the past was higher than the physical ability of students now. I think the reasons were in the past, access to university and doing a teaching degree was quite heavily focused on your own practical ability to do activities, whereas now I think there’s been a shift towards your ability to teach the activities rather than do them (Lecturer6 University of Brighton)

I’ll probably remember more of that things I really enjoyed and the things that stick in my mind are those practically based activities and perhaps less so, those theoretical aspects in terms of the philosophy and that kind of thing, although I do remember professional studies sessions (Previous student2 University of Brighton from 1987 to 1991 and present lecturer1 University of Bedfordshire).

Such comments related to courses in the 1980s reaffirm that PETE students had better physical abilities than student teachers now. However, they also explained that there was not enough pedagogic process in the 1980s. Furthermore, they mentioned that the level of units of physical activities in the 1980s was unnecessarily higher than now. It is clear that balancing the practical competence with practical knowledge is a challenge in PETE.

I think the balance now is better, I’m not saying it’s perfect but I think it’s better because in the past, just being a good football player or just being a good athlete didn't mean you were a good teacher of physical education, I think that was a bit of a weakness in the past, there was an assumption if you were good at performing, you would be a good teacher which I don't think is always the case. Now it’s much more balanced. Being a good performer is good but you need to be a good teacher first and foremost (Lecturer6 University of Brighton).

I also believe that you do not have to be an outstanding performer to be a fantastic teacher, in fact when I was at university, I lived very close to a

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guy that played professional basketball during the 80s, he was an amazing player but he could not teach children. I did not have the ability that he had in performing but he didn't have the ability that I had in terms of teaching. …… I don't think necessarily the decline in accomplished performers is a problem necessarily because I don't think you have to be an Olympic medallist to be a fantastic teacher (Lecturer2 University of Brighton).

Current students also expressed some concerns about these insufficient amounts of hours of physical activities. The students mentioned that their highest level of sport events was normally developed in school rather than university. Moreover, all students mentioned the level of sport events which they learnt in university were introductory level. However, student teachers’ opinion in their units of physical activities also acknowledged that perhaps this was sufficient:

I think I could. I think they give us the foundation to be able to teach anything and if you want to go into more depth in things, then we can go and research that ourselves, so I might not necessarily know off the top of my head, all the teaching points for a push pass in hockey, but I know how to teach it as long as I’d found out the information myself (Student3 University of Brighton).

In recognising that present student teachers learn less physical activities through PETE programmes than student teachers’ previous course, one lecturer explained the context as follows.

I think that is partly to do with funding, it’s to do with money because if every student is receiving 20 hours of face to face contact with their university tutor, then we wouldn't have enough people to accommodate that, so the way that you accommodate that within your budget is possibly to reduce the numbers of hours … (Lecturer2 University of Brighton).

Because of the reduced allocation of hours compared to previous periods, he explained they had to reduce units of physical activities to secure the units of professional knowledge which have been judged relatively more important components than units of physical activities. Moreover, even if student teachers have some complaints about insufficient hours of physical activities in this course, they have been normally satisfied with their units of physical activities learning various components.

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