Over the past three decades, strategies to improve teaching have been influenced by the prevailing theories of

learning and research on instruction, which are described. Research on these strategies suggests that workshops
and students' ratings of instruction, coupled with consultation and intensive fellowships, are effective strategies for
changing teachers' actions. A comprehensive faculty development program should be built upon (1) professional
development (new faculty members should be oriented to the university and to their various faculty roles); (2)
instructional development (all faculty members should have access to teaching-improvement workshops, peer
coaching, mentoring, and/or consultations); (3) leadership development (academic programs depend upon effective
leaders and well-designed curricula; these leaders should develop the skills of scholarship to effectively evaluate and
advance medical education); (4) organizational development (empowering faculty members to excel in their roles as
educators requires organizational policies and procedures that encourage and reward teaching and continual
learning).

Wilkerson, L; Irby, D M April 1998.

ZL Berge The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 2002

An instructor or designer who views teaching and learning from a constructivist philosophy
creates a context for learning-a learning environment—where learners can become
engaged in authentic projects. problem-solv-ing. and other learning activities. The instructor
is not a spectator: rather. a co-explorer and (xi-discoverer who guides learning and
encourages intrapersonal interaction or reflection. and interaction with content. with peers.
and with the instructor.

Berge, Z. L. (2002). Active, interactive, and reflective e-learning. Quarterly

Review of Distance Education, 3, 181–190.

abstract

This qualitative study explores the process of implementing effective online

teaching practices through interviews with thirty exemplary instructors.
Emergent themes include providing students with constructive feedback,
fostering interaction and involvement, facilitating student learning, and
maintaining instructor presence and organization. Analyses of the findings and
implications for online instruction are presented.

Participants were 55 pre-service teachers in a student teaching practicum. The

findings revealed that technology-centred student teaching experiences
increased pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy regardless of their teacher beliefs.
Additionally, pre-service teachers with traditional teacher beliefs had a low level
of intention at the outset but significantly increased their intention after
experiencing technology-centred student teaching; however, those with
constructivist teacher beliefs showed no meaningful differences in their intention
levels. Implications for teacher education and the limitations of this study are
discussed.
“Teaching practices” denote the set of activities undertaken by teachers, as part of their work in the
classroom or in direct connection with it, so that students achieve learning purposes set out in
curriculum. Such practices are a complex object of study, especially if, in addition to the behaviors they
manifest, the researcher wants to analyze the underlying ideas and concepts, the factors which
influence the practices, or even the effects they produce.

This tool is used to study enacted curriculum and learning opportunity: the degree to which teaching
covers the topics planned – the intended curriculum— which will in turn affect the curriculum achieved
or accomplished. (Rowan, Camburn and Correnti, 2004; Correnti and Rowan, 2009)

Information on teachers' practices obtained through self-reports based on the described instrument
showed reasonable internal consistency and was also consistent with the information given by the
students and that obtained through classroom observations. (Koziol and Burns, 1986)

Because of the variance of teaching practices, inter teachers and within teachers, inter days and inter
subjects, a large sample of observations (15-30 for each teacher) would be needed in order to ensure a
reasonable consistency of information, and the cost of such studies would rise accordingly, making
attractive the option of logs (Rowan, Camburn and Correnti, 2004: 14-17).

A study by Stecher et al. (2006) approached the classroom practices of a group of teachers, looking at
their consistency with a set of standards for innovative (reform oriented) teaching in mathematics and
science, in contrast to traditional teaching in both areas. To validate the information obtained,
researchers used a combination of traditional questionnaires, vignettes based questionnaires, teachers
logs and classroom observations. Cognitive interviews were also conducted with a subsample of
teachers in relation to the vignettes.

The examination of teaching effectiveness, within educational domains such as sport pedagogy, remains
an important focus. As many different variables contribute to learning, teachers should have the skills to
use a various teaching methods to match the demands of their students (Jaakkola, & Watt, 2011). In
physical education, Kulinna and Cothran (2003) suggested that an effective approach to pedagogical
practice is to use a number of different teaching styles

The purpose of this study was to methods, Turkish physical education curriculum and to investigate the
gender differences in selecting the teaching methods and strategies. The results revealed that Turkish PE
teachers who worked in Primary and Secondary school of Antalya city center used the command and
practice styles the most, and self-check, divergent and guided discovery styles the least. The trend of
using teacher rather than student-centered teaching strategy was evident in this sample of Turkish PE
teachers. The expository teaching strategies more preferred than constructivist, experiential and
mastery learning strategies by Turkish PE teachers. In addition, this study revealed that significant
differences existed in teacher use of teaching strategies in relation to gender. In the current study, the
women PE teachers viewed the command method as the most beneficial and divergent and guided
discovery methods as the least beneficial for their students. The men PE teachers viewed the practice
method as the most beneficial and self check and divergent methods as the least beneficial for their
students.

The present findings were similar to those Sirinkan & Gundogdu (2011), Jaakkola and Watt (2011),
Kulinna and Cothran(2003). In their study Sirinkan & Gundogdu (2011) found that Turkish PE teachers
mostly used command and practice methods in their lessons. Jaakkola and Watt (2011) examined what
teaching styles Finnish PE teachers report using and how beneficial they perceive the different styles to
be for their students. Finnish teachers were found to use command and practice styles the most, and
the self-teaching, self-check, and convergent discovery styles the least and they preferred teacher rather
than student-centered teaching strategies. Similar results were revealed in the study of Kulinna and
Cothran (2003) with American PE teachers. Cothran et al. (2005) showed that the use of different
teaching methods varied across countries; however, the main approach for teachers in all countries was
the use of teacher-centered styles. The current Turkish physical education curriculum was renewed by
the Republic of Turkey Ministry of National Education for primary school in 2006, for secondary school in
2010. The new awareness of their own learning through exposing them multiple but holistic learning
experiences enriched by various instructional strategies and materials. Students are no longer seen as
passive learners, as it was the case in the former curriculum, which was heavily relied on the traditional
teacher-centered teaching methods. The new PE curriculum emphasizes the use of constructivist rather
than behaviorist approaches ( 2009). In the advice to PE teacher part of the new PE curriculum, use and
benefits of student-centered methods like reciprocal, self-check, inclusion, guided discovery and
divergent methods are suggested. In the present study most of the PE teachers (69,7 %) did not have
positive views about new PE curriculum. According to their views new PE curriculum was not efficient
enough. Findings revealed that there was an incongruity between curriculum suggestion about teaching
methods and strategies. The reason of this incongruity may be not discussing new PE curriculum with a
wider range of skate holders like students, teachers, inspectors, parents, coaches and academics in
developing process. It is suggested that the outcomes of the application of new PE curriculum, including
teacher and student feedback, and the modifications made based on the feedback, should be reported
and discussed in a big open forum. In service training activities for PE teachers concerning the new
curriculum and new teaching approaches and methods should be done more frequently.