Abstract

The aim of the present study was to examine physical education (PE) teachers’ experiences during their participation in a practice-based professional development program, which introduced them to the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) model. During a period of two months, three PE teachers from a primary school in Athens, Greece engaged in a spiral process of planning and implementing the TGfU model, four times per week within their PE curriculum (twenty-four units per teacher). Qualitative data analysis was conducted on TGfU lesson plans, video annotations, and reflective journal entries in order to identify emerging themes and concepts concerning teachers’ views of the program. From the results, it was found that PE teachers value the TGfU model as a rewarding standpoint for the design of professional development initiatives that promote pedagogy reflection and student learning. In alignment with their underlying epistemological beliefs and workplace structures, the greatest challenge of the program was teachers’ need for continuous feedback and support throughout the process. The present paradigm results further confirm the necessity of envisioning PE teacher professional development as an ongoing process of skill and knowledge updating, informed by notions of students’ holistic development and progress.