From the Workshops to the Teachers’ Empowerment in a Small School: Motivation, Emotions, and Teaching Interdisciplinary strategies

Abstract

Integrating physical education in the primary school curriculum means to design and carry out learning activities in which contents and skills are aimed to develop the educational goals of physical education and the ones of another subject. This paper reports the results of a research and a training course with teachers of a little Tuscan school. The aim was to analyze the interdisciplinary teaching strategies and motivation of the teachers in order to develop a training course adapting the content to their teaching needs. The training course consisted in workshops on teaching planning with the purpose to enhance interdisciplinary teaching methods and strategies to integrate physical education in the primary school curriculum. The learning units were designed and carried out in two composite classrooms with 20 children aged 6 to 10 years. Five teachers completed the questionnaire on motivation, emotion, and teaching strategies (MESI) and participated in a focus group and three workshops. Results provide a teachers’ representation of the Physical Education and the Interdisciplinary PE Teaching combined with teachers’ motivational profiles. Positive and negative aspects of the training course with the teachers and the method of intervention carried out were discussed.