A Critical Review of Studies on Practical Sports Courses in the Physical Education Teacher Training Curriculum Aiming at Developing Practical Teaching Abilities for Physical Education Classes

Practical sports courses in the physical education teacher training curriculum are the only opportunities that students training to become physical education teachers have to learn sports and dance as culture and as raw materials of learning contents of physical education classes in junior and senior high school. The aim of this study was to reveal the problems that hinder the progress of research on practical sports courses in the physical education teacher training curriculum, and to identify the necessary aims for further research. In this study, the role of practical sports courses for developing practical teaching abilities was discussed first by identifying the outcomes and unresolved problems in trials for developing practical teaching abilities in the physical education teacher training curriculum. Then, theoretical and practical studies on the practical sports courses were critically reviewed, and the development of these studies was summarized. The results gained were as follows: 1) mastery of broad learning contents of physical education classes is a problem that remains unsolved in trials for developing practical teaching abilities in the physical education teacher training curriculum, and its solution is the role of the practical sports courses, 2) the way of teaching and assessing practical teaching abilities of movement skills has not been developed, though the systematic structure of the abilities has been theoretically described from the viewpoint of phenomenological theory of human movement in sport, 3) there were few reports that measured learning outcomes of practical sports courses, though there were a wide range of teaching practices, various range and levels of sports skills, and sometimes other abilities besides sports skills were taught. Thus, further research should clarify the learning content of the curriculum for developing practical teaching abilities for physical education classes, and should try to measure the learning outcomes when teaching such abilities, after also clarifying the range and level of sports skills necessary for physical education teachers.