Examining Single Session Peer-Teaching Instructional Approaches on Pre-Service Physical Education Teachers’ Throwing Techniques

An important role of a Physical Education (PE) teacher is to assist students to develop the fundamental motor skills (FMS) that will allow them to participate in physical activities with competence and confidence. Thus, PE teachers require the knowledge and skills to carry out this crucial task. In the crowded curricula of Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) programs, there are limited opportunities for pre-service PE teachers to learn how to analyze and perform a large list of motor skills. Our purposes in this study were to determine whether a single session peer-teaching intervention could improve pre-service PE teachers’ short-term non-dominant hand overarm throwing performances and to examine these students’ perceptions of the interventions. We allocated 47 pre-service PE teaching students (24 males; 23 females) to one of three experimental groups: a Video Analysis Group (VAG; n = 17), a Verbal Group (VG; n = 19), and a Control Group (CG; n = 11), based on the class in which they were enrolled. VAG and VG participants worked with a partner of their choice in reciprocal peer-teaching to improve each other’s non-dominant hand throwing technique. VAG and VG interventions were identical except that VAG participants accessed video analysis technology. CG participants completed unrelated course work that involved no overarm throwing activities. A single 20-minute session of peer teaching with video analysis feedback during practice led to rapid enhancements in non-dominant hand overarm throwing skills. While all three groups improved their performance by retention testing, participants in the VAG group improved most quickly. Participants in both the VAG and VG groups reported that their respective interventions improved their throwing and Qualitative Movement Diagnosis (QMD) skills. Based on these results, we suggest that PETE programs integrate peer-teaching and video analysis sessions into fundamental movement courses to accelerate students’ motor skill acquisitions.