Promoting instructional alignment in physical education teacher education

Introduction: Effective teaching should demonstrate a match between what learners are intended to know and be able to do, the opportunities they receive to learn and practice, and how we assess for learning. In turn, this promotes more worthwhile and meaningful learning. The purpose of this paper is to add to the limited examples of practices that directly connect with the coherent alignment of learning outcomes, assessment and instructional practices in physical education teacher education (PETE) programmes. We do this by introducing instructional alignment as a practically plausible way in which to exemplify the coherent planning of learning outcomes, assessment and instruction. Methods: Using the backward design process to design aligned learning opportunities, three examples of how instructional alignment can be embedded in PETE modules are shared. These examples are drawn from our own practice in teacher education and have been implemented within our various teacher education programmes to assist pre-service teachers in the design of instructionally aligned lessons. Results and discussion: While we encourage using the backward design process to design aligned learning opportunities, the decisions made may be substantially different depending on the context and the learners. While each of the examples demonstrate instructional alignment, and are dependent on the context and the learners, three nuances within each are discussed - alignment should support learning progression, clarity of success criteria and enhancing learning by embedding assessment into the learning experience/activity. Conclusion: Effectively embedding instructional alignment in PETE includes (i) buy-in from all programme faculty as to their understanding, and enactment, of instructional alignment as a central pillar of the module/programme, (ii) modelling good practice in supporting and delivering instructional alignment with pre-service teachers and (iii) encouraging pre-service teachers to embed instructional alignment in their planning, preparation and practices as beginning teachers.