TITLE:
The Teaching of Endurance Running in Physical Education: Representations and Practices of Congolese Teachers
AUTHORS:
Ngabele Adrien Severin, Lembe Gorgon, Fernandes Balou Gabin, Mabassa David Sylvain, Mviri Hubert César, Massamba Alphonse
KEYWORDS:
Representations, Physical Education and Sports, Endurance Running, Learning Obstacle, High School
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Physical Education,
Vol.11 No.4,
November
12,
2021
ABSTRACT: Endurance running is one of the athletic activities used in the teaching of physical education and sports in Congolese schools. However, observations of teaching practices show that this activity is not included in the other programmed activities. In this context, this article aims to identify and analyse the representations of Congolese physical education teachers, and to identify the obstacles linked to the teaching of endurance running. The results presented are based on research carried out in the three main cities of Congo-Brazzaville. In a cross-sectional survey conducted between February and December 2020, 107 randomly recruited teachers responded to a questionnaire focusing on the teaching of endurance running (professional identity and profile, characteristics of the infrastructure within the school, various pedagogical-didactic aspects of teaching practices). In addition, 10 teachers (experienced; physical education trainers) were interviewed on the basis of intensive clinical interviews. The results show the use of scattered teaching strategies in the teaching of endurance running, explained by the vagueness of their representations of “resistance running”, “endurance running”, “distance endurance”, “duration endurance”. This led the teacher to use the duration race, contrary to the institutional recommendations. Hence, it is necessary to improve the teachers’ practices and to consolidate the links between the didactic, epistemological and ecological characteristics and the various components of the activity in its teaching in a disadvantaged environment.