Background:

There is currently limited research of PE teachers and how they use questioning within
lessons to develop learning. Convergent (i.e. closed) and divergent (i.e. open) questions are styles of
questions commonly used in teaching/coaching practices (O’Connor et al., 2021). There seems to be a lack
of recognition of the important roles that secondary behaviours such as probing questions, or allowing for
thinking time, can have on developing further learning for the pupil. Therefore the aim of this research is
to interpret the preferred style of questioning used by secondary school PE teachers and to assess factors
that could affect this. The second aim will be to see if there is a significant difference between gender (male
and female) of the teacher and the recorded teaching behaviours.

Method:

The participants were all secondary school PE teachers (4 female and 3 male). The questioning
profile system used to record teaching behaviours, was an extension from the Coach Analysis and
Intervention System (CAIS) developed by Cushion et al. (2012). From the evidence collected the data was
quantised into percentages (to find the relative average). A Mann-Whitney U test was conducted to
investigate if there was a significant difference between gender (male or female) of the participants and the
teaching behaviours.

Results:

Convergent questioning (M = 43.47, SD = 12.34) was the most used teaching behaviour on
average by over 20% compared to any other recorded. Silence after questioning, was the least recorded
teaching behaviour (M = 1.75, SD = 2.08). Results from the Mann-Whitney U test revealed a significant
difference between convergent questioning and silence after questioning between the gender (male or
female) of the participants.

Conclusion:

Convergent questioning only requiring lower level, surface recall and comprehension of the
learner (O’Connor et al., 2021). It is important for teachers to reflect upon their lessons, to understand areas
for improvement (Pulling et al., 2015). Future research needs to consider using interviews in conjunction
with systematic observations to underpin reasons as to why the teachers practiced some teaching behaviours
more than others.