Higher-Order Thinking, Philosophy, and Teacher Education in Physical Education

Abstract

In this paper, we first present three educational perspectives inherent in the teaching of physical education and, parallel to it, in physical education teacher education (PETE) programs. These perspectives are the traditional, the humanistic, and the social. We agree with advocates of the critical pedagogy and critical thinking movements who suggest that the development of higherorder thinking is neglected in these programs. In order to emphasize higherorder thinking in teacher education, we propose the re-introduction of philosophy—not philosophy in its traditional sense, but as in hermeneutics: philosophy in its pragmatic (Deweyan and Lipmanian) sense. We argue that philosophical dialogue within a community of peers provides the essential conditions for the development of higher-order thinking skills and dispositions. We then examine to what extent philosophy is relevant to future teachers in physical education, and provide one successful example of the implementation of philosophical dialogue into a conventional PETE program.