Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Movement and Physical Activity among Educators in Early Childhood Education and Care

Introduction
Movement and physical activity (MoPA) are critical to children’s health and development. Most children aged 1-5 years are enrolled in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in Sweden, and high expectations are placed on educators to deliver education of sufficient quality to support children’s development.
Methods
The aim of the 18-month-long action-based study was to investigate how 88 ECEC educators in five preschools perceived and experienced the priority and teaching of MoPA. The educators planned and implemented MoPA sessions among children in a trial-and-error manner. They filmed sequences from the sessions, which later were shown in the focus groups. The filmed sequences were the starting point for the collegial discussions with the researcher as a moderator. Content analyses of the transcribed focus group discussions were conducted.
Results
The content analyses revealed three themes with associated subthemes (in brackets): Teaching aspects (Competence; Role modeling); Educational aspects (Children’s development; Children’s health and wellbeing); Structural aspects (Curriculum; Environment).
Discussion
During the project with the trial-and-error MoPA teaching, the educators detected insufficient pedagogical content knowledge to teach MoPA and the teaching was often replaced with free play. By the end of the project, they had completely run out of exercises and activities and the lack of pedagogical content knowledge became tangible. The increased metacognition made the educators aware of children’s different MoPA levels and that free play did not always increase all children’s skills. The perceived insufficient pedagogical content knowledge to teach MoPA was perceived as a troublesome barrier for promoting MoPA. The educators’ metacognition about MoPA increased and they became more observant on children’s MoPA. They also became aware of children’s different MoPA levels and that free play did not always increase all children’s skills. Despite of increased metacognition about MoPA and its importance for children’s development and health, most of the educators were not ready to leave their comfort zones and were not open to extra work or effort when it came to plan and implement more MoPA in the daily rutines. Organizational barriers such as group size of children, lack of available facilities, vague formulations in the curriculum were highlighted, but also personal barriers such as attitudes and fitness levels. The educators demonstrated the need for improved education in MoPA in early childhood teacher education, as well as the need for continuous education for working educators in ECEC to enhance the pedagogic content knowledge for adequate teaching in MoPA, which is important for children’s present development and future health.