Approach 3: Non-structured approach.

*"I enjoyed seeing children take the initiative for their learning. I have seen them as protagonists who enjoyed the freedom they had when it came to making decisions about the challenges. But I have to look for strategies to accompany them in their learning, sometimes I felt that I did not know what to do or that the students did not need me. I am sure that is simply due to my lack of experience. I must learn how to motivate, guide and give feedback so that students feel that they are accompanied by me, that I am interested in and value what they are doing." "A positive aspect of the unstructured session was that since the groups worked alone, I had more freedom to intervene when I saw that I could help, and especially to be with those students who were more motivated. This type of task, I think, is more suited to my profile as a future teacher".*

*"I think that this format demands more from the students, stimulates them more and therefore their learning will go beyond the driving force. I think that I see myself as the future teacher choosing this type of activity when it comes to presenting the challenges. "*

#### *3.4. Correlation Analysis between Reflection and the Dimensions of Professional Identity*

For the three cooperative instructional approaches, the whole assessment of the narrative reflection (added scores of the ten reflective dimensions) was correlated with the students' assessment of the four identity dimensions: self-esteem (Id1), task perception (Id2), job motivation (Id3), and future perspectives (Id4) (Table 7). When considering all the correlation slopes and the corresponding confidence interval of reflection assessment with identity reflection, similar correlations were obtained between the reflection on the instructional approaches (A1, A2, and A3) and the categories of students' reflection on professional identity (Table 7).



## **4. Discussion and Conclusions**

#### *4.1. Activating Cooperative Learning Based on Non- to Structured Instructional Approaches Produced Identity in Practice*

The pre-service students were generally motivated towards implementing cooperative physical challenges in physical education classes in the schools, especially in the creative aspect of designing and implementing the physical challenges, since this implied considering others and coordinating the skills of group members to overcome individual limitations. This finding has also been documented in other studies promoting cooperative learning where the composition of the groups, the task the group was to undertake, the social skills training needs, and the assessment of both the learning and the instructional practice [32–34] (especially when studies focus on primary school children [3]) have been reported.

Regardless of the reflective dimensions, there were significant di fferences between approaches, with the assessment scores of the R1 (The focus of reflection) and R3 (Inquiring) to be higher than R2 (Prior conceptions and beliefs) and R4 (Transformation), as shown in Figure 1. Results also showed that the non-structured instructional approach was scored higher than the structured and semi-structured instructional approaches (Figure 1). Therefore, the pre-service students' scores were higher when they reflected on identifying cooperative teaching challenges and on focusing on questions and hypotheses about professional action. This was highly scored when they carried out the cooperative challenges with no established materials or student roles in the group.

Qualitative analysis of reflective narratives indicated that, while the pre-service teachers had positive experiences with cooperative challenges (there were only six dropouts), a number encountered di fficulties with implementing them in the classrooms. Issues identified included students socializing during group activities, individuals' poor awareness of being a member of a group, and poor regulation of roles. Similarly, Gillies and Boyle [23] reported that teachers found some di fficulties in the classroom when implementing cooperative learning. These included time management, the organization required to implement cooperative learning, and a reported concern with socializing in the groups.

The qualitative analysis of the reflective narratives also helped the pre-service teachers' perceptions of cooperative learning. All concurred that they, as well as the children, had had positive experiences. They talked about the children confronting new experiences, distributing roles themselves in the non-structured approach, learning how to communicate, and managing to interact with each other more e ffectively. As pointed out by Slavin [21], when cooperative learning is well structured, students understand how they are to work together to achieve their group's goal, which benefits students socially and academically. When implementing the non-structured approach, in particular, positive interdependence was enhanced when dual responsibility was achieved, that is, when students understood that they were not only required to complete their part of the challenge but to ensure others did likewise [23]. Other key elements that were critical to the e ffective implementation of the cooperative physical challenges included the pre-service teachers facilitating promotive interaction for the whole group, promoting responsibility for contributing to the groups' challenge, and demonstrating that dialogical intrapersonal bonds helped the groups to progress.

#### *4.2. Pre-Service Teachers Can Construct and Transform Their Professional Identities through Reflective Practice*

Regardless of the instructional approach, there was a significant association between reflection and professional identity. Reflective practices o ffer opportunities for pre-service teachers to engage in active and meaningful problem identification, evaluation, and innovation, through which they can hone and develop their identities [20]. Activating cooperative physical challenges in the three instructional approaches and the associated reflection was positively correlated with the four dimensions of professional identity defined by Kelchtermans [29], that is, self-esteem, task perception, job motivation, and future perspectives. Students' reflections primarily broadened and deepened perspectives on professional identity and impacted positively in the latter stages of implementing the cooperative

challenges in the schools. Key elements that were critical in transforming the pre-service teachers' professional identity were: promoting feedback, motivation, and engagemen<sup>t</sup> with the members of the teams, which, in turn, increased pre-service teachers' self-esteem, demonstrating that being implicated in democratic decisions helped students in the task perception, and proving that continuous practice at schools is needed to gain job motivation, i.e., their subjective feeling of competence increased because they gained experience with collaborative learning in educational practice [32].

Pre-service teachers were positioned in relation to both reflecting on cooperative teaching and personal consideration about professional identity. Research has shown that the transformation of professional identity becomes a powerful learning experience when it is articulated through reflective narratives [26,35], and particularly when it is shared and discussed in the process of dialogical and collaborative reflection. Indeed, our results showed the need to mix quantitative and qualitative methods to reduce misunderstandings of purpose [35] and that professional practice can indeed improve the knowledge of the discipline and the contexts in which we work, but are also about the self-awareness of how we conduct ourselves to deliberate and take action as professionals [26]. Our findings sugges<sup>t</sup> that pre-service teachers shaped their identities not only over practice at schools but also through individual and community dialogical structures. Körkkö et al. [34] and Yuan and Mak [20] posit the fact that in order to transform professional identity, the highest level of reflection is gained when pre-service teachers have viewed the matter of reflection in several ways and decided on a course of action. Engaging pre-service teachers in reflection in-action (during the action) and on-action (after the action) is a way for them to establish a renewed perspective of their professional identity.

#### *4.3. Pre-Service Teachers, When Engaged in Individual and Community Reflection, May Activate Interpretation and Critical Competences Evaluation of Their Practice*

By reflecting, the pre-service teachers reported the aspects that either helped or hindered them when carrying out the associated instructional activities in the schools. First, the relationship between the theory given in the seminars on collaborative and reflective learning and the professional teaching practice itself. Secondly, the role of using collaborative and reflective methodologies to improve their level of self-awareness as both individuals and future professionals. The usefulness of using collaborative and reflective methods in identifying strengths, weaknesses, or gaps in their training was evaluated highly as well as the need to formulate activities based on new methods not only in their training as individuals but also as future professionals. Aspects they highlighted as being positive were: the development of both inter- and intrapersonal skills and the need to organize and implement the collaborative activities in the semi- and non-structured approaches in which the non-assignment of student roles or materials were highly evaluated.

When the pre-service teachers carried out the cooperative challenges in the initial stage, they worked to learn and at the same time, were responsible for their peers. When the pre-service teachers oversaw teaching physical activity cooperative challenges at the school, they were responsible for the PE students' learning outcomes. Among other skills, when the pre-service teachers developed cooperative challenges in a group, each student co-constructed knowledge and skills that were based on mutual dialogue, respect, help, cooperation, thinking before acting, learning to reflect and share ideas, proposals, and doubts. When the pre-service teachers designed and developed a cooperative challenge, these were to develop cognitive, psychological, and motor skills. The cooperative physical challenges were designed taking into account that the participation of all the students had to be possible regardless of the motor capabilities of each student. There had to be positive interdependence to achieve the common goal, i.e., all the members of a team had to work together to overcome the cooperative challenge.

In the teaching execution of a cooperative challenge at the schools, the pre-service teachers always gave instructions to generate a positive interdependence among the PE students of a team, especially when they were aware of the di ffering motor skills some group members had. Furthermore, it was essential that the challenges could be solved in a number of ways, so that dialogue, creativity, and trial-and-error could be promoted. The roles for the primary-school students were defined to fulfill the most e fficient way to execute the cooperative challenge. The roles facilitated the group deploying both social skills and academic abilities. The roles also enabled the group to solve the cooperative challenge in a satisfactory way with regard to academic knowledge while practicing social skills such as conflict resolution, negotiating, e ffectively communicating ideas, respecting the views of others, reaching a consensus from collective responses, and taking advantage of time. The roles reduced the prospect of some students adopting passive or dominant attitudes within the group and created an interdependence among the members of the group.

The pre-service teachers were motivated by the cooperative educational proposal in the physical education classes, fundamentally valuing the fact that they could provide the primary-school students with enough resources to develop social competences. It is recognized that education should also include aspects such as encouraging others to participate, listening to others, encouraging and supporting all peers who participate in a group, criticizing ideas and not persons, and expressing satisfaction for the success of others. Self-regulated learning through the promotion of structure and motivation encourages students to increase the ability to control and influence one's learning processes positively [36]. Both cooperative and reflective learning, when embedded in the development of cooperative physical challenges, represent educational strategies in which the learner's competences are promoted. In this respect, both the pre-service teachers and the primary-school students were involved in structured and non-structured instructional approaches in which values, attitudes, and beliefs contributed to sustainable, e ffective, and grounded sustainable learning [2,9,37–40].

All in all, we have identified the ways in which pre-service teachers represented their professional identity through reflection on instructional teaching approaches by maximizing the intake of competences, such as solving cooperative challenges, critical thinking through continuous self-assessment of professional practice, and communication through providing didactic instructive approaches. The cooperative physical challenge approaches helped pre-service teachers to identify aspects of their professional identity that ensured not only an e ffective intake of the sustainable competences but how to develop, understand, and self-assess professional practice experiences that at a later state fostered personal critical professional competence [20,34,38–40].

#### *4.4. Limitations of the Study*

The data presented in this research are consistent with the analysis performed, although there are some limitations that should be taken into account in future studies to obtain more generalized results and conclusions. One aspect that we consider fundamental for later studies is to expand the number of physical challenges in relation to each of the planned instructional approaches (structured, semi-structured, and non-structured), in order to carry out a longitudinal study that would allow us to understand how the development of individual professional identities evolves. Another aspect to consider would be to provide feedback with each of the student's cooperative groups once each of the sessions at the school had finished, in order to help the pre-service teachers in their process of self-knowledge and reflection in relation to their professional identity. In relation to the research instruments used, it would be convenient that, in addition to using the narratives centered on the cooperative learning dimensions, associations between the dimensions of cooperative learning are considered quantitatively with each of the dimensions of professional identity for each of the pre-service teachers to establish individual professional identity profiles. In future studies, we also intend to develop other research instruments, such as rubrics and questionnaires, focused on each of the aspects that make up professional identity and to understand in greater depth how cooperative physical challenges influence pre-service teachers' personal and professional development.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, D.C.; methodology, J.C., D.C., R.B. and T.S.; formal analysis, R.B., D.C. and T.S.; investigation, D.C. and J.C.; resources, D.C.; data curation, R.B., J.C. and T.S.; writing—original draft preparation, J.C. and T.S.; writing—review and editing, J.C.; visualization, T.S.; supervision, D.C.; funding acquisition, D.C.

**Funding:** This research was funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, University of Girona (ICE-UdG).

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study, in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data, in the writing of the manuscript or in the decision to publish the results.
