**1. Introduction**

The potential of physical education (PE) is unquestionable in encouraging student motivation towards learning and adherence to physical activity [1,2]. To this end, it is necessary to provide future teachers with tools to make the teaching and learning processes useful, meaningful, coherent and replicable. Otherwise, feelings of frustration will take hold of the students and generate demotivation towards the subject [3]. As established by Hortigüela, Pérez-Pueyo, and Fernández-Río [4], the social and cultural models of the countries directly affect the way in which PE is taught in initial teacher training, having repercussions on their way of understanding the teaching of PE.

In this sense, it is important to emphasize that the quality of future teachers will depend largely on the training they receive, which gives great importance to initial teacher training. Da Costa, McNamee, and Lacerda [5] state that the quality of training depends on variables such as the typology of the faculty, teaching methodology, skills to be developed and the design of the objectives of the subject. In fact, as commented by Pill, Penney, and Swabey [6], the subject of PE's pedagogy and sport in universities is usually approached from very different angles, which means that the learning objectives are not always

clear [7]. However, it seems fundamental that students acquire different teaching approaches in the subjects linked to sport pedagogy to encourage social inclusion of the individual through the practice of physical activity [8]. Such knowledge and learning will allow future teachers to choose the most appropriate approach for their students. Under this approach of educational coherence, Karp, Scruggs, Brown, and Kelder [9] indicate that it is only possible to improve the results in the initial training of the teaching staff if teaching processes of PE are carried out under common, coherent criteria, have direct application to the classroom, and are adaptable to different contexts (recreation, free time, etc.). This would increase student motivation and connect the university and the school [10]. Changing from teacher-centred teaching to student-centred teaching [11] generates in the students an increase in motivation, responsibility, and autonomy towards work.

Within the Spanish context, in recent years a series of publications have been established that specify the most recognized pedagogical models organized into basic and emerging [12,13], and have analyzed how they have evolved from teaching styles [14–16] to pedagogical models that have been agreed upon as those that should be taught [17]. Initial teacher training in PE becomes a key element in building the professional identity of future teachers throughout their lives. In this sense, the experimentation of these pedagogical models will allow them to generate evidence of its operation and applicability in the classroom, a key aspect in their training. There are many models, although among the so-called emerging ones and those with the highest level of dissemination and production is the Attitudinal Style.

Therefore, the present article addresses two objectives: (a) to delimit the characteristics and elements that make up Attitudinal Style as a pedagogical model; (b) to analyse the perception of future teachers on the usefulness and transferability of the model in their classes.

#### *Teaching Pedagogical Models in the Initial Training of Physical Education Teachers: The Attitudinal Style*

Cañadas, Santos-Pastor, and Castejón [18] establish that in order for teachers to achieve adequate mastery of what and how to teach, it is necessary to be able to design tasks with which students can obtain real learning. In order to do so, future teachers must know and put into practice teaching techniques, styles, and strategies that make it possible to evaluate student competence [19,20].

When we go into PE, it has been proven that mastering the content that is intended to be taught and, above all, how to teach it generates a significant improvement in student learning [21–26]. In this sense, although in the last three decades the teaching of teaching styles [14,15] and their contextualization for Spain [16,27] have been the fundamental reference on how to teach [17], at present, this reference must be fundamentally linked to pedagogical models [12,13]. In this sense, there are two reasons for tackling this specific training from the knowledge of the pedagogical models: (a) firstly, because research in relation to the models has demonstrated the suitability of their application with respect to the involvement of the students and the learning generated; (b) secondly, because of the disparate perception that the traditional teaching approaches have generated among students, graduates, and teachers.

Several studies have analyzed the interests of using student-centered teaching styles and methodologies [28–30]. Zapatero's research [31] establishes that the use of student-centered methodologies and styles is less frequent than the use of methods that favour teacher control [32–36]. This has shown that after three decades of the use of teaching styles in Spain [27,32,37–40], they seem to have had little influence on adequate teacher practice. In fact, reviews of student-centred methodologies state that PE teachers [28,41,42] recognise the need to vary the methodological approach towards those that favour student involvement and motivation. However, despite the belief in the need for this methodological change, its impact is still not high in the classroom [31,33,35,43,44].

The Attitudinal Style began its journey in León (Spain) at the end of the 90s, culminating with the completion of a doctoral thesis in 2004 [45]. Considered to be one of the emerging pedagogical models [12,13], it establishes attitudes as the backbone for better learning and greater motivation towards PE. Furthermore, it proposes the use of the motor as a means (and not as an end), working simultaneously and in balance with the rest of the capacities that develop the individual in an integral manner (cognitive–intellectual, affective–motivational, interpersonal relations, and social insertion) [46,47]. Its purpose is that all students have positive experiences without exception and with inclusion [48], generating a real group that cooperates or collaborates. There are three components through which it is developed: (1) Intentional Corporal Activities, (2) Sequential Organization Towards Attitudes and (3) Final Assemblies [45,49–51]. The evolution followed by this pedagogical model, linked to the creation of the Interdisciplinary and Interdisciplinary Working Group Attitudes in 2007 (www.grupoactitudes.com) and the interaction networks established with different groups, has generated a series of reorientations and incorporations that have undoubtedly benefited the proposal. Among these, two stand out: (a) the proposal of competences through the so-called INCOBA Project (Project for the Integration of Basic Competences) [52–56], and (b) the incorporation of formative evaluation associated with self-evaluation and co-evaluation processes [56,57] through the design [58] and elaboration of new evaluation and qualification instruments [59,60].

The Attitudinal Style is a pedagogical model with a global character since it can be implemented in any curriculum content. It focuses on the learning process and the needs of the students. In fact, its applicability to any content allows its hybridization with other models [52,56]. One of the aspects that characterizes it is the innumerable amount of pedagogical and didactic material generated in these 25 years, partly collected in the bibliographical review of Tena [61] and which can be downloaded free of charge from the web (www.grupoactitudes.com) or from repositories such as https://www.researchgate.net/. Examples of its pedagogical and didactic application can be found in physical conditions [45], intentional games without elimination [56], sports such as football [62], basketball [57] or Gaelic football [63], opposing sports [64], drama [65], acrobatics [66], dance [67], shadow theatre [68], activities in the natural environment such as knots and obstacle breaking [69], and street work [51].

Therefore, the main aspects that characterize it are: (a) that the guidelines in its teaching are very clear and can be analyzed in detail in all the didactic and pedagogical publications generated in the last decades; (b) that it can be applied in diverse contexts and in any type of content; (c) that it guarantees its replicability by other teachers in diverse contexts. In relation to the latter, the research carried out at the end of the 1990s and which led to the author's doctoral thesis [45] showed that the results obtained through the Attitude Scale for Integrated Physical Education (EAEFI) strongly expressed the improvement of the attitude towards the PE of students receiving the Attitudinal Style.

After years of pedagogical and didactic production, research continued and Hortigüela, Fernández-Río, and Pérez-Pueyo [70] evaluated the effects of the prolonged use of a traditional teaching approach and the Attitudinal Style by finding that students who experienced the Attitudinal Style perceived the PE class to be significantly more useful than with the traditional approach. When the two approaches were compared in teaching football [71], the groups that experienced the Attitudinal Style developed a more task-oriented perception of the classroom climate than those who received the traditional approach. In relation to the factors implicit in physical self-concept, after having received a physical fitness teaching unit its effectiveness was demonstrated with respect to the positive influence on girls and its direct influence on their self-concept [72].

In relation to the responsibility in the assessment [73], they showed that the students who received the Attitudinal Style increased individual and group responsibility in the regulation of work during the process and the authenticity of the acquired learning linked to real life [74]. In the same vein, Hortigüela, Pérez-Pueyo, and Fernández-Río [75] demonstrated the increased level of responsibility of PE students in the assessment process.

#### **2. Materials and Methods**

#### *2.1. Participants*

Twelve future PE teachers (7 women and 5 men) with an age of 20.14 ± 1.48 participated. All of them were studying for their Primary Education Degree at the Faculty of Education of the University of Burgos (Spain). As this is a qualitative methodology, the participants were not sought to be representative of the whole. They were intentionally selected according to the criteria of voluntariness, motivation and high academic record in the degree. Specifically, they studied the subject of Physical Education and its didactics, an obligatory subject in the training of future PE teachers. The teacher of the subject was 34 years old; he was a doctor and a specialist in the implementation of pedagogical models, especially in the Attitudinal Style. This professor is one of the researchers of the study, which allowed for granting a validity to the applied design and a greater knowledge of the obtained results.

#### *2.2. Instruments*

Two different instruments were used for the collection of information. The questions that make up each of the instruments used were structured on the basis of the two categories of the study and to obtain greater specificity of the data [76]. Therefore, these instruments are based on construct validity as they are built specifically in relation to the objectives of the study.

Reflective group diaries: The main objective of the elaboration of the diaries was to reflect on the learning generated throughout the development of the subject. This diary was prepared in groups of four, and all the members of the group discussed the most relevant aspects. It is completed weekly in order to give a periodicity to the experiences of the subject. The teacher throughout the course reviewed this diary to provide constant feedback for its proper implementation. It had a semi-structured character, starting from three categories on which students had to add the information (Table 1). This allowed for two things: on the one hand, uniformity in the collection of data from all the class journals, and on the other, the freedom of each group to expand the reflective and personal information as much as they considered [77].

**Table 1.** Weekly information collection structure of the reflective group journals.

#### **Weekly Information Collection Structure**

1. What aspects have we dealt with this week in class (type of contents/tasks, organization of groupings, time management ... )?

2. How has the methodology of the activities influenced the construction of my professional identity (reflection on the objectives set, structure of the sessions, adaptation of the tasks to the characteristics of the students ... )?

3. What is the applicability of what we have seen in class to our professional future as teachers (transfer of the methodology to the school, usefulness of the tasks dealt with ... )?

Discussion groups: They were developed at the end of the process with 12 students who had a high grade in the course. The qualification obtained in the degree and not in the specific subject was taken into account in order to not bias the results obtained. A semi-structured script was used to collect the information (Table 2). All the participants spoke in a proportionate manner about each of the issues raised. The teacher gave the floor in order to encourage dialogue, discussion, and exchange of ideas.



Why do you think the subject you have studied is important? What methodological aspects do you highlight as fundamental? Why? What do you think the Attitudinal Style contributes in relation to other pedagogical models? What do you think the Attitudinal Style has contributed most to your understanding of PE? Do you think the Attitudinal Style is transferable to the school's Physical Education? Why? What are the main benefits of this pedagogical model for children at school? After taking the course, have you changed your perception of the EF in any way? In what?

#### *2.3. Design and Procedure*

The research responds to a retrospective design of a phenomenological nature based on the understanding of educational phenomena from the analysis of the participants' discourses [78].

The research has been structured in four distinct phases, from February to June 2019:

Phase 1. Structuring of the study and planning of the subject: The theoretical and practical classes were designed throughout the semester. The 24 theoretical classes revolved around the teaching pedagogy of the PE, focusing on knowledge of the curriculum and its adaptation to the classroom. Specifically, aspects related to methodology and evaluation were worked on in depth. In the 32 practical classes, we worked on a diversity of contents: cooperative challenges, acrobatics, judo, juggling, jumping to the combat, collective sports, alternative sports, etc. All these contents were taught through the Attitudinal Style, respecting the phases and elements that characterize it.

Phase 2. Elaboration and revision of the reflexive group diaries: The group work throughout the course elaborated these diaries. With a weekly cadence, the students collected their reflections. The teacher of the subject gave periodic feedback so that the instruments had an adequate quality and collected evaluations of the whole subject.

Phase 3. Elaboration of the discussion group: After finishing the subject, the discussion group was carried out with the students. It lasted 90 min, and from the beginning the group was told about the importance of their answers for the research. The session was recorded on video for a better recapitulation of the data after viewing. The anonymity of their answers was guaranteed. We sought to deepen the theme of the study in order to reach a reflective conversation in a relaxed atmosphere.

Phase 4. Analysis of the data by the researchers: The data from the reflective journals and the discussion group were transcribed and placed into the text analysis software Weft QDA. In addition, there was an in-depth reflection on the aims of the study, the procedure carried out, and its suitability for the objectives set.

To start the research, first, permission was obtained from the Ethics Committee of the University of the principal researcher. To this end, the protocol established at the university was followed (https://www.ubu.es/vicerrectorado-de-investigacion-y-transferencia-del-conocimiento/ comision-de-bioetica). The students were clearly informed about the purposes of the research. They were encouraged to answer the questions as truthfully as possible and were assured that their answers would not affect their course grades. A formative and shared assessment was used throughout the course, which guarantees the involvement and responsibility of the students in carrying out the tasks. This implies both a constant feedback between teacher and students, and the use of the grading instruments throughout the process. This process of transparency favors the self-regulation of student tasks and the need for the veracity of their answers to justify the work done.

#### *2.4. Data Analysis*

A qualitative approach was employed to gain an in-depth understanding of future PE teachers' perceptions of Attitudinal Style. For this purpose, their experiences and reflections were studied in depth, analyzing the transferability and usefulness of this pedagogical model. The source for obtaining data was the assessments and experiences of those involved in the process. This allows us to reflect on

the study phenomenon and how the interactions between the participants influence the very purposes of intervention, focusing mainly on interpretative models [79]. A triangulation was carried out between the information obtained in the data collection instruments, which was very positive as it allowed for a multidimensional analysis [80]. This triangulation was carried out among the data collection instruments used, provided that the information contributed significantly to the study categories. From this triangulation, the most significant text extracts were selected.

In order to guarantee the reliability, transferability, and credibility of the results, the most significant text extracts were coded in each of the instruments using the cross-matching patterns [81]. The researchers took an active part in the field work, reflecting throughout the process on the influence of events.

### *2.5. Generation of Categories and Their Categorization*

Once the data from each instrument used was transcribed, it was placed into the Weft QDA computer and analysis program. Through the saturation of texts and coinciding ideas, the information was grouped into the two categories of the study: (a) utility in the construction of professional identity; (b) transferability of Attitudinal Style in the school. These categories are in relation to the objectives of the study, thus respecting the criteria of specificity and coherence that all qualitative research should have [82].

