Abstract

This study focuses on interpreting the declarative-conceptual knowledge of physical education and its relationship with the meanings attributed to it by teachers in holistic education in the subject in second-year secondary schooling in the province of Llanquihue, Los Lagos Region (Chile). A study with a mixed-method design was conducted with quantitative-qualitative sequential equality of status. The strategy used was to complement and triangulate the data. A total of 659 students between the ages of 15 and 18 years participated, 54% males and 46% females. The study included participants from all the different kinds of schools in Chile, including municipal (36.4%), subsidised (37.8%) and private (25.8%). The sample of teachers was intentional and was comprised of ten teachers, each one representing a school where the survey was administered. Three teachers from subsidised schools, 3 from municipal schools and 4 from private schools participated. Using the quantitative method, the students responded to the Declarative-Conceptual Learning in Physical Education Questionnaire (CADCEF), developed and validated in the Chilean school population. Secondly, using the qualitative method, the teachers expressed the meanings they attribute to declarative-conceptual content in the holistic education of students via an interview. The most relevant results and conclusions reveal a clear weakness in the conceptual dimension of knowledge in the different kinds of schools, associated with a lack of conceptual training and a lack of transfer from theory to practice in their training processes. Using the quantitative method, only 163 students (24.7%) managed to answer more than half of the questionnaire correctly (50% correct responses). In the private schools, 12.1% managed to do so, compared to 8.0% and 4.6% in the subsidised and municipal schools, respectively. Furthermore, no significant differences were found at any kind of school according to the students’ sex, although private schools returned the best results. According to the age variable, the 16-year-old students proved to have the greatest cultural baggage in physical education. On the basis of the value assigned to declarative-conceptual contents by the teachers, the latter acknowledge major benefits and teaching strategies through training in declarative-conceptual contents; however, pre-service and teacher training are weak in conceptual contents and they therefore continue to apply traditional methodologies focused on learning how to do it. This hegemonic conception of the discipline as a motor activity is probably conditioned by public policies and by the epistemic essence of physical education.