Interaction and Involvement Patterns at
the Australian Institute of Sport
Although the objectives of teaching and coaching are
varied, this investigator believed that the functions were more similar than dissimilar.
He attempted to prove his beliefs and studied interaction and involvement
patterns of coaches and their students/athletes at the Australian Institute of
Sport. The involvement patterns of four sports: Swimming, Water Polo, Tennis,
and Weight-lifting were collected and then compared to data in the Anderson
United States Data Bank for Teaching. The two instruments used were CAFIAS and
IRG III.
The results showed that interaction patterns of the
coaches were lower than that of the teachers. Student involvement was much more
active in the coaching classes than the teaching classes. Furthermore, the
coaches tended to use more criticism than the physical education teachers.
The IRG III results for the coaching disciplines were
summarized as follows:
Swimming - Students were involved throughout the training
session and the involvement was nonverbal.
Water Polo - The environment was an important factor and there
was some calling out and talking at the same time, the athletes were primarily
involved nonverbally and there were negative subscripts.
Tennis - Involvement was intense and sporadic, most often
taking the form of group involvement, and was verbal and non-verbal in nature.
Weight-lifting - The negative athlete behaviors were always made in
a strongly involved situated when concentrating on task. This is the one sport
where a full range of involvement behaviors were exhibited. The behaviors were
both verbal and non-verbal.