The aim of this study is to explore what it means to know a specific movement, a so called ‘househop’, i.e. a rotation initiated on the ground and fulfilled in the air. The knowing of ’househop’ (including the capability to perform a househop) is an example of a subject content in Physical Education. Despite the fact that PE has a tradition of being a ‘practical’ subject, practical forms of knowing such as for example bodily awareness and capability to move (e.g. jumping, running or dancing) does not, neither for teachers nor pupils, seem to be a main issue of learning in PE (Tinning, 2010; Redelius et al, 2009,). In the context of learning motor skills the knowing is often explicated in terms of  measurable outcomes, for example in length, height or time (Renshaw, Davies & Savelsbergh, 2010), not in terms of what there is to know.

A necessary condition for learning is to discern what there is to learn (Marton & Pang, 2006,).  This study gives an example of how to explicate what there is to be known as well as specific ways of knowing (Carlgren, 2007) when developing the capability of performing a ‘househop’. To make it possible for the students to develop the capability to perform a househop the teaching must be designed so that the students can experience and discern so called critical aspects of a househop.

Knowledge concerning the meaning of specific learning objects (something that is expected to be known by the students as well as specific ways of knowing it) is generated in so called Learning Studies ( Marton & Pang, 2006, Marton & Lo, 2011, Carlgren, 2012). The object of learning in a Learning Study can be described as a triadic phenomenon. There is something to be known, a specific kind of knowing to be developed and someone who knows, a knower (Carlgren, 2011). There is nothing known if there is no knower knowing it. This triadic phenomenon is transactional (Dewey & Bentley, 1949).  

Rather than seeing capability to move as a practical form of knowledge it can be conceptualized as intelligent actions not necessarily entailing the double operation of considering and executing (Ryle, 1949,2009). The knowing is not restricted to cognitive understanding and knowing how to perform a movement is not restricted to physical processes. It includes skills as well as what is often referred to as ‘tacit knowing’ (Polanyi, 1969; Johannessen,1988).

Methods/methodology

This study is carried out in the form of a Learning Study. The Learning Study is a collaborative (teachers and researcher work together) research approach that focus on the learning of specific objects. So called critical aspects of these objects are discerned through a systematic and iterative process (Marton & Ling, 2007). The study was conducted in collaboration with three PE - teachers in upper secondary school.

The results that will be presented in this paper are based on an analysis of the video recorded pre-test used in the Learning Study as well as analysis of two video recorded research lessons. The analysis is carried out within the theoretical framework of phenomenography (Marton, 1981) and Variation theory ( Marton & Pang, 2006)

Expected outcomes/results

The results are presented in terms of the features of the learning objects that must be discerned and mastered when performing a ‘househop’.

Through the phenomenographic analysis categories such as “House hop as solitary parts”, “House hop as requiring no speed or power” and “ House hop as concerning only upper body” emerged. These categories laid the foundation for a systematic process of discerning critical aspects such as for example the direction of the rotation, the meaning of the arm movement for creating speed and power and the meaning of one´s legs participation through the movement. Further critical aspects emerged when analyzing the lessons and all together they provided possibilities to explicate the meaning of knowing how to perform a ‘house hop’