Talented pupils in physical education: secondary school teachers' experiences of identifying talent within the ‘Excellence in Cities’ scheme

Abstract

This study is part of an ongoing, funded project, which seeks to develop workable criteria for the identification of talented pupils in physical education. Using interviews with teachers and qualitative data analysis, it focuses on the experiences of practitioners in the secondary phase of schooling in one English city. The study found a considerable degree of commonality in teachers' experiences, in terms of the strategies employed, the timing and the focus of identification. There were also some tensions, especially with regard to the interplay between professional judgements and National Curriculum guidelines. The study suggests that the teachers in our sample would benefit from more formal guidance to inform their identification procedures for talented pupils. Indeed, the absence of such support poses significant limitations on the effectiveness of current arrangements both in terms of the reliability and equity of identification.