Planning is a critical skill of quality teaching. It represents how content evolves and ensures that a sequential and progressive lesson is implemented (Rink, 2020). Planning is a vital part of teaching providing that the teachers are well-prepared to facilitate quality learning experiences for their students (Fletcher & Beckey, 2023; Mitchell & Walton-Fisette, 2022; Rink, 2020).

In physical education (PE), content development is an indicator of good planning and reveals how the lesson is developed including the organization, selection, and sequence of the content through the learning activities (Capel et al., 2019; Fletcher & Beckey, 2023). Particularly, content development refers to the sequence of a lesson through learning-motor activities, that activities could be categorized as informing, extending, refining, and applying (Rink, 2020; Siedentop & Tannehill, 2000; Ward & Lehwald, 2018). Good planning requires curricular outcomes and objectives that are based on curriculum standards as well as the needs of the children (Capel et al., 2019; Rink, 2020; Siedentop & Tannehill, 2000). Furthermore, good planning includes connections between different concepts or skills, allowing teachers to build upon what students already know and make learning more meaningful and relevant (Coulter & Ní Chróinín, 2022; Mitchell & Walton-Fisette, 2022). Considering all of the above, developing an effective lesson plan is regarded as critical for implementing an effective lesson (Capel et al., 2019). However, research suggests that planning is a demanding and challenging task, particularly for pre-service teachers (Coulter & Ní Chróinín, 2022).

Research on planning investigates teachers’ skills such as knowledge and perceptions that affect planning (Karlströmand & Hamza, 2021; Mustafa et al., 2024). However, there is a lack of research describing the process of the planning itself, which is the scope of this study. In recent years, research investigating how pre-service teachers develop lesson plans, let alone sequence the lesson plan for planning the teaching of an entire unit, has been limited (Fletcher & Beckey, 2023). Therefore, the purpose of the study was to describe pre-service teachers’ content development. Particularly, this study aimed to explore how pre-service classroom teachers select, develop, and progress content during and between lessons for two entire instructional units during their student teaching practicum. 

Participants were 42 preservice elementary classroom teachers, who were enrolled in the student practicum during the last year of their studies. Data collection included the participants’ lesson plans from two different instructional units designed to be taught during their teaching practicum (10 lesson plans per participant). The focus of the instructional units was based on the National curriculum in physical education in Cyprus. Policy in Cyprus divides its primary education into two cycles. Cycle A includes Grades 1-3 and is designed for children between the ages of six to eight. Cycle B, which includes Grades 4-6, is designed for children of ages nine to twelve. The six core standards that guide the structure of the PE curriculum in both Cycles emphasize the importance of improving children's overall development. The data were analyzed quantitatively using descriptive statistics and qualitatively using inductive analysis techniques. Specifically, descriptive statistics were run for each type of instructional task (informing, refining, extending, applying). Qualitative data were analyzed based on the participants’ content development patterns as revealed in their instructional units and lesson plans. Specifically, the analysis was completed based on using a framework from Rink adapted for the purposes of this study (Rink, 2020). Particularly, in that framework, an informing task is the first task in the progression of skill. An extending task describes subsequent tasks where the complexity is increased or decreased relative to a previous task. A refining task refers to the task intended to improve the quality of performance. An applying task refers to the task focused on the application of skills in a particular context such as a game (Rink, 2010). Finally, each participant’s data was first analyzed individually and then compared across participants to facilitate a cross-case analysis (Patton, 2015).

Preliminary findings suggested that the participants were able to implement various content development patterns. The most dominant content development pattern included three types of tasks. In addition, findings showed that most of the participants’ content development patterns changed throughout the unit. Most of the participants tended to improve their content development patterns through the unit. Also, the descriptive statistics revealed that participants used more extending tasks than the other types of tasks (i.e., informing, refining, applying) in their lesson plans. An outcome that does not align with other research findings indicates that extending tasks was used in low percentages (Dervent et al., 2018). Interestingly and contrary to the existing literature that found high percentages of informing tasks (44%) (Iserbyt & Coolkens, 2020), this type of task appeared rather infrequently. Refining and applying tasks were used to an adequate extent. Research provided mixed results about the usage of these tasks, with some studies reporting low percentages (4-8%) and others reporting much high percentages (20-28%) (Dervent et al., 2018; Ward et al., 2017). These results could inform teacher education programs on supporting teachers’ content development. Specifically, given the limitations in pre-service teachers’ lesson planning reported above, teacher education programs ought to support pre-service teachers in learning how to better plan instructional tasks that provide quality experiences for the children.

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