ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Mental Health and Wellbeing in Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1631248
Importance of being seen as a pedagogical approach among physical education teachers at a lower secondary school -an
Provisionally accepted- Nord University, Bodø, Norway
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The concept of "being seen" is an educational term used in Norway related to the students feeling of being recognized and acknowledged by their teacher, yet its effects have not been experimentally studied. An empirical study pointed towards five factors that define students' experience of being seen: The experience of their PE teachers caring, feedback, dialogue, and the opportunity for students to show their skills and being included in goal setting and evaluation in PE. This study aimed to investigate the impact of an intervention program designed to train physical education (PE) teachers in the concept of being seen. Six PE teachers and their students from a lower secondary school in Mid-Norway participated, with three teachers and their 68 students forming the control group, and three teachers and their 116 students forming the intervention group after random selection. A validated questionnaire assessing students' perceptions of teacher care, feedback, dialogue, and opportunities to showcase skills was administered before and after a volleyball lesson. Following the initial lesson, intervention group teachers attended a course focusing on these four factors and applied them in a subsequent lesson. Data from 129 students (50 control, 79 intervention) were analyzed. The results indicated significant differences in the intervention group compared to the control group in terms of maintaining the students' experiences of teacher's feedback, dialogue, and students' ability to demonstrate skills. The intervention group showed slight increases in these factors, while the control group experienced decreases. These findings suggest that incorporating the concept of being seen into PE teaching practices can positively influence student experiences, and that teacher education should implement the concept in their teaching.
Keywords: Being seen, Students, intervention, Feedback, caring, dialogue
Received: 19 May 2025; Accepted: 04 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bjørklimark and Lagestad. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Pål Lagestad, Nord University, Bodø, Norway
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