Professor John Sproule

Personal Chair of Physical Education

Moray House School of Education and Sport, ISPEHS
University of Edinburgh

Street: Moray House School of Education and Sport, SL
City: University of Edinburgh (Holyrood Campus)
Post code: EH8 8AQ

Biography

Background

John Sproule is a physical educator with an interest in applied sport, exercise & health sciences. John started his career teaching Physical Education (PE) in UK comprehensive schools. He then worked on a British Council, Loughborough University and Nanyang Technological University project to introduce the specialist teaching of PE in Singapore, before moving to the University of Edinburgh. Examples of consultancies include: international education PE curriculum development & assessment (IBO); coach education; and heat acclimation consultant for elite sportspeople. He is an active researcher who teaches PE, Applied Sports Science & intercalating medical students, and supervises doctoral students.

Qualifications

BEd (Hons) Physical Education & Human Movement (Scottish School of Physical Education, Jordanhill College of Education)
MSc Physical Education & Sports Science (Loughborough University; funded by the 'All Saints Educational Trust')
PhD Exercise Physiology (Loughborough University; sponsored by 'Nike Singapore Ltd' and 'Quaker Oats/Gatorade')

Teaching & PhD supervision

Undergraduate teaching

MA (Hons) PE practicum supervision
Edinburgh Medical School SSC5A research project supervision
Dissertation supervision for Sports Science Medicine (BMedSci Hons Intercalated) SSC5A
PGDE PE

Postgraduate teaching

Paediatric factors in sport
Coaching children
Environmental Physiology
Dissertation supervision (UG, PGT, PGR)
Practicum supervision

John would be very interested in supervising PE teachers who may be considering studying for our MSc by Research whilst continuing to teach full time in schools.

Further information about the MSc by Research

Areas of interest for supervision

I will consider supervising PhD projects in: physical education curriculum; motivation & self-regulation; coach education.

Current PhD students supervised

Heini Lopponen- Effects of yoga and pranayamic breathing on the well-being of school children.
John Widdowson- Transferring life experience in the sporting environment.
Nicholas Lam- Development, validity and reliability of a mental fatigue protocol.
Sadam Altwassi- Examination of the nature of talent development environment within a Jordanian context. In collaboration With Professor Russell Martindale and Dr George Andronikos (both at Napier University).
Mathew Hillyer- Understanding the talent development environment in youth football of an emerging nation (Singapore).
Liron Blajwajs- Mentalization among people with hypermobility.
Vanessa Vidueira- Impact of chronotype on endurance performance in adolescents.
Emma Qu Meijun- Promoting life skills in sports coaching.

Past PhD students supervised

Stewart Ollis- Constructivist Expertise: a critical ecological and micro developmental perspective on developing talent
Christine Nash- Relative practice as a tool for developing sport coaching expertise
Shirley Gray- Team invasion games within the Scottish PE curriculum: Rhetoric, reality and implications for practice
Rosemary Mulholland- Stress in trainee teachers
Neil Potts- An investigation into the influence of learning strategy on the acquisition of the Olympic weightlifting clean
Geoff Platt- Strength training as an intervention for children with DCD
Danielle Bryant- Teacher stress, learned optimism and coping strategies
Shaun Phillips- The influence of carbohydrate supplementation on endurance capacity, sprint performance, and physiological responses to adolescent team games players to prolonged, high-intensity intermittent exercise
Mike Jess- Complexity theory and curriculum development
Anne Martin- Cognitive skills in overweight/obese preschool children
Julie Moote- Self-regulated learning
Steve Banks- Contextual interference and learning to kayak
Edward Hall- The coaching process - ethnography of apex women's rugby union
Mark Sanderson- Whole body vibration: Stimulus Characteristics and Acute Neuromuscular Responses
Samir Qasan- The effect of martial arts practice on self-esteem in people with visual impairment
Ray Bobrownicki- The efficacy of alternative sources of information to promote gross motor function in adolescents: Options available to physical educators
Andrew Murray- Gait-related variability: a practical recovery marker in team sport athletes
Wendy Timmons- Dancing with hypermobility: an exploration of the health risk and experience of generalized joint hypermobility within a classical ballet narrative
Zhao Cam- Unilateral resistance training in an adolescent population.

Research

Research summary

PE curriculum
PE pedagogy
Motivation in PE
Coach Education

Examples of recent conference:

2019 IADMS. The lived experience of hypermobility in the professional dance environment. Montreal, 24-27 October.
2019 ECSS. Developing the Jordanian version of the talent development environment questionnaire questionnaire for sport. Prague, 3-6 July.
2018 International Society of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (ISBNPA).Physical activity, diet and other behavioural interventions for improving cognition and school achievement in children and adolescents with obesity or overweight. Hong Kong, 3-6 June.
2018 International Association for Physical Education in Higher Education (AIESEP). Transformational Teaching: Do student teachers in Scotland have an effect on the pupils they teach? Edinburgh, 25-28 July.
2018 European College of Sport Science (ECSS). The influence of external loading on acceleration and electromyography activity during whole body vibration of varying frequencies. Dublin, 4-7 July.
2016 What do sport coaches know about recovery? Symposium: Recovery and Performance, 21^st-23^rdSeptember, Burghausen, Bavaria, Germany.
2016 Self-regulated learning in Physical Education. ASEAN Council of Physical Education and Sport (ACPES) Conference, 2^nd-5^thSeptember, Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines.
2016 Self-regulated learning in PE and Sport Pedagogy. International Sports Teaching Symposium (ISTS), 2^nd-5^thAugust, Taipei, Taiwan.
2015 Attitudes & practices of recovery in adolescent Asian athletes. ECSS Malmo 20th annual congress of the European College of Sport Science, 24-27th June, Malmo, Sweden.
2015 "In class I'm ignored and I think it is to do with my body weight". Experiences of obese adolescent girls at school. 1st Leipzig International Meeting for Interdisciplinary Obesity Research, 6-10th September, Lepzig, Germany.
2015 External focus distance and level of expertise in kayak sprinting. NASPSPA, June 4-7th, Portland, Oregon, USA.
2013 The effect of karate practice on self-esteem in blind adolescents: a case study. 19^th InternationalSymposium of Adapted Physical Activity, 19-23 July Istanbul, Turkey.
2013 The microstructure of coaching practice: what "game sense" and "athlete centeredness" actually looks like. Sport Leadership sportif 7-9th November, Calgary, Canada.
2012 Investigating the development of self-regulation and motivation in young science students. International Association for Cognitive Education and Psychology, Geneva, Switzerland, May 25-26.