Author(s)

Tang Jingen ¹, Yi Yongdan ¹, Wu Xiaoting ¹, Wang Rui ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ School of Physical Education, Hunan Institute of Science and Technology, Yueyang, 414006, China

Corresponding Author

Tang Jingen

ABSTRACT

As a core vehicle for professional development of primary and secondary physical education (PE) teachers, workshops have become a critical modality for implementing the National Training Program. However, knowledge hiding behaviors—deliberate concealment of expertise, experiential retention, and perfunctory interaction—occur frequently among participants, severely impeding knowledge flow and collaborative professional growth within learning communities. This study reveals that knowledge hiding among PE teacher workshop participants is not merely an individual choice, but a complex social behavior shaped by professional power dynamics, interest competition, identity construction, and community culture. Its intrinsic generative mechanism is rooted in the fear of loss amid status competition, cognitive conflicts over professional territoriality, identity-based circle stratification between insiders and outsiders, and group antagonism in professional relationships. Under the combined effects of knowledge disparity, cost-benefit gaming, free-rider effects, and social learning transmission, knowledge hiding manifests through stratified triggering, rational choice, and group diffusion mechanisms. Targeted interventions are proposed across five dimensions: reconstructing benefit expectations, intensifying task engagement, reshaping workshop culture, consolidating shared vision, and improving knowledge absorption mechanisms, aiming to dissolve this persistent issue and empower high-quality development of professional learning communities.

KEYWORDS

Physical education teachers; workshop-based professional development; knowledge hiding; generative mechanism; functional mechanism

CITE THIS PAPER

Tang Jingen, Yi Yongdan, Wu Xiaoting, Wang Rui. An Analysis of the Intrinsic Mechanisms of Knowledge Hiding Behavior among Physical Education Teachers in Workshop-Based Professional Learning Communities. Adult and Higher Education (2026). Vol. 8, No. 2, 15-25. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/aduhe.2026.080203.

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Sponsors, Associates, and Links

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