Content relevance is defined as a perception that class content satisfies personal interests and goals (Keller, 1983). While research underscores the importance of making content relevant to students (Chesebro & Wanzer, 2006; Mottet, et al., 2008) and strategies for communicating content relevance have been forwarded (Brophy, 1987; Keller, 1987), little attention has been given to the construct in physical education. The purpose of this study was to examine how frequently physical education teachers report using content relevance strategies and to explore how these strategies are used.
Method
One-hundred and three physical education teachers attending a state AAHPERD convention were surveyed regarding their use of content relevance strategies. Frequency of use of content relevance strategies was measured using a modified version of Frymier and Shulman's (1995) 12-item questionnaire, employed previously in classroom research. For this study, the questionnaire was reduced to 10 items and adapted to reflect the physical education context. Teachers also responded to two open-ended questions asking for examples of how they had used content relevance strategies in the recent past.
Analysis/Results
Frequency counts were calculated for each of the strategies. A codebook was developed to categorize teachers' examples of using content relevance into each of the different strategies. Several examples did not align with these strategies and were therefore examined for consistencies to create four new strategies. The examples for each strategy were then searched for themes representing common ways two or more teachers used the strategy. Over 80% of the teachers reported using all but three of the strategies either often or very often. The most frequently used strategies were Strategy 1 (“Use examples to make PE content personally relevant to students”) and Strategy 2 (“Use exercises or explanations that demonstrate the importance of PE content for students”). Themes were identified in the examples for nine of the 14 strategies.
Conclusions
This study suggests physical education teachers often attempt to communicate content relevance, using certain strategies more than others. Additionally, many teachers appear to use content relevance strategies in similar ways. To extend this line of inquiry, future research should use more objective measures (e.g., teacher observations), investigate student perceptions, and examine links between content relevance and student outcomes in physical education.
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