A critical element of quality physical education includes certified/licensed physical education teachers (NASPE,2006). However, elementary classroom teachers, not physical education specialists, have the primary responsibility for learning in the majority of the fifty states. This practice is likely to increase as public and private schools reduce budgets to address the economic recession. The purpose of this study was to examine the beliefs and perceptions of preservice elementary classroom teachers concerning elementary physical education.
Method
The study was conducted at a state university in California and included (n=190) undergraduate students enrolled in a "Foundations of Childhood Physical Education" course. The researcher's developed an informational survey to include demographic information, school subject rankings, a description of prior physical education experiences as children at the elementary level, and open-ended questions about their beliefs and perceptions of elementary physical education. This survey was reviewed by a panel of experts and piloted before use. A second tool included a validated, eleven question Likert scale, survey concerning the values and purposes of elementary physical education by Xiang, Lowry, & McBride (2002). The surveys were administered the first and last day of a fifteen-week semester.
Analysis/Results
Statistical differences between means were calculated, using t-tests (.05 significance level), for the school subject rankings and the Likert scale survey. The open-ended responses were transcribed and analyzed inductively based upon accepted protocols (Patton, 1990). Nine of the eleven survey questions were found to be statistically significant when comparing pre and posttest means. These participants believed that physical education was integral to education, provided opportunities to learn about fitness, and was not just about playing games and sports. These participants deemed English as the most important subject, however, physical education demonstrated the most positive change when compared to the other traditional school subjects. The positive primal experiences of these future teachers included: being successful, learning new activities, and teamwork. The negative primal experiences included: spotlighting, captains picking teams, and lack of instruction.
Conclusions
A semester long course did have a positive impact on preservice teachers' beliefs and perceptions. Further research is warranted regarding preservice teacher training and whether or not beliefs and perceptions are sustained over time. Furthermore, new research tools need to be created to better measure classroom teacher beliefs and perceptions about physical education for both the preservice and inservice levels of professional preparation.