Background/Purpose Physical education researchers have recognized the important role that teachers' content knowledge plays in the development and practice of physical educators (Ward, 2009). Physical education (PE) teachers should have appropriate levels of content knowledge of physical activity and health-related fitness in order to provide quality instruction to their students. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess in-service and pre-service physical educators' content knowledge of physical activity and health-related fitness.
Method Eighty-nine in-service and 61 pre-service physical educators from southeast Texas completed the 41 multiple-choice Appropriate Physical Activity and Health-Related Fitness (APAHRF) test. In a previous study (Santiago, Morales, Disch, & Gaus, in press) the APAHRF test was validated and found to have K-R 20 reliability coefficient of 0.83.
Analysis/Results The total sample percentage score was 56.3% (M = 23.1, SD = 4.1). In-service teachers total percentage score was 57.5% (M = 23.6, SD = 4.5) whereas pre-service teachers total percentage score was 54.8% (M = 22.5, SD = 3.2). Independent t-test, t(2, 148) = -1.68, p = .095, revealed no significant differences between in-service and pre-service physical educators' content knowledge.
Conclusions According to the literature (Miller & Housner, 1998), the poor performance demonstrated by both in-service and pre-service PE teachers on the APAHRF test may call into question their knowledge about physical activity and health-related fitness. It is suggested that schools provide meaningful professional development and PETE programs re-examine their content of physical activity and health-related fitness.