Background/Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the six late career teachers' receptivity that received a federal grant to improve their physical Education (PE) programs as concerns the SE model and the process of reform.
Method Six late career PE teachers participated in continuing professional development (CPD) that focused on learning and implementing Sport Education (Siedentop, Hastie, & van der Mars, 2004). Field observations and interview data were collected to assess teachers' receptivity and perceptions of the SE model as well as teachers' attitudes toward reform.
Analysis/Results (1) Initially, all teachers complied with the expectations of their administrators and the research team, but it was clear that CPD effort was going to be difficult to sustain over the long run. (2) The teachers concurred that the SE curriculum model was a good fit for their PE program even though its implementation was a hybrid of the SE model learned in CPD.
Conclusions This research confirms what Guskey (2002, 2007) has shown - that individual and group ownership in the reform process impacts the degree of success in changing the culture of a program. All late career teachers showed excessive confidence during the project, but this was difficult to sustain over the long run. Late teachers' career phases not only has the potential to determine if a new curriculum will be applied, but they also influence the depth to which teachers implement new curriculum models and utilize best instructional practices.