Background/Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions elementary school classroom teachers had on teaching physical education during a five week early field experience (EFE).
Methods: Participants will be Elementary Education majors enrolled in a content course connected with a 5-week follow-up early field experience at a local elementary school. Each classroom teacher (CT) will teach a wide variety of lessons ranging from skill themes to interdisciplinary lessons. Non participant observations, formal and informal interviews, and critical incident reports were all used to collect data. Data was analyzed by sorting into common categories and themes.
Analysis/Results: At the onset of the course, CTs perceived physical education teaching as easy, unimportant and not truly teaching. However, at the conclusion of the EFE three reoccurring themes presented themselves. These themes included: (a) Physical Education involves strategic planning; (b) new found respect for Physical Education teachers; (c) Physical Education is more than free play. The CTs perceptions of physical education improved drastically throughout the semester. The CTs perceptions of physical education changed the most during the actual instruction portion of the course.
Conclusions: At the beginning of the course, the CT had little respect for PE teachers based on previous experiences. These perceptions began to change during the lecture portion as the instructor taught the "proper" way to teacher physical education. This insight helped to change the perceptions, but the CTs opinion of PE went through the biggest changes during the actual EFE.
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