Background/Purpose Purposes of this study were to obtain insights into principals' physical education (PE) perception and to provide advice for reforming their PE programs.
Method Participants were 46 principals from public schools in New York City. Principal's perception of PE Questionnaire (PPPEQ, Zeng, 2008) includes sixteen statements, concerning ‘Features of PE', ‘Function of PE', ‘Challenges of PE', etc., was employed. Options for responding were ‘Agree' ‘Disagree' or ‘No comment' (score 3, 1, or 2). Descriptive statistics and correlation were used for data analyzing.
Analysis/Results The top five statements (Item 2, 11, 1, 6, and 16) essentially structured the principals' PE perception. E.g., Item-2, “We can activate and foster the physical activity skills children need through school PE programs”, M = 2.978. Item-11, “Once PE is valued and supported, children will gradually form their active and healthy lifestyle”, M = 2.935. The correlation analysis found, ten correlations were at significant levels; e.g., “PE is an academic discipline . . .” versus “Qualification of teachers” r =.485, p = .01 reflected the principals truly view PE as an academic discipline and believe quality PE has positive connection with teachers' qualification. “Without PE, our students will not be fully developed.” Versus “Time allocation” r =.322, p = .05 reflected the relationship among ‘whole person education', school curricula and mandated PE hours has been recognized.
Conclusions The top five statements (Item 2, 11, 1, 6 and 16) in the PPPEQ structured the principals' PE perception. Among the perception correlation coefficients show that some are stronger than the others.