Background/Purpose
With the increasing number of school violence and youth problems, there is growing interest in implementing Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (Hellison, 2003) in Korean PE classes. Although studies on TPSR outcomes are increasing in Korea, little is known regarding fidelity of the program implementation. Given that program outcomes should be explained in relation to the fidelity of implementation, it is an important topic to explore. The purpose of this study was to examine fidelity of TPSR implementation and factors influencing the implementation of the model in Korean elementary physical education classes.
Method Participants were seven elementary classroom teachers (6 males, 1 female) who had agreed to participate in the study. Data were collected from the observation of PE classes with fidelity benchmark, teachers' reflective journal entries, and interviews with students and teachers.
Analysis/Results Data were analyzed inductively, and participants-fidelity matrix was made to determine the level of fidelity of each participant. Findings revealed the four continuum of TPSR implementation: (a) fidelity to model with no modifications, (b) fidelity to students with adaptation, (c) moderate fidelity with adaptations, and (d) low fidelity with elimination of the critical components. Participants' implementation fidelity was influenced by teacher factors (e.g., knowledge, belief), student factors (e.g., student responsiveness to the model), and contextual factors (e.g., school culture).
Conclusions Teachers' implementation of TPSR was in continuum of low to high fidelity, and it was influenced by practicality of process of implementation and the needs of students, teachers, and educational contexts.
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