Physical Education Cooperating Teachers' Perceptions of Student Teachers' Skills

Background/Purpose:  Cooperating teachers serve as the primary facilitators of future teachers’ on the job training during student teaching. Cooperating teachers’ perceptions of the needs of their student teachers can have a big impact on how they mentor student teachers during that formative period. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of potential physical education cooperating teachers’ perceptions of student teachers’ skills needed for success and common weaknesses within a large Midwestern urban school district. 

Method:  Participants, K-12 physical educators (N=25) with between 5 and 35 years experience in a large, Midwestern urban school district were surveyed about their desire to become cooperating teachers. Survey questions, which were created by the district’s physical education administrators and a teacher educator from a nearby university, asked participants to discuss the common skills needed to be successful in their school and common weaknesses of student teachers. The survey was sent out to all physical educators eligible to serve as cooperating teachers using Survey Monkey.  

Analysis/Results:  Participants’ responses to the following questions, “Briefly describe some indicators you would look for to determine student teacher success”, and “Briefly describe what you think are some common weaknesses of novice teachers?” were analyzed through the process of open coding to identify initial themes and categories. Peer debriefing was used to verify themes and categories. Findings will be reported in two main themes, a) Skills needed to be successful and b) Common weaknesses of student teachers.  Common skills needed for success were planning and organization, flexibility, professionalism, and the ability to reflect. Common weaknesses were identified as difficulty planning, lack of flexibility/adaptability, being unprofessional and behavior management and organization.

Conclusions: Common skills needed to be successful as physical educators and common weaknesses of student teachers, as perceived by cooperating teachers were identified in this study.  Findings from this study may be helpful to physical education teacher educators in terms of how students are prepared for student teaching and how cooperating teachers are prepared to become mentors. Since there was considerable overlap between perceived skills needed for success and weaknesses observed, teacher educators could purposefully address those areas.  Second, findings may be helpful to other physical education teachers who serve as mentors in terms of being more aware of what to look for when working with future teachers. Third, the findings provide future teachers a better understanding of what is expected from professionals in the field.