Profile of Health and Physical Education Teachers in Kentucky

Background/Purpose:  A review of the literature showed a paucity of studies focusing on secondary physical education and health teachers’ professional experiences and needs. The purpose of this research is to describe the method and results of a survey administered to secondary (9th-12th grade) health and physical education teachers across the state of Kentucky in order to assess their self-reported perceptions and professional experiences regarding health and physical education. 

Method: During the fall 2013 semester, 346 secondary health and physical education teachers in the state of Kentucky were sent an electronic copy of the Kentucky Health and Physical Education Profile Survey via e-mail. Current Kentucky secondary (9th - 12th grade) health and physical education teachers’ e-mails were accessed from each public school district’s website. Of the 346 participants sampled, 96 completed the on-line survey for a response rate of 27.7%. There were 12 questions based on the teachers Professional Experiences and 9 questions based on the teachers perceptions.

Analysis/Results:  Age was the only demographic variable that showed significant differences in teachers’ response patterns. Concerning undergraduate education, teachers over the age of forty were more likely to possess a degree in physical education compared to their younger colleagues. Over 95% of teachers who reported coaching at least one athletic team indicated that it positively impacted their teaching.Examination of the results indicated that teachers over the age of forty were more likely to report coaching duties to have a positive impact on their teaching and were less likely to report coaching as having a negative impact on their teaching compared to younger teachers. 63.5% of participants indicated that they had not attended a professional development training provided by the Kentucky Department of Education during the past 12 months. Most teachers, 82.3%, reported that they had not attended a professional development training provided by KAHPERD within the past 12 months.

Conclusions: Several future recommendations were made based on the findings of this study due to word limitation only a few are mentioned here: Assess workload of new teachers as it pertains to stress levels and job performance; Assess reasons health and physical education teachers are not seeking membership in state and national organizations; Assess which benefits state and national organizations provide that health and physical education teachers find most useful and least useful; Identify modes of delivery for professional development (e.g., webinars) health and physical education teachers prefer; Assess institutions of higher education for majors in health education, physical education and dual degree options.