Preservice Teachers’ Experiences and Conceptions of Appropriate and Inappropriate Instructional Practices in Elementary Physical Education

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine preservice teachers’ (PTs) experiences and conceptions of appropriate and inappropriate elementary physical education instructional practices. Participants included a purposive sample of 92 PTs enrolled in an introductory elementary PE methods course. A 3-item open-ended questionnaire served as the data source. The questionnaire asked PTs to indicate what practices in the PE programs they participated in during their elementary school years were appropriate or inappropriate; and to describe the future PE programs they would like their future students to participate in. The National Association for Sport and Physical Education appropriate instructional practice categories were used for a deductive content analysis to code the open-ended questionnaire items. The categories were: Learning Environment, (LE) Instructional Strategies (INS), Curriculum (CRM), Assessment (AST), and Professionalism (PRG). Data were analyzed using frequencies and percentages. Most of PTs’ comments for appropriate practices that they experienced were in CRM (41%), followed by INS (35%). The highest percentage of comments for CRM and INS were in the motor skill learning experiences and class design subcategories respectively. Alternatively, the least percentage of comments were in PRG (.00%), followed by AST (4.00%). The highest percentage of comments for inappropriate practices was in LE (43.71%), followed by INS (37.09%). Furthermore, the highest percentage of comments regarding PTs’ future PE programs for appropriate and inappropriate practices were in CRM (37.50%) and LE (21.65%) respectively. Conversely, the lowest percentages were both in PRG, .57% (appropriate) and 2.06% (inappropriate) respectively. PTs’ reflections showed they focused on curriculum, instructional strategies, and learning environments in identifying appropriate and inappropriate practices in elementary PE.

Keywords

• instructional practices
• physical education
• preservice teachers
• poisson distribution