Early Childhood Teacher Professional Development in Physical Education and Its Impact on Preschooler Motor Development

Abstract

Physical education in early years makes a unique contribution to the learning experience of children and support physical, cognitive, and social development. Teacher plays an essential role, but early childhood teacher professional development remains unclear. Literature review has shown that it is influenced by individual and social factors. Teacher professional development may have an impact on student motor development in this stage. The objectives of this chapter were to study early childhood teachers' professional development in PE and to analyze the influence and impact of early childhood teachers' professional development on their students' motor development. This chapter describes the results and conclusions of two different studies which have been developed. They highlighted that the variables that affect professional development are initial training and professional development, external perception of physical education, and personal perspective. Furthermore, findings have revealed that these three variables condition their students' motor development most.