Teachers’ preferences of teaching primary physical education: curriculum preferences

Abstract

Background and Study Aim. Physical education teachers play an important role in helping students to understand the importance of physical activity. By maximizing physical activity time in physical education, physical education teachers can influence physical activity needs of students. The present study was aimed at analysing and comparing teachers’ preferences of teaching primary physical education.
 Material and Methods. Survey instrument (teachers’ preferences) was carried out five months (May – September, 2022) through an intentional sampling with survey group size of 1300 physical education teachers of primary education: (i) Preschool and elementary pedagogy (50.76%, n = 660), (ii) Related pedagogy (49.24%, n = 640). Pearson correlation coefficient (r), chi-square test (χ2) (inferential) and descriptive statistics were used to analyse and compare the data.
 Results. Physical education is often viewed as a marginal subject within the curriculum, however after analysing the data, on average, 63.54% (n = 826) of survey group believes that physical education is just as important as any other school subject (p ˂ .01). According to 52% (n = 676) of survey group, games are popular teaching activity in physical education (p ˂ .01). About 40.50% (n = 526) of survey group does not enjoy teaching dance in physical education (p ˂ .01). About 37.55% (n = 488) of survey group considers teaching health and fitness as demanding (p ˃ .05) and athletics and gymnastics (36.06%, n = 468) as undemanding (p ˂ .01).
 Conclusions. Primary physical education is an important component of curriculum and provides unique challenges for those involved with its teaching.

Curriculum preferences of physical education teachers in primary schools: differences in length of pedagogical practice

“…In some primary schools, PE teachers may occupy "marginal roles" [1,23]; however, 61.31% (n = 798) of 1 300 (100%) PE teachers in primary schools considered PE as important as other subjects (p˂ 0.01). 169 (80.47%) out of 210 (100%) Slovak PE teachers in secondary schools (e.g., vocational school, grammar school) considered PE as important as other subjects and 17% (n = 36) of them considered PE more important [24].…”

“…1). [1]. Possible criticism (feedback) was not detecting any issues of comparative design and language of survey instrument.…”

“…Curriculum preferences of physical education (PE) teachers in primary schools differ, depending on educational policy, local guidelines, and particular (specific) needs of students (pupils) [1][2]. School subject of PE plays an important role in curriculum in primary schools, promoting the holistic development in students [3].…”

“…PE teachers play an essential role in achieving high-quality education [1,[4][5]; in students; therefore, need to develop special competences (ability) [5,15]. To enhance the ability to deliver effective (high-quality) education, PE teachers look for professional development opportunities.…”

Exploring Movement in Creative Dance: Introducing ‘Dancemblage’ in Physical Education Teacher Education

“…By participating in movement exploration, pupils and students alike develop creativity (Neville & Makopoulou, 2021;Torrents et al, 2013), learn bodily communication (Lundvall & Meckbach, 2012), stimulate social intelligence (Keun & Hunt, 2006), and learn to operate within new and unpredictable situations (Engdahl et al, 2021;Mattsson & Larsson, 2020;Ørbaek, 2018). Despite its important contribution to movement education, creative dance is something PE teachers, PETE students and school pupils are often unfamiliar with and insecure about (Adamčák et al, 2023;Engdahl et al, 2021;Mattsson & Lundvall, 2015). This is an effect of their inexperience with dance, presumptions of what it means to learn dance, and the subject area's traditionally feminine and artistic connotations.…”