Most adolescents in industrialized countries are physically inactive and effective actions to counteract this situation are required. School physical education (PE) can promote students’ active ...lifestyle. The paper presents the protocol of the “Physical education for moving” (PE4MOVE) project, based on an Internet-supported professional training program offered to PE teachers in a region of central Italy. Secondary school PE teachers and their students are randomly allocated to either an intervention group or a wait-list control group. Teachers participate in a continuing professional development training (CPDt) designed to increase knowledge and competences regarding students’ physical activity (PA) promotion. The CPDt, developed according to recent recommendations, consists of a mixed-modality preliminary session on fitness testing, and webinars and online workshops on theory-driven strategies. Teachers are then required to apply contents during their PE classes. Teachers’ variables related to PA promotion, as well students’ approach to PA, PA levels and physical fitness are recorded at pre- and post-trial times. Upon its completion, the project may contribute to the field by providing evidence for the effectiveness of Internet-supported teachers’ training programmes, for the transferability of students’ motivation from PE to out-of-school settings, and for the relationship between teachers and students’ motivation.
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in heightened anxiety levels among teachers, especially regarding PE teachers who are required to engage students in practical in-person or contact teaching ...lessons. Previous research showed that these levels of anxiety among PE teachers appeared to be explained by the interplay between COVID-19 knowledge, workplace safety perception, and educational qualification. This study assessed the relationship between COVID-19-related knowledge and anxiety response among PE teachers during such practical lessons while moderating the effects of workplace safety perception and educational qualification within the relationship. The study conveniently recruited 160 PE teachers to solicit responses through both online and printed questionnaires. Using correlation and linear regression analyses, the study revealed a significant negative relationship between COVID-19-related knowledge and anxiety response among PE teachers. The educational qualification of PE teachers did not significantly moderate the association between COVID-19-related knowledge and anxiety response. Workplace safety perception significantly moderated the association between COVID-19-related knowledge and anxiety response among PE teachers. The findings remind educational authorities about the essence of creating a positive and safe working environment conducive to academic work. Achieving this goal requires the provision of adequate COVID-19 management logistics (e.g., personal protective equipment, hand sanitizers) by educational authorities for PE teachers to maintain safety practices and optimal learning conditions.
Previous studies indicated that physical education programs in schools were unsuccessful to ameliorate physical activity (PA) behaviors among adolescents. This study investigated PE teachers' ...perceptions of barriers and facilitators to PA and further digital exercise interventions among inactive British adolescents in secondary schools based on the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behavior (COM-B) model, the Behavior Change Wheel (BCW), and Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF).
A qualitative study was conducted among 156 PE teachers in England. deductive thematic analysis approach was applied to analyze data.
A comprehensive perception of PE teachers revealed 21 barriers to PA among inactive adolescents in secondary schools. The study findings show that barriers exist across all categories of the COM-B model in physical opportunity (7), reflective motivation (5), social opportunity (4), psychological capability (4) and physical capability (1). The majority of these barriers were reported in previous studies as being barriers to PA from the perspective of children and adolescents. This shows that the findings are consistent with the views of children and adolescents that participated in these studies. Particular salient barriers for inactive adolescents were reported and greater insight into their experiences was highlighted. The study reported the main sources of behavior, intervention functions, policy functions, and behavior change tools that can be used for future behavior change interventions to support inactive adolescents.
The study recommends using its findings to design interventions for inactive adolescents to achieve recommended levels of physical activity (PA). The study's comprehensive approach and evidence-based solutions provide extensive reference points for future intervention design, informing policy and contributing to enhancing support for inactive adolescents. Further development of digital exercise interventions, including conversational artificial intelligence (AI), is suggested to engage adolescents at scale and provide personalized support to overcome multiple barriers to PA.
The professional development of physical education (PE) teachers is the core of cultivating professional PE experts with excellent instructiveness and pedagogical quality. The existing studies on the ...professional development of PE teachers (PETPD) mainly focus on the specific development strategies, and the correlation between professional development and education reform, failing to consider the psychological factors that affect PETPD. Therefore, this paper explores deep into PETPD, and its correlation with psychological adjustment ability (PAA). Specifically, the PETPD model was given, and an evaluation index system (EIS) of PETPD was constructed, in the light of the psychological adaptation of PE teachers. Next, a comprehensive PETPD evaluation model was established based on entropy weight - technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), and PETPD prediction was detailed based on deep neural network (DNN). Through experiments, the comprehensive evaluation results on PETPD were subjected to multiway analysis of variance (ANOVA), and the influence of different factors on the PAA of primary school PE teachers was discussed under the demand of professional development. The research results prove the important positive effect of professional development and psychological adjustment on the career development of PE teachers.
Teacher's self-efficacy is a relevant judgement of self-belief by teachers. Studies reveal inverse response bias of teachers' self-assessment. Parallel item presentation can be used as a method to ...reduce such distortions. The major goal of this study was to develop and verify such a measure of parallel item presentation in order to compare self-efficacy of qualified and out-of-field PE teachers. Therefore out-of-field and qualified PE student teachers (N = 68) were randomised into two groups. They responded to 14 self-efficacy items related to classroom subjects and PE teaching. One group of out-of-field (n = 17) and qualified (n = 18) PE student teachers was presented with the items in parallel so that they could compare classroom and PE teaching items. For the other group of out-of-field (n = 11) and qualified (n = 22) PE student teachers, the items were presented sequentially so that no direct comparison was possible. Data was analysed using nested ANOVA. The results reveal that with a dimensional item comparison, out-of-field PE teachers have a significantly lower self-efficacy in PE than qualified PE student teachers (p = .006, η
p
2
= .18). Without comparison, there is no significant difference. The method of parallel item representation can thus contribute to the reduction of inverse response bias.
Introduction. The neglect of the needs and potential of the schoolgirls and the dismissive attitude of the teachers towards the pupils and the PE classes are the main causes of the schoolgirls' ...reluctance to attend the classes and also their lack of propensity towards physical activity in general. Studies of child and youth opinions towards the PE classes show that a number of factors are to be taken into account. The aim of the paper was to ascertain the opinions of the survey participants towards the realized and model PE class and also to ascertain effective ways of pursuing the PE curricula for girls. The article reveals factors discouraging the schoolgirls and reducing their expectations as far as PE classes are concerned. Material and methods. The material for the study were 314 schoolgirls and 51 teachers from Biała Podlaska elementary, middle and high schools. The paper was based on the study conducted with analysis of a questionnaire form and a survey. The survey was conducted in April, 2011. Results. The information obtained from the questionnaires that were filled in by the schoolgirls were compiled and compared with the data from the surveys given by the teachers working with the schoolgirls. Conclusions. Both the girls and the teachers have a positive attitude towards the PE classes, whilst observing a number of perceived faults. Criticism was aimed at a lack of variety in the classes and that the needs, potential and interests of the girls were not taken into account and also the lack of involvement of the girls in the process of planning and pursuing the classes. The girls responded positively to the 2009 education reform proposals. The PE teachers also endorsed the proposals.
As much as the principle of co-education may appear to make sense in physical education (PE) lessons, trends in its development have emerged over the past years, especially in secondary schools, ...which were certainly not intended by the pedagogical programme of 'reflective co-education', which stands for respect for equality and difference in co-educational PE classes. Although this programme has been anchored in the curricula of various federal states in Germany for around 15 years, the prevailing practice even today, and documented in many empirical studies, is that so-called 'male-oriented' activities (e.g. games) predominate in PE classes while 'female-oriented' activities (e.g. dance, aerobics, gymnastics or health-related exercises) are scarcely ever taught. The purpose of this contribution is to examine (1) the extent to which male (as well as female) PE teachers actually make such a one-sided selection of activities; (2) the reasons they give for this practice and the way they perceive and judge it; and (3) how they communicate this selection to each other and to their pupils. Seventy-one PE teachers (of both sexes) were asked about these questions in problem-centred interviews. The main result of the study is that both male and female PE teachers almost exclusively do 'male-oriented' activities (like games and other competitive activities) in mixed-gender classes, although they give different reasons for doing so. By contrast, so-called 'female activities' are avoided. The observable implications are that PE lessons have increasingly become dominated by male patterns of physical activity and that a hierarchy is constructed between so-called 'male activities' and 'female activities' in PE. As a result, a key objective of 'reflective co-education' has not been achieved. Female PE teachers suffer considerably under these conditions. It can be observed that many of them are either planning to reduce their hours in, or even give up, teaching PE (or have already done so). Verf.-Referat.
The aim of the study is to analyse the sequential paraverbal communication used while teaching by expert and novice PE teachers. Four expert and four novice teachers were observed using a coding ...scheme of paraverbal behavior. The detection of temporal patterns using Theme v.5 enabled sequential analyses of paraverbal behaviour. The results indicate that compared to expert teachers, novice teachers used a greater number of gestures and did not always make effective use of the teaching space. Their gestures were also less qualitative in nature as they did not take full advantage of the communicative possibilities offered by some of the gestures analysed.
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