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.