Japanese physical education students’ perceived skills and abilities in teaching physical education

Japanese physical education students’ perceived skills and abilities in teaching physical education

ABSTRACT

This research investigates the perceived physical education teaching skills and abilities of Japanese physical education (PE) students. The subjects are 119 students who study physical education in the Department of Education at Kumamoto University. The data were collected by using a questionnaire designed by Nieminen et al. (2008). Factor analysis produced five factors labeled as follows: Fundamental skills, Scientific and cultural knowledge, Skills to combine music and movement, Teaching physical activities, and Didactic skills. Overall, the average self-evaluation teaching skills and abilities score was low. For Fundamental skills, it was 4 (7-point scale), and for Scientific and cultural knowledge and Skills to combine music and movement, it was 3. The male students evaluated five items of Scientific and cultural knowledge and one item of Teaching physical activities higher than their female peers did. The latter appraised only one item of the Skills to combine music and movement category higher than the male students did. The senior students (3-5 years) rated two items of Scientific and cultural knowledge more highly than the junior students (1-2 years) did.

INTRODUCTION

Japanese physical education (PE) students are required to become competent physical education teachers through physical education teacher education (PETE) programs. All educators agree that the aim of PETE is to educate capable, motivated physical education teachers (Nieminen & Varstala, 2003). Metzler and Tjeerdsma (2000) offer guidelines on making such programs effective. Japanese PE students perceive the competencies of teachers in this field differently than those of other countries (Nieminen, et al., 2008). The former group regards the ability to interact and to handle special challenges as less important teaching skills than the latter. On the contrary, evaluation and demonstration skills were perceived as more important in Japan than in the other countries. This research seeks to investigate the perceived physical education teaching skills and abilities of Japanese PE students.

METHODOLOGY

Subjects

The subjects are 119 first to fifth-year year students (76 male and 43 female) who study physical education as their major subject in the Department of Education at Kumamoto University (Table 1).

Table 1. Physical education students’ year-level and gender

Table 1. Japanese physical education students’ perceived skills and abilities in teaching physical education

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Procedures and Insturumentaition

The data were collected between April and June 2010 by using a questionnaire designed by Nieminen et al. (2008). Perceived competency was measured by asking students to assess and rate 45 aspects of a physical educator. The assessments were sorted on a 7-point scale, ranging from very poor (= 1) to excellent (= 7). A principal-axis factor analysis, followed by oblique rotation, was used to analyze the responses to the 45-item questionnaire. This technique produced eight factors, with eigenvalues above 1.0. Items with loadings smoller than .40 of all factors and bigger than .35 of two factors were excluded. A factor analysis was repeated, it produced five factors, which account for 67.571% of the variance, of the 28 remaining items (Table 2).

The first factor, labelled “Fundamental skills,” nine items and reflects fundamental teaching skills, such as listening to students, establishing a relationship with them, cooperating with colleagues, minimizing injury risk, and reflecting one’s teaching practice. The second factor, “Scientific and cultural knowledge” embraces 8 knowledge items, such as dealing with the ethical aspects of sport, applying theory to practice, analyzing sporting media, and applying anatomy and physiology.

Factor 3 (4 items), “Skills to combine music and movement” is concernd with skills that are important while teaching dance or movement with music. Factor 4 (4 items), “Teaching physical activities,” focuses on mastering movement skills and demonstrating them to the students, instructing various physical activities, and making learning tasks easier or more challenging. The last factor is didactic skills, such as giving appropriate feedback, recognizing learning problems, and understanding how children learn. The reliabilities of the factors were calculated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, which were .906, .882, .893, .837 and .845, respectively.

Table 2. Straucture matrix of coefficients for the assessment of teaching skills and abilities

Table 2. Japanese physical education students’ perceived skills and abilities in teaching physical education

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RESULTS

The Perceived Physical Education Teaching Skills and Abilities of Japanese PE Students

As Figure 1 illustrates, the average PE teaching skills and ability score of the students is low. 4 for Fundamental skills and 3 for Scientific and cultural knowledge and Skills to combine music and movement.

Figure 1. Japanese physical education students’ perceived skills and abilities in teaching physical education

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Figure 1. PE students’ perceived teaching skills and abilities

The average assessment of “Fundamental skills (Factor 1)” is 3.99. This measure reaches four in five items: to actively listen to students, establish a relationship with students, minimize injury risk, assess students’ performance, and work (cooperate) with colleagues (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Japanese physical education students’ perceived skills and abilities in teaching physical education

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Figure 2. PE students’ perceived fundamenal skills

The average valuation of “Teaching physical activities (Factor 4)” is 3.63, with To master movement skills and demonstrate them to the students obtaining the highest average score of this factor (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Japanese physical education students’ perceived skills and abilities in teaching physical education

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Figure 3. PE students’ perceived teaching physical activities

The average assessment of “Didactic skills (Factor 5)” is 3.61 (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Japanese physical education students’ perceived skills and abilities in teaching physical education

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Figure 4. PE students’ perceived didactic skills

PE students’ self-evaluation of “Scientific and cultural knowledge (Factor 2)” and “Skills to combine music and movement (Factor 3)” are low, averaging 3.06 and 3.04, respectively. The average assessment is also meager (below 3) for the following items: to know legislation concerning teaching in PE, to establish relationship with political authorities in Factor 2, to analyze music structure, and to design and rehearse a dance performance in Factor 3 (Figure 5, 6).

Figure 5. Japanese physical education students’ perceived skills and abilities in teaching physical education

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Figure 5. PE students’ perceived scientific and cultural knowledge

Figure 6. Japanese physical education students’ perceived skills and abilities in teaching physical education

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Figure 6. PE students’ perceived skills to combine music and movement

Comparison of the male and female students

Table 3 indicates that the male students rate 5 items of Scientific and cultural knowledge and 1 item of Teaching physical activities higher than their female peers, who evaluate just 1 item of Skills to combine music and movement higher than the former group (Table 3).

Table 3. Means and standard deviations for the self-evaluation of male and female students

Table 3. Japanese physical education students’ perceived skills and abilities in teaching physical education

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Comparison of the junior and senior students

The senior students (3-5 years) regard two items of Scientific and cultural knowledge more importantly than the junior (1-2 years) students (Table 4).

Table 4. Means and standard deviations for the self-evaluation of junior and senior students

Table 4. Japanese physical education students’ perceived skills and abilities in teaching physical education

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DISCUSSION

In sum, the average self-evaluated PE teaching skills and abilities scores are low. This finding may be explained by the inclusion of several difficult items (e.g., to establish relationship with political authorities, and to know legislation concerning teaching in PE) and the number of students who do not wish to teach physical education. For Fundamental skills, it is 4. Two items (to actively listen to students, to establish a relationship with students) are higher than the others in this category. These two items invollve both an attitudes in social interaction and personal behavior. For Teaching physical activities, it is level 3.5. “To master movement skills and demonstrate them to the students” is strongly emphasized. This is not surprising, since Japanese PE students have rated such skills higher than their European peers (Nieminen, et al., 2008). It may be that Japanese PE education is performance oriented.

The students’ self-evaluation of their Didactic skills is below 4. It is difficult to increase teacher capacities for this category through PETE programs. It is thus recommended that trial lessons and teacher training opportunities be increased. One reason for the lower rating for the Scientific and cultural knowledge and Skills to combine music and movement categories is the limited learning time devoted to them in PETE. The lower female ability scores may be explained by experiential differences and traditional thinking. PETE programs are taught in mixed gender groups, therefore, the female students may be expressing the idea that certain tasks are more appropriate to their gender. On the other hand, the female students rated only 1 item (to choose music for dance pieces) higher than the male students, perhaps because the former had more opportunities to learn dance in junior-high and high schools.

The senior students regard only two items (to apply theoretical knowledge in practice, to know legislation concerning teaching in PE) higher than their younger peers. This discrepancy may be explained by the data presented by Nieminen et al., indicating few differences in the perceptions of the importance of PE teacher competencies among junior and senior students, with the exception of those who are Greek (2008). The equal rating of teaching skills and abilities by the two groups is the result of limited teacher training opportunities. Trial lessons and teacher training opportunities in the PETE programs should be expanded. Students should be made more conscious of others and of the environment.

CONCLUSIONS

In summary, the results of this study indicated that the average scores of PE students with regard to their physical education teaching skills and abilities are low. Secondly, male students perceive few abilities more highly than do female students. However, the equal rating of teaching skills and abilities among the junior and senior students is the result of limited teacher training opportunities. The PETE curriculum must be investigated and the number of trial lessons and teacher training opportunities in such programs increased.