The relationship between PE biographies and PE teaching practices of classroom teachers

The current study sought to explore the relationship between personal school physical education (PE) experiences and current PE teaching practices of classroom teachers. Questionnaires were completed by 189 teachers from 38 randomly selected schools. Additionally, semi-structured interviews of 31 classroom teachers were conducted. The results indicated that many teachers had negative memories of school PE and believed that they were not taught anything. Interestingly, teachers involved in the study held reasonably positive attitudes towards teaching PE but examination of their current teaching practices indicated that little ‘teaching’ was evident in their PE programmes. A hierarchical regression model was used to examine key predictors of PE programme quality and accounted for 32% of the variance. Personal school experiences in primary school PE, quality of preservice education and attitudes to teaching PE were established as significant predictors. A key finding of the current study was the significant relationship evident between personal school experiences in PE and current PE teaching practices which has not been previously established with classroom teachers. The implications of these findings for preservice education and professional development will be discussed.