Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Abstract The major aim of this study was to identify the relationship between prior experiences of Physical Education (PE), general thoughts about PE and their relationship if any, to estimated competence of the primary education student teacher to teach the six areas of the National Curriculum Physical Education (NCPE), i.e. games, gymnastics, swimming, dance, athletics, outdoor and adventurous activities (OAA). In addition, change was assessed over the period of a 1‐year Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) primary programme. A pre‐post survey questionnaire designed by the author was utilised. The pre‐study was conducted in week 1, term 1, a second data collection occurred in week 8, term 2 at completion of PE programme and prior to school experience, the final questionnaire was completed in the final week of term 3. Focus interviews were conducted in term 3 with five volunteers. Estimated teaching competence was seen to increase in all six areas of the NCPE (p < 0.05), over the time series providing confirmation of the influence of the PGCE course. Interestingly, at the beginning of the PGC, 16% of students felt competent to teach gymnastics, 25% to teach OAA, 29% to teach dance, 37% to teach athletics and 48% to teach swimming and games. Students favoured the university course in preparing them to teach dance and gymnastics, and favoured prior experiences to teach OAA and swimming. All three factors, prior experiences, school experience and the university course were favoured equally in preparing students to teach games. Personal ability was found to be positively correlated to estimated teaching competence in each activity (p < 0.05). Interview data identified the influence of prior experiences on estimated teaching competence. The study confirmed the influence of the PGCE PE course on estimated ability to teach PE.
Carney et al. (Sun,) studied this question.