Evaluating Physical Education Teaching in Higher Grades of Primary School

The main objective of this study was the evaluation of physical education teaching in higher grades of primary school through the attitudes of subject teachers. The sample consisted of 89 primary school teachers from the Osijek-Baranja County in the Republic of Croatia. A questionnaire was designed so as to assess the attitudes of preparation, teaching diversity and outcomes of teaching by using three subsets of variables (total of 42 items). A satisfactory reliability (Cronbach (α) 0.79 to 0.82, and the ICC – intra-class correlation coefficient from 0.68 to 0.73 were obtained. Differences in the teachers ’ estimates were made with two sets of classification variables (demographic characteristics and evaluation of working conditions). Descriptive statistics, response percentages and the ANOVA univariate test of difference were applied. The results indicate that the majority of teachers regularly prepare and successfully adapt their teaching to pupils ’ abilities. They commonly use kinesiology methods and organization of work in their teaching. They rarely use modern teaching methods. They evaluate the prescribed programming system as complex and they apply it differently. High marks which students receive in physical education are not in accordance with the level of achievement, and they evaluate their efforts highly. Differences in the teachers ’ attitudes relate to the preparation segments and the methodological diversity, while these differences are less pronounced in the area of assessing teaching outcomes. Key words: attitudes; evaluation; methodological diversity; preparation; subject teachers