Assessing instructional confidence of secondary health educators in Illinois: Implicatons for curricular and policy development

The goal of this study was to assess the relationship between the training/preparation of physical education teachers and their perceived instructional confidence levels in delivering health education information to high school adolescents across major topic areas established by the Illinois State Board of Education as critical content areas (I.S.B.E., 2010b). 283 participants completed the Health Education Confidence Survey (HECS) and were included in the data analysis. The subjects surveyed were currently enrolled (pre-service) or recently graduated (in-service) from physical education or kinesiology departments at one of three institutions within the state of Illinois: (1.) the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, (2.) Illinois State University, and (3.) Eastern Illinois University. Three research hypotheses were tested to determine if a statistically significant relationship existed across any of the 18 items within the survey instrument. Using a Two-Way ANOVA, this study was able to conclude that a statistically significant difference exists between the perceived instructional confidence of current students and the perceived instructional confidence of recent graduates regarding health education topics. A significant difference exists in curricular satisfaction, course work depth, and professional support within this study population. This study highlights the need for further work with this population and potential changes required in physical education and health education curricula, as well as revisions to the health endorsement standards exam