A case study on teaching practices in physical education

Scholars in physical education state that there needs to be a change in teaching practices. Over the past 20 years there have been new pedagogical models to support innovative teaching practices. This study was designed explore one high school’s physical education teachers teaching practices and explain how educators teaching career cycle, teaching socialization, and teaching efficacy impacts teaching practices. Two physical education teachers from one high school were observed for a period of one month. Teaching career cycle, teacher socialization, and teaching efficacy were measured by formal and informal interviews, observations, field notes, and surveys. It was found that there were minimal teaching strategies occurring, short cuts were being taken to abide by state standards, teachers were both in the career stability stage, marginalization of physical education was occurring in the school, teachers had high teacher efficacies, and there was a misconception of what teachers thought was occurring in the classroom and what was actually transpiring. These findings support literature in teaching career cycle, teacher socialization, and teaching efficacy. Additionally, some findings such as a high teaching efficacy and low teaching effectiveness and misconceptions of teaching have not been discussed in the field of physical education literature