Identifying the Physical Education Beliefs of Classroom Teachers

The purpose of this study was to identify the beliefs that classroom teachers have toward physical education. In recent years, the educational climate has prioritized academic achievement and standardized testing, thus diminishing the role of content areas such as physical education (Sallis, Mckenzie, Beets, Beighle, Erwin, & Lee, 2013). Classroom teachers are now more likely to assume the responsibility for providing physical education programming (Erwin, Beighle, Morgan, & Noland, 2011). Therefore, it is important to better understand the educational beliefs classroom teachers possess and investigate their personal experience within the physical education environment. To identify the beliefs of classroom teachers, this study used convenience, snowball, and purposive sampling techniques which were employed to secure voluntary participants. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. When all data was collected the researcher then transcribed, open-coded, analyzed, and synthesized the data. During the data analysis process the researcher looked to discover common themes between the participants’ teaching experiences and beliefs towards physical education by using an inductive analysis approach. The results emerged with themes related to mandating physical education, previous physical education knowledge, personal experience in physical education and acquiring appreciation for physical education. The resulting discussion provided support that physical education has many benefits, including the improvement of physical, mental, and emotional health, as well as improvement in academic achievement