A survey of physical fitness knowledge among preservice and inservice physical educators.

The purpose of this study was to determine the physical fitness knowledge of physical educators. Eight groups participated in this study. There were 14 block one students, 17 block three students, 12 block five students, 11 block seven students, 10 basic instruction physical education graduate students. There were 23 inservice physical educators (11 elementary physical educators and 12 secondary physical educators) and 11 exercise physiology master students. A forty question multiple choice test covering the domains of body composition, flexibility, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and cardiovascular conditioning were administered to the groups of participants. Total scores for the test revealed that there were significant differences between the groups F (7, 90) = 9.830, p {dollar}\u3c{dollar}.0000. There were significant differences in the scores for the five domains: body composition F (7, 90) = 8.213, p {dollar}\u3c{dollar}.0001; flexibility F (7, 90) = 2.117, p {dollar}\u3c{dollar}.0496; muscular strength F (7, 90) = 5.593, p {dollar}\u3c{dollar}.0000; muscular endurance F (7, 90) = 3.779, p {dollar}\u3c{dollar}.0012; and cardiovascular conditioning (7, 90) = 2.709, p {dollar}\u3c{dollar}.0135. Scores indicated that all groups except the exercise physiology master\u27s students (83%) and physical education graduate students (72%) had below average scores for the test. The data showed a trend between educational levels and scores (z = 3.057). As the educational level increased for the preservice groups so did the scores on the test. In conclusion, all groups had below average scores for the test except the physical education graduate students and the exercise physiology master students