Physical education teachers` opinion about online physical education teaching: What we learned and how to move forward?

The research was conducted as a cross-sectional study, performed online in the period between May and September 2020 on a sample of 133 PE specialist teachers in primary and secondary schools from North Macedonia, (99 primary PE teachers, 34 secondary PE teachers), at age from 25 to 65 (M=45.9; SD=30.44) and average working experience 13y (SD=8.4) The study was conducted using electronic questioner, designed by Team of Department of Didactics of Physical Activity at Poznan University from Poland and applied for the purposes of larger international study for online PE teaching (Korcz et al, 2021). It was composed from 24 questions aimed to identify teachers’ opinions for the quality of online PE teaching, main advantages, disadvantages, perceived difficulties and concerns they encounter, as well as their attitude, motivation and IT skills for online PE teaching. Data were analyzed using basic descriptive statistic parameters. T – test for independent samples and F – test (ANOVA) were used to determine differences between PE teacher based on level of schooling of PE teachers and years of their working experience. Results According to the study results, the main advantages of online PE teaching were allocated in the possibility of using modern technology in practice; presenting personal competencies to students; greater students' independence, and individual approach toward students learning. From the side of disadvantages, the following were identified as main one: difficult implementation of the core curriculum content; inability to verify the implementation of movement tasks in a proper way; inability to monitor student progress in a satisfactory way. Teachers faced many difficulties during online teaching. Following were determined as the biggest obstacle: lack of proper training for use of technology; lack of proper equipment at home (laptop, tablet, speakers, headphones, microphone), and luck of experience with applications and platforms for online learning. PE teachers differ regarding level of schooling in several aspects. Teachers improve their IT skills during online teaching using different IT tools and mobile apps for monitoring and evaluation. Statistically significant differences regarding level of schooling and years of working experience, were determined in several items. Particularly, secondary school teachers evaluate higher students’ independence as advantage of online teaching (t=-1.946; df=128, p=.054), access their personal IT skills higher than primary PE teachers (t=-1.946; df=128, p=.054) and encounter decrease of self – satisfaction from their work in conditions of online teaching (t=- 2.425, df=131, p=.017), followed with reduced level of motivation for work due to pandemic. Regarding years of working experience, statically significant differences were obtained regarding general evaluation of online PE teaching, biggest disadvantages of online PE and perceived goals during online teaching and sources of motivation. Particularly, novice teachers evaluated PE teaching process as average compared to more experienced teachers that choose poor (F=4.931; df=132, p=0.009); their main concern is unauthorized use of personal pictures and video, while for novices and less experienced safety of children is reported as the biggest concern (F=3.734, df. 132, p=.026), Discussion & Conclusion Results from the study identify the most important areas of teachers' work where PE should be supported regarding online teaching but also emphasize the area of improvement. In this regard, due to the implementation of online teaching, PE teachers become more open and prepared to use different IT tools and online learning resources, as well as become more experienced in technology utilization. Different platforms such as zoom, YouTube videos, Skype, Eduino; Microsoft Teams were applied and provided teachers the possibility for online, real-time contact. This resulted in “average” and “well” levels on self–reported evaluation, confirming their improvement in this segment. Safety of students during online classes, personal skills for use of the application, and unauthorized use of teacher’s photos and videos for purposes that are not for teaching, are identified as the biggest concerns of teachers during online PE teaching and required additional efforts and legislation. Awareness of their existence, discussion with children for intellectual property and behavior during online teaching should be considered in the future. From the aspect of the involvement of students and the level of their activity, a decrease of PA level is reported. It is due to greater focus on theoretical, health-oriented lessons, compared to performance-oriented, lack of available spaces and resources, modified and reduced PE curriculum etc, Similar situation is noted in many countries around Europe (Korcz et al, 2021). Strong and weak points of online teaching were determined and discussed. Based on them, recommendations are prepared and presented in front of PE teachers. Strong and weak points of online teaching were determined and discussed. Based on them, recommendations are prepared for PE teachers aimed to improve the quality of PE