'Star jumps and sandshoes': the lasting impact of personal physical education experiences on preservice teachers

As a result of increased interest in school physical education (PE), research focused on preservice PE teachers has become a frequent occurrence. This research often conveys concern over the lack of confidence within pre-service teachers to deliver PE. Morgan & Bourke (2008) offer that personal school PE experiences may play an influential role in the development of teachers' confidence in PE. Understanding the experiences of preservice teachers can provide us with the information to adapt content to meet the needs of our students and move their learning forward. Survey data was collected on two sites (one on Scotland and one in America) from student teachers within teacher education programmes. The survey asked a series of open ended and closed questions where participants were asked to reflect on their personal PE experiences and rate the impact of these experiences against a series of statements. Survey methods have been chosen due to being and effective and efficient use of time (Munn and Drever, 2004), which is key, as they will be administered within the context of the teaching environment. Data was organised by the participant's answers and checked for any anomalies in the data. Answers to open questions were then analysed thematically and closed questions were analysed for descriptive and comparative statistics. The findings overall, suggest that preservice students believe their elementary PE program was generally enjoyable and instructional in nature. At the secondary level, a significant number of preservice PE students indicated a dissatisfaction of the quality of instruction.