Preparing Tomorrow’s Physical Educators          

This fall in college classes around the country, thousands of young people are starting careers as future physical educators. If you already teach, you'll remember the experience. Hopefully, the memories are good. But I imagine you've also sometimes wondered what you really learned about physical education teaching during those college years.

Most of us who teach in college professional preparation programs wonder the same. We ask ourselves what should we do to best prepare future physical educators? What knowledge and skills do student physical education majors really need? Is the content of our classes appropriate? And, most importantly, is what we do in our classes really making a difference?

"How to make a difference?" currently challenges my thinking and planning as I prepare to welcome a new group of physical education majors into their first major class. As a teacher educator, I know what teaching skills and knowledge effective teachers demonstrate. Our students will learn and practice effective teaching principles. They'll be shown how to teach a wide variety of motor skills. They'll hear about the latest curriculum trends. They'll be exposed to state and national policies and practices. And they'll have enough scientific (biological) knowledge to switch to a pre-med major should the thought occur!

Less certain, at least in my mind, is how many of our program graduates will leave us with the disposition and determination to move physical education forward and meet the needs of today's youth. I don't doubt their knowledge or their teaching skills. They'll know what we expect, and with few exceptions they'll be capable of quality teaching. But will they actually perform once they get in our schools?

My doubts arise because over the past two decades, once students graduate from our institution I rarely hear any news about them or see them again. I hasten to add (since they may be reading this), that there are of course exceptions. We've had outstanding graduates clearly committed to becoming influential, top quality physical educators. Many have been recognized as such with a variety of honors. But I'm sad to say, these professional role models are exceptions. The majority of our graduates disappear without a trace, and are now having who-knows-what impact on today's young people?

Why this occurs puzzles me. I can understand new teachers liking and disliking some of their college experiences. I can understand them wanting or not wanting to stay in contact with college professors. But what I can't understand is why so many new teachers avoid almost every opportunity for professional development, or just plain reconnecting with former college colleagues. How dull must it be to isolate oneself from colleagues, and not hear about, or discuss new ideas or solutions to teaching challenges? How much pleasure can there be in repeating the same thing day after day, year after year for an entire career? How can any teacher not wonder if what they're doing is making any difference in the lives of their students?

So back to my immediate challenge: How to teach a meaningful "Introduction to PE" class? This year it's going to be different. In the past I've gone about it in what I suspect is the traditional way: A text, assigned readings, lectures, class discussions, quizzes, papers, presentations, occasional guest speakers, and so forth. It wasn't bad, but sitting in class, reading, and writing wasn't the reason my students likely chose PE teaching careers. I don't want to bore them. I want to begin a transformation process that will move them towards the motivated, enthusiastic, and effective future physical education teachers our kids need and deserve.

So I'm going to work on dispositions and determination. Why do they want to teach physical education? What qualities (skills and knowledge) do they have, or need to develop to become quality physical educators? What are the goals of today's physical education? I'm hoping I can convince them that physical education today is different from yesterday's physical education. Perhaps I can get them to see that they need to have teaching skills beyond team sports and weight lifting. I hope they'll begin to understand that their mission is to promote active and healthy lifestyles for all students, and not just the already physically active and skilled. And perhaps they'll realize that physical education teaching is not an easy option that will allow them to coach.

But speaking of coaching, another change I plan to make is to embrace coaching. It's no secret that most young professionals are attracted to PE teaching careers because they want to coach. While the conflict inherent in trying to successfully do both is real, maybe it's better to confront it openly rather than trying to dissuade future teachers from coaching? It doesn't take very high math skills to see the difficulty of combining the hours it takes to teach, coach, and have some sort of quality family or personal life. But we do know it can be done, and it's timely to promote ways for teacher-coaches to succeed and expose them to the many excellent role models.

To solve today's obesity challenges we have to promote opportunities for young people to become more active inside and outside of school hours. School sports could be the savior. But to do so, attitudes need to change. We need school coaches who are truly educators: Coaches who see that the main value of school sports is in the participating and not the game results. What child would not benefit from being part of a team, learning to work hard, striving to improve, developing sportsmanship and good ethics, and spending afternoons with good adult role models?

This fall, my students are going to do less reading and writing, and more activity. I'm going to have them think about their own activity levels and eating habits. They're going to experience what it's like to try skills that they can't immediately do, just like the students they'll soon be teaching. I want them to embrace and role model our mission of promoting healthy, active lifestyles. And maybe, just maybe, a few years down the road when they start their professional teaching careers, I’ll see many more of them at our workshops and conferences, fired up to share their knowledge, learn more, and genuinely make a positive difference in the lives of the students they teach.

What do you think? If you have ideas for better ways to prepare the next generation of physical educators email: pelinks@pelinks4u.org.

Steve Jefferies, Publisher pelinks4u