Finnish and japanese pe students attitudes perceived teaching skills

Introduction

This study is a part of a larger project "On the Road to Becoming a PE Teacher". In this project the aim is to investigate Finnish and Japanese PE students’ perceptions of their professional development during their studies. Research in sport psychology has shown, that perceived competence in any area is related to motivation, attitude and activity in that area.
The development of teaching skills during PE teacher training has been studied e.g. in microteaching courses, but students’ own perception of their development has received only little attention. The aim of this study is to compare Finnish and Japanese male and female students’ perceptions of their development in general teaching skills in different year levels.

Methods

The subjects were 262 PE students in the Department of Physical Education, University of Jyväskylä, Finland and 123 PE students at Niigata University and Kumamoto University in Japan. The students represent all year levels, the mean age was 23,6 among the Finnish and 20,0 among the Japanese students.
The data was collected by a questionnaire in 2001. In the questionnaire the students were asked to assess their general teaching skills in 22 items on a seven-point scale (1=very poor, 7=excellent). Two of the items were relevant for teaching dance and gymnastics, because these sports were of special interest for the researchers. The 22 items were reduced to more general categories by using factor analysis. A four factor solution was accepted for further analyses. Factor scale reliabilities were high, the Cronbach’s alfa coefficients varied between .83 - .92. ANOVA was used when comparing nation, gender and year-level.

Results

In general Finnish PE students assessed their perceived teaching skills higher than Japanese students, male students higher than female students, and the perceptions were higher by the end of the studies.
Discussion
The results will be discussed in more detail in he final paper, attention will be paid especially to the differences between Finnish and Japanese, and female and male students.

References

[1]. Nieminen, P. & Varstala, V. (2001) On the Road to Becoming a PE Teacher. Paper presented at Paper presented at the International AIESEP Congress in Madeira, Portugal.
[2]. Takizawa, K., Varstala, V., Nieminen, P., Sakashita, R. (2002) Japanese PE Students’ Perceived Teaching Skills. Poster presented at the International AIESEP Congress in La Coruna, Spain.
[3]. Varstala, V. & Nieminen, P. (2001) Physical Education Students’ Reflections on Their Development in Becoming a PE Teacher. Paper presented at the International AIESEP Congress in Madeira, Portugal.