The interrelationship of teacher experience, student behaviour, and effective teaching in secondary school physical education
Date
1980
Authors
Hickey, Brenda J.
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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationships which occur between the following variables during the course of a physical education lesson: (1) physical education teaching experience and judged effectiveness; (2) physical education teaching experience and observed student behaviour; (3) judged teaching effectiveness and student behaviour; (4) the sex of the teacher and (a) judged teaching effectiveness and (b) student behaviour; (5) the grade level taught and (a) judged teaching effectiveness and (b) student behaviour.
Twenty-seven physical education lessons, taught by practicing physical educators, were videotaped in various secondary schools in southern British Columbia and on Vancouver Island. After matching for experience category, sex of the teacher, and grade level taught, 12 teachers were chosen for this study.
Twenty-five per cent of the students in each of the 12 classes were randomly selected for observation. The 57 students were individually observed and their behaviour coded for alternating 30-second periods for the duration of the lesson. Laubach's (1980) BESTPED (Behaviour of Students in Physical Education) observation system was used to record the behavioural pattern of each student.
Three judges, experienced and knowledgeable in the field of secondary physical education, evaluated and scored the 12 teachers for effectiveness using an evaluation sheet designed for the study. Testing to determine the judges reliability produced an inter-judge agreement value of .60 and an intra-judge agreement value of .79.
Nonparametric statistical analyses produced no significant differences in judged effectiveness for teacher sex, grade level taught, teacher experience, or student behaviour. These results may be explained in part by the small sample size and the variety of activities observed. No significant differences were found in student behaviour for grade level taught or for the category of teaching experience with the exception of a significantly higher percentage of student talk for Category I teachers (0-3+ years of experience). The female teachers had a significantly greater amount of on-task movement than the males, and conversely, the males recorded a significantly larger amount of movement (off task) than the female teachers.
This study supports the claim that effective teaching is a combination of skills which are situation specific or, in other words, an "orchestration" of a variety of skills which change with the occasion and the circumstance (Locke, 1979; Brophy and Evertson, 1976; Goldberger, 1974).