Teaching perspectives of pre-service physical education teachers in Shanghai: A pilot study

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the teaching perspective of pre-service Physical Education teachers in Shanghai, China. The Teaching Perspectives Inventory instrument (Pratt, 1998) was used to collect data from 158 pre-service teachers. Descriptive data showed that pre-service teachers exhibited a common pattern of at least one or perhaps two dominant teaching perspectives. They attached importance to student affective development, but paid less attention to the change of society and student thinking. A series of univariate analyses of variance revealed that the scores of the female teachers on Nurturing were significantly higher than those of the male teachers. Although study levels had no significant effect on teaching perspectives of pre-service teachers, a slight increase in the mean scores of Transmission and Social Reform perspectives was observed in first-year to fourth year pre-service teachers. Finally, a significant correlation among several perspectives was observed. Using the findings as bases, we provide implication for the improvement of teaching perspectives.