Influence of a physical education teacher’s perceived age on high school pupils’ perceptions of effectiveness and learning

Abstract

Few studies have focused on the issues older physical education (PE) teachers encounter which may limit their effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of a PE teacher’s apparent age on high school pupils’ learning and perceptions of the teacher. Participants were 114 ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade pupils. They were randomly assigned to watch one of two virtually identical filmed swimming lessons taught by the same teacher. In the young-appearance lesson, the teacher taught as his normal and relatively youthful self. In the middle-aged lesson (MAL), his appearance had been aged by a theatrical makeup artist. Following the viewing of their assigned lesson, pupils completed an examination over lesson content and a questionnaire asking them about their perceptions of the teacher. Inferential statistical tests indicated that the pupils who watched the MAL perceived the teacher more favorably. Performance on the content examination was similar for pupils who watched either film. These findings provided support for a psychological/developmental explanation of how and why pupils respond to and learn from PE teachers of different ages.