Relationships between pre-service teachers’ self-reported physical activity and their perceptions of physical education in early childhood teacher education

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the relationships between Finnish early childhood pre-service teachers’ (N = 274; aged 20–49; 92% female) self-reported physical activity (PA) and perceptions of their own enjoyment of schooltime physical education (PE), self-evaluation of the content of their current PE studies, perceived importance of PE, and perceived competencies in PE. The one-way analysis of variance revealed that pre-service teachers with higher self-reported levels of PA reported higher scores for perceived importance of PE in supporting a child's physical functionality (p = 0.004), and perceived competencies to support a child's PA (p = 0.017) and teach PE (p = 0.023). Results of independent sample t-tests indicated that pre-service teachers meeting daily PA guidelines reported higher scores for enjoyment of schooltime PE (p = 0.001) and perceived competence to teach PE (p = 0.001). Findings highlighted that pre-service teachers’ self-reported PA was positively related to their perceptions of PE, supporting the recommendation within early childhood teacher education to encourage pre-service teachers to engage in PA.