Educational Research Journal

Abstract

The importance of student teaching in physical education is well acknowledged and student teachers' perspectives on student teaching are critical to consider in understanding and improving undergraduate teacher education program. The purpose of this study was to examine pre-service teachers' perspectives on student teaching through an open-ended questionnaire. Forty white pre-service teachers in physical education at a northern state university in the United States took part in the study. The results of the study indicate the following: the pre-service teachers learned skills of class management and discipline; they lacked skills of pedagogy and needed more reality-based experiences in their undergraduate program to minimize reality shock during student teaching. The pre-service teachers had dualistic experiences with pupils and cooperative teachers as well as with administrators: they had best-liked and least-liked experiences. Finally, the pre-service teachers suggested that the undergraduate teacher education program should focus on how to teach various sport skills as opposed to just focusing on how to perform them. Overall perspective is that student teaching was challenging and rewarding and the pre-service teachers felt confident about their careers in physical education.

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