Teachers’ beliefs toward curricular outcomes are important because they contribute significantly in the implementation of the national curriculum. Previous research suggested that Physical Education (PE) courses and field-based experiences might help student teachers demonstrate their beliefs about various aspects of teaching PE and have a positive impact on students’ beliefs and practices.
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of one-year field-based PE methods course on the beliefs toward four important curricular outcomes of PE pre-service teachers from three major Greek Faculties.
The participants were 373 undergraduate students (21.02±2.33 years) from three Greek PE Faculties, of which 205 studied at Athens Faculty, 80 at Thessaloniki Faculty and 88 at Komotini Faculty. They completed twice the Greek version of “Beliefs toward curricular outcome goals” scale, a previously validated instrument, at the beginning and at the end of a field-based PE methods course. The scale consisted of four desired outcomes, namely physical activity, self-actualization, motor skill development and social development. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (mixed design ANOVA).
The four desirable outcomes differed significantly [F(3,1008)=79.21, p<.001, η2=.18], with the physical activity goal being the prevailing one, followed by self-actualization. In addition, a significant interaction was observed between the four outcomes, time and Faculty [F(6,1110)=2.11, p=.05, η2=.01]. Finally, there was a statistically significant main effect for time [F(1,370)=20.13, p<.001, η2=.05] revealing a significant increase at the end of the course, however the interaction between time and Faculty was not significant [F(2,370)=.16, p=.85, η2<.01].
Most students considered the physical activity outcome as the prevailing one. Pre-service teachers from the three Faculties reinforced their beliefs towards all expected outcomes during the field-based methods course. Especially students from Komotini Faculty, who had the lowest initial beliefs, were influenced the most. Major average increase was observed for the physical activity outcome.
