Policy on classroom teachers' continuing professional development for teaching physical education in Taiwanese primary school

To deliver quality physical education in primary school by classroom teachers has been considered as challenges in many countries. In Taiwan, this challenging situation is no exception. Over the last three years, there were in... [ view full abstract ]

To deliver quality physical education in primary school by classroom teachers has been considered as challenges in many countries. In Taiwan, this challenging situation is no exception. Over the last three years, there were in average 70% (n=8,000 classroom teachers) physical education classes that had been taught by classroom teachers. Therefore, the policy on classroom teachers' continuing professional development was made by the government's white paper in order to reduce the percentage of untrained classroom teachers. In this case, the Physical Education Instructional Modules for Primary Schools (PEIM-PS) project was launched in 2015. PEIM contained a package of learning situations (movement education, ball games etc.) for classroom teachers. The classroom teachers' continuing professional development has been conducted by an accredited certification framework. 100 seed teachers (specialist teacher in PE), selected from 22 counties of Taiwan, were trained with the PEIM-PS in order to train classroom teachers in 22 counties. Seed teachers could get an accredited certification as module-trainer through 3 steps: (1) three-days active learning workshop (21 hours); (2) 6 to 12 lessons of module teaching practice; (3) a half day group discussion and reflection on module teaching practices. Classroom teachers could get an accredited certification as module-teacher through 3 steps: (1) one-day active learning workshop (6 hours); (2) 1 lesson of module teaching practice (shared on the member’s website); and (3) on-line survey regarding professional development. The more classroom teachers participated the project, the more he or she could collect the module certifications. At the end of the first year of the project, one had organized 40 one-day workshops that represented 1600 classroom teachers or PE teachers. Moreover, 500 teachers finalized the 3 steps and received a module certification. The on-line survey results will be showed and the further challenges will be discussed.