Background: The professional experience of Physical Education Teacher Educators (PETEds) is likely to directly affect the extent to which pre-service physical education teachers receive meaningful, relevant and worthwhile education on becoming a teacher. The majority of Chinese PETEds would like to attend further professional training (Jinxiang, 2013), and in the training process, their learning needs need to be valued (Xunfeng,2015). There is limited research exploring what their learning needs are.
Purpose: To explore the professional learning activities that Chinese university-based PETEds most value and the effective ways to meet their learning needs.
Methods: A survey based on a European-wide survey (Czerniawski, Guberman ＆ MacPhail, 2016) was translated and distributed in China. 251 university-based PETEds from 28 provinces and different types of Chinese universities completed the survey.
Results: International exchanges or visits and action research are the most valued activities noted by Chinese PETEds. They identify subject knowledge enhancement and current developments in physical education teacher education as the most valuable professional learning activities. The cost of the professional learning activity and the reputation or authority of the professional learning providers are the most significant factors influencing their engagement.
Conclusions and implications: The majority of survey responses envision their role as a PETEd and have a strong desire to undertake further professional learning. More research is needed on international partnership work for Chinese PETEds’ and understanding and considering worthwhile professional training in order to support PETEds’ professional learning.
