Physical education in primary school and impact on primary teacher education students from two different university sites

Purpose: The recent curricular reform of PE in primary schools has revealed several problematic issues, including the different training among the generalist teacher, a graduated in primary teacher education sciences, who taught in I, II and III classes, and the specialist in exercise and sport science, who taught in IV and V classes. A comprehensive study is required to investigate the impact of this legislative innovation on primary teacher education students, who are future generalist teachers, at two separate sites, in order to include the perspective of trainees as internal stakeholders. The aim was to investigate the perceptions of primary teacher education students on the compulsory teaching of PE, as well as the adequacy of their training to teach PE, and to verify which variables could influence their perceptions on PE teaching. Methods: The sample consisted of 281 primary teacher education students from two south Italy Universities, who completed an ad-hoc questionnaire, focused on their experiences as a trainee, the adequacy of their training to teach PE and the importance of the specialist teacher in PE. Data were analyzed using Chi Square (X2). P < .05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Students considered important the introduction of the specialist teacher in primary school to teach PE (76.4 %), because of the perceived inadequacy of own training (49.3%). Observing PE lessons increased perceptions of preparation to design lessons using heuristic and prescriptive methods (P =.03). Students who considered important the PE specialist in primary school, believed that it should be present in the curricular teaching of PE (P =.00). The perceived adequacy of own training to teach PE increased the perceived competence to assess children’s physical competences (P =.00) and the usefulness of this practice (P =.00). Prescriptive teaching was considered the most effective method (P =.00). Conclusions: Future generalist teachers showed interest for the discipline but demonstrated training gaps, such as children’s movement assessment and general training on PE, that need to be filled using a comprehensive and experiential approach. Academic institutions should use this information to improve student’s training for PE teaching, since the role of specialist teacher is currently provided only for V and IV classes. Keywords: sports reform; generalist teacher; health promotion; core curricula; university training.