Background: Teacher education is a complex endeavor designed to prepare preservice teachers for the task of teaching physical education to students in K-12 schools. Yet, there is widespread criticism of teacher education outcomes within the United States and around the world. Consequently, teacher educators have been increasingly called upon to…

Purpose: We examined the variables of common content knowledge, specialized content knowledge, and performance that preservice teachers had acquired from their K--12 physical education and extracurricular experiences and the effects of a content course on improving their content knowledge and performance. Method: Nineteen preservice teachers were…

Common content knowledge (CCK) is fundamental for quality instruction and critical to be acquired among physical education preservice teachers (PSTs). The purpose of this study was to develop a soccer CCK test for PSTs and to examine the validity and reliability of the test using Rasch measurement modeling. Two content experts developed a test in…

This article contributes to the ongoing discussion on practice-based teacher education in physical education teacher education (PETE) programs. In this article we situate core practices within the practice-based teacher education movement, define and describe core practices for physical education, and discuss how to use them in the PETE curriculum…

Manifest challenges to physical education teachers merit identification, analysis, and strategic action. New designs for schools, threats to the well-being of a growing number of children and families, and financial problems confronting school systems are among the external challenges. Meanwhile, too many physical education teachers confront…

Purpose: Little is known about how teachers acquire specialized content knowledge (SCK). We examine the hypothesis that SCK is not acquired from K-12 physical education and from extracurricular activities characterized by playing; instead, SCK must be explicitly taught to teachers. Method: Students were enrolled in either basic physical activity…

The purpose of writing this article is to draw attention to the practice of physical education teacher education. The hope is to engage in an ongoing conversation with teacher educators about promoting personal continuous professional development. Similar to P-12 physical educators, and those who prepare future physical education teacher…

In this article we present five trends that are impacting physical education teacher education (PETE). The trends are (a) practice-based teacher education that refines the knowledge base for teacher education, (b) core teaching practices that define the critical teaching practices for successful lifelong teaching, (c) pedagogies of practice that…

Background: Content knowledge is universally acknowledged as one of several knowledge bases that inform pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Content knowledge has been both hypothesized and demonstrated to influence PCK in two ways. First, teachers must know the rules, safety, etiquette, technique, and tactics of a movement form to teach it. This…

In this response to articles on effective teaching in physical education that have been published in "Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport," I thank the authors of these articles for the thoughtfulness of their comments and the respondents for their comments on my own article. I elaborate on my position and discuss a number of…

Despite increasing policy emphasis on improving teacher quality, little is known about how teachers acquire their movement content knowledge in physical education teacher education (PETE). To address this question we examined: (a) movement content courses designed to teach K-12 physical education content in the PETE curriculum, (b) the purpose of…

Physical education teachers and the programs that prepare them find themselves in the early part of the 21st century in a public policy environment that differs significantly from that of the 20th century. This policy environment is grounded in an ideology that postulates that schools and teachers, rather than social forces, should be held…

Most content knowledge (CK) courses in physical education teacher education focus mostly on knowledge of rules, etiquette, techniques, tactics, and performance of the activity. Much less emphasis is placed on error detection and instructional tasks. This article therefore presents teaching and assessment strategies that facilitate the acquisition…

A well-designed professional development (PD) program serves to deepen and extend teachers' subject matter knowledge and extend and refine their teaching practices. However, professional development programs often fail to achieve sustained change in teacher practices and improvement in student learning. In this study the authors attempt to find…

The conditions that students, parents, teachers, and administrators experienced are a product of economic, political, and social influences that impact the day-to-day operation of urban schools. One cannot understand the context of urban schools in the United States without considering the economic, political, and social influences that have made…