Early career physical educators’ perceived efficacy, effectiveness, and emotional experience: a comparison between edTPA and non-edTPA completers

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of completing the edTPA on early career U.S. physical educators’ mastery attributions, teaching efficacy, perceived effectiveness, and emotional experience. Methods: A sequential mixed methods design was used. Early career physical educators (N = 72) completed a survey that investigated their mastery attributions, teaching efficacy, perceived effectiveness, and emotions. Follow-up interviews (n = 14) were conducted with first year teachers in both edTPA (n = 7) and UBWSP (n = 7) groups. Results: Quantitative analysis revealed no significant differences between the two groups in any of the four dependent variables. Qualitative analysis revealed that teachers found little value in their practicum projects with edTPA completers identifying specific elements as influential on their teaching. There is a need to devise a more meaningful teaching performance assessment that teachers can use as they transition into the profession.

KEYWORDS:

• Induction
• physical education teacher education
• student teaching
• evaluation
• teaching performance assessment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Mastery Attribution: The sources and experiences that a teacher attributes as important to the development of their own teaching beliefs and skills

2 Teaching Efficacy: The belief or confidence a teacher has about their own teaching ability and ability to facilitate student learning.

3 Perceived Effectiveness: A teacher’s perceptions about the quality of their own teaching.

4 Emotional Experiences: How a teacher feels within a school context. This is measured on the survey in terms of three emotions: enjoyment, anger, and anxiety.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nolan Carey

Nolan Carey is a physical education teacher at a middle school in Queens, New York. At the time of this study, he was completing his master’s degree at the University of Wyoming where he was interested in learning about the influence of policy on physical education teacher education programming and how teachers develop a sense of efficacy in teaching. Currently, he focuses on factors that influence the teaching-learning process.

Kelly L. Simonton

Kelly Simonton is an Assistant Professor of Physical Education Teaching Education in the Division of Kinesiology and Health at the University of Wyoming. His research focuses on achievement motivation in physical education and physical activity as it relates to student and teacher emotions and their motivational effects. His primary interests involve understanding the influence of emotion and motivation as well as the essential antecedents and outcomes of emotions. This includes exploration into understanding teacher effectiveness, student value, and behavioural outcomes.