Author(s): EISENBACHER, F., ROHLEDER, J., VOGT, T., Institution: INSTITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL SPORT EDUCATION AND SPORT QUALIFICATIONS, Country: GERMANY, Abstract-ID: 2253

INTRODUCTION: International research indicates that physical education (PE) teachers often feel inhibited when teaching gymnastics, primarily due to safety-related concerns and perceived shortcomings in gymnastics-specific knowledge [1]. However, comprehensive studies addressing individual, institutional, and structural factors influencing the attitudes of PE teachers in Germany towards teaching gymnastics are still lacking. Thus, the present study aimed to address these factors in order to specify challenges and identify conditions that enable successful gymnastics teaching from the perspective of German PE teachers.
METHODS: A two-step approach was used comprising qualitative and quantitative data collection. With this, semi-structured interviews with PE teachers (n=6) formed the basis of a questionnaire structured in overarching questions and six main categories (i.e., school-related conditions, instructional aspects, apparatus, spotting, safety and teacher education and training). After being transferred into an online survey format, the questionnaire was completed in full by 723 PE teachers (age: 46.1±10.4, f: n=447, m: n=269, no answer: n=7) from various German school types. To date, descriptive analyses were conducted using percentage frequencies. Given the large number of statements, only results from the overarching questions and the categories school-related conditions and apparatus are reported.
RESULTS: Overarching questions: A total of 92.4% reported gymnastics to be included in their PE lessons. For PE teachers who do not teach gymnastics at all, insufficient student prerequisites (62.7%) and a lack of equipment (43.1%) were the most mentioned reasons. For PE teachers who reported teaching gymnastics insufficiently, lacking gymnastics-specific knowledge was a minor reason (12.5%). School-related conditions: Large class sizes (55.5%) and a lack of time (48.9%) are reported as barriers to teaching gymnastics. Apparatus: While 95.0% feel able to setup the apparatus, at the same time, this process represents a barrier to teach gymnastics for 30.2%. Furthermore, 30.9% report insufficient gymnastics apparatus.
DISCUSSION: The present study showed that PE teachers primarily perceive challenges in teaching gymnastics within external factors and insufficient physical prerequisites of the students. Thus, our findings partly contradict previous research suggesting lacking gymnastics-specific knowledge as a major inhibiting factor for PE teachers [1]. However, it remains unclear whether expertise helps to minimize external challenges or whether these challenges themselves reflect limited expertise (e.g., with respect to coping with the setup of gymnastics apparatus to involve many students in a short time). Considering that the present findings are based on subjective perceptions, future research should examine how these relate to the actual competencies of PE teachers.
REFERENCES:
[1] Robinson et al. (2020). DOI:10.1080/25742981.2020.1715232