Date of Award

2015

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Physical Education

First Advisor

Murray Mitchell

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to: (1) identify the warrant for teaching physical education held by future professionals, (2) identify the influencing attractors and facilitators for future professionals, and (3) explore for any possible influence the South Carolina Physical Education Assessment Program (SCPEAP) may have had on students’ decision to enter physical education teacher education (PETE) programs. Data were collected by questionnaire (Appendix A) which was piloted on master’s level students at the University of South Carolina. Participants were 103 undergraduate PETE students from 14 institutions in South Carolina. Simple descriptive statistics and independent ttests were used to analyze results. Findings indicate that students consistently described a high desire to coach sports, consistent with Lawson’s (1983a) work, and a former and/or current coach was the highest rated facilitator to entry into a PETE program--coaching remains a high priority for future physical educators. To explore potential SCPEAP impact, only South Carolina residents’ (n=73) data were used with 20 students coded as high exposure and 53 students coded as low exposure. Students with low exposure to SCPEAP rated the attractor “it offers a good salary,” and “good working conditions” lower than students with a high exposure to SCPEAP. Overall, the majority of students reported never hearing of SCPEAP.

Rights

© 2015, Matthew Blake Lineberger

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