Teaching Perspectives of Chinese Teachers: Compatibility With the Goals of the Physical Education Curriculum

Abstract

This research primarily aimed to examine the compatibility of teaching perspectives of teachers with the Physical Education (PE) curriculum in China. The Teaching Perspective Inventory (Pratt, 1998) was used to collect data from 272 PE teachers. Descriptive statistics, MANOVAs, and correlational procedures were used for quantitative data analysis. Results indicated that PE teachers had a common pattern of a single dominant teaching perspective. Student personal growth was addressed but less attention was given to changes in society and learners’ thinking. The findings suggest that the teachers’ perspectives may be incompatible with the focus of the current Chinese PE curriculum. Furthermore, the significant correlations among the teaching perspectives reflect the interdependence of these viewpoints. As a result, teachers’ perspectives on teaching need to be considered thoroughly when PE reformers attempt to modify the curricula. Finally, gender, years of teaching experience, and teaching level were the factors associated with the variation in teaching perspectives. However, academic degree and sampling methods (convenient sampling and random sampling) were not.