Ready to teach? Examination of physical education teachers' perceived preparation and perceived competence to teach

The relationship between the perceived competence of physical education teachers with 1 to 3 years in experience and preservice education and personal characteristics was examined. Spearman-rho correlation coefficients were used to address the postulated hypotheses to determine which of the six predictors (i.e., professional preparation, personal qualities, social/professional qualities, aspects of school management, techniques of teaching competence, mentoring induction programs) within the questionnaire were significant with regards to the overall perceived competence of physical education teachers toward their readiness to teach. Significance was set at the .05 levels for the probability of determining prediction of influence per item given the exploratory nature of the study and the small sample size. Four of the six hypotheses were supported. Perceived competence was significantly correlated with professional preparation (r = .75), mentoring induction programs (r = .60), personal qualities (r = .53), and techniques of teaching competence (r = .53). The data analysis for the second purpose of this study involved examining the predictive strength of perceived preparation categories on perceived competence to teach, by means of a simultaneous regression using the predictor variables that correlated significantly with overall perceived competence. Results of the multiple regression analysis indicated that professional preparation was the strongest predictor of perceived competence to teach physical education among novice teachers in this study. Thus, physical education induction programs should have a strong emphasis in preparing teachers with a school-based experience and university professional training that exhibits a positive collaboration model.