Middle school physical education environments in Colorado (separate sex, modified, and coeducational): Practices and perceptions of physical educators and principals

A purpose of this study was to examine the perceived effects of separate sex, modified, and coeducational physical education environments for adolescent girls from the physical education teachers' and middle school principals' viewpoint. The percentage of time that middle school physical education in Colorado was taught in separate sex, modified, and coeducational environments, curriculum offerings, student outcomes, advantages and disadvantages of each environment, and the preferred physical education environment chosen by middle school principals and teachers were analyzed.;Data were collected from physical education teachers and principals in Colorado through the use of a survey instrument and were analyzed by the SPSS statistical package. Copies of the surveys were sent to each middle school in Colorado. Statistical procedures included calculating means, standard deviations, frequencies, chi-squares, ANOVAs, Bonferroni post hoc tests, and MANOVAs.;The findings show that approximately 70% of the time, middle school physical education teachers taught in a coeducational environment, about 16% of the time in a separate sex environment, and 15% of the time in a modified physical education environment. When asked which environment would they prefer to teach middle school physical education 33% of the physical educators said in a separate sex environment, 34% in a modified environment, and 32% in a coeducational environment. There were numerous significant differences among teacher and principal demographics to the physical education environment. Few differences existed between the activities taught in each of the three environments by the gender of the teacher. Significant differences were found on student outcomes between principals and teachers. Principals indicated that providing opportunities to socialize as an important outcome for girls in physical education while teachers believe that skill development is an important outcome for young adolescent girls. Finally, it is suggested that teachers are teaching in an environment that is not their preference and that they believe that physical education student outcomes are best met in a separate sex environment.