United States Sports Academy - "America's Sports University"
The Sport Journal - ISSN: 1543-9518
Are Physical Education and Sports Teachers in Turkey Trained Appropriately? : A Study of Basic Education Institutions
ISSN: 1543-9518
Abstract
Teaching physical education and sports activities are among the indispensable occupations of our time. Sports, apart from being an occupation of entertainment and free time, have also a function that develop health and contributes joy and happiness to the participants’ daily lives. Physical education and sports activities have become signs of contemporariness. In Turkey, the average beginning age for children’s participation in many or team or individual sport activities is between ages 8 and 12. This is also the average age level that most children start to participate in school Physical Education and Sport courses. Physical Education is not an elective course. It therefore is a core course and Turkey has a national physical education teaching program. Despite the fact physical education teachers are educated in various public and private physical education programs, the core of the curriculums are very similar. All of the Physical Education Teacher Education programs for the eight-year mandatory elementary schools are monitored and constituted through the ministry of education. While entire P.E. curriculums for education teachers are administrated centrally and monitored by the ministry of education, there are few special programs that training and preparing quality physical education and sports teachers to teach high level physical education and sports courses at 8-year compulsory basic education institutions. The effectiveness of the current programs that applied at most of compulsory basic education institutions of eight years is a significant concern of this study. The purpose of this research is to determine to what extent the physical education teacher training programs that are currently used by those universities are effectively and successfully training preparing physical education teachers to teach at compulsory eight-year elementary schools.
Introduction
Education can be described as a planned and programmed process which is applied in order to attain the desired changes in a person’s behavior. Two basic and indispensable elements of education are the student and the teacher. Unlike the traditional perspectives, in addition to lecturing, the role of a teacher should be geared mostly towards guiding and advising. This is also true for teaching physical education and sports. Physical education teachers should guide students according to their interest and skills. In order to attain the desired mental, social, psychological and psychomotor developments, teachers should be creative and develop important student specific tasks to improve individual creativity of various age groups. The significant importance should be given to the programs that deal with children who are at the beginning level(s). This situation brings into the agenda a modernization of the programs to improve both the ability of teachers to teach effective physical education courses and the program tools that are going to be used in this process. It is a common belief that currently most physical education teachers are ill prepared to successfully teach physical education courses at the eight year compulsory schools.
Historically successful physical education programs have one thing in common: they all use history as a learning process. For instance, those who prepared and developed the modern physical education programs in the United States America have benefited from teaching philosophies of Europe (Lumpkin, 1990). The first modern efforts in order to train contemporary physical education teachers began in the 18 th Century in Europe and in the USA (Friedman, 1983). In the Ottoman Empire, these courses entered the Curriculum in 1846 under the name of Gymnastics which was brought about by the Tanzimat decree declared in 1839 during the reign of Sultan Abdulmecit (Kasap, 1992). Selim Sirri Tarcan attended the Heyet-I Ilmiye which assembled in 1923 and succeeded in integrating one-year-long the ‘physical education teachers’ school” into the government program (Terbiye-i Bedeniye DarUlmuallimini).
The efforts for training sports instructors continued by the assistance of three instructors (one woman, two men; Inge Nerman, Ranger Jonson and Sven Alezanderson) who were called from Sweden between 1926-1929 and with the 3,5-9 months – lasting courses of physical education teachers during the years 1929-1930. In the scholar years of 1932-1933 a – three- year- long physical education department was started at the Gazi Education Institution in Turkey in order to train teachers for secondary and high school levels. This was the only institution until 1966-1967. Since then several other institutions have been developed and have been offering physical education teachers education programs such as Istanbul Institute of Physical Education, and various other universities in Bursa, Izmir and Diyarbakir. In 1992 most of these schools were transformed into physical education and sports higher schools. In Turkey, youth and sports academies contributed to the process for training physical education teachers as well as education institutes. Youth and sports academies were founded under the youth and Sports ministry and were put into service in three cities. The basic objective of the youth and sports academies is “to train coaches, youth leaders, managers, experts as provided for in the Body Training law numbered 3530.” Although the primary goal of youth and Sports Academies was not to train physical education teachers as demands raised for more physical education teachers the Sports Academies started to certify their graduates to also be physical educators without pedagogic training. At the end the Youth and Sports Academies lasted for only 10 years and they were closed forever.
Methodology
In Turkey, there are 48 universities that offer teaching physical education programs and a total of 411 instructors are teaching physical education courses. 171 instructors from Gazi University, Hacettepe University, Middle East Technical University (METU), Ege University, Akdeniz University, Celall Bayar University, Marmara University and Ankara University were surveyed. A survey questionnaire consisting of 57 questions was developed. The reliability coefficient of the survey is r = .96. By taking this course of method, the research was formulated and determined by those who participated in the research, taking into consideration the order of importance of the branches determined by the Higher Education Board (HEB). These values were interpreted according to the arithmetic averages of the participating instructors’ (subjects) views. In conclusion, some significant statistical differences were observed among various programs in terms of application of teachers education programs both at the administrative and academic levels. The research was carried out in July, August and September 2000.
The data we got in order to fulfill the purposes of the research were provided by the surveys created by the researchers. The survey form was prepared by means of the programs of the 48 physical education and sports teaching departments of universities. Within this context, firstly the programs which are aimed at training physical education and sports teachers were scanned and the related courses were determined for the physical education and sports teachers who will be on duty at primary and secondary schools. The determined courses were grouped and submitted to a group of instructors for their opinions and as a last stage, they were revised. Thus a survey of 57 courses was created which would be submitted to the instructors for their views. The reliability coefficient of the survey is a + 96. The proposal concerning 57 courses, which formed the basis of the research, were subdivided and evaluated according to the branches determined by HEB. These branches are:
1 – Coach and Movement Sciences
2 – Sports Management Sciences
3 – Sports Health Sciences
4 – Psycho Social Fields in Sports
5 – Sports Training
6 – General Culture
7 – Applied Sports Field
8 – Information on the Teaching profession.
The subjects were determined under 8 dimensions. The proposals for courses forming the bases of the research were developed taking into consideration the order of importance of these courses the fields of which have been determined by HEB.
Statistical processes were realized according to the arithmetic averages of the participating instructions views about the related courses. The courses determined in the program Draft proposal were put into order according to their importance. The arithmetic averages of each group of courses involving their own fields were taken as basis. The courses, which were found above the arithmetic averages of the 57 courses submitted, were proposed as elective courses. Lastly, a program was created which was based on these findings.
Findings and Discussion
The purpose of the research is to determine the appropriateness of the programs at the schools that are aimed at training physical education and sports teachers who will work at 8 – year – long compulsory basic education institutions. Within this context the programs applied in Turkey were investigated and an evaluation was made for each of the common courses.
The need for training staff in the academic and professional fields of the sports sciences that were brought about by the constant change and development in sports has become evident. This change and development continued with the transformation of some of these schools into higher schools and with the acceptance of eight fields by HEB within the framework of related domains (Acikada, 1991). Moreover, the distribution of the eight fields within the curriculum was determined as followed:
1 – Applied Sports Field; this field entails the definition of the applied sports branches and teaching techniques.
2 – Field of Information on the Teaching profession; this section includes the courses which are compulsory for teaching profession according to ministry of national Education and HEB. In our country as in other parts of the world, it is not possible to be a teacher without having the necessary information on the teaching profession.
3 – General Cultures; this is the information necessary for a qualified teacher. These include some courses that are not compulsory for teaching but which are about current issues.
4 – The Field of Movement and Exercise Sciences; it is to evaluate sports within the fact of movement and to shape it according to exercise dimension.
5 – Field of Sport Health Sciences; involves the health dimensions of sports and the relation between sports and health.
6 – The Field of Sports management and Sciences; involves the dimension of sports related to management sciences.
7 – Sports Education; emphasized the manner of teaching sports and involves the introduction of sports field.
8 – Psycho-Social Fields in Sports; involves the psychological and sociological dimension of sports.
The determined groups of courses were divided into the above-mentioned fields and evaluated within this framework.
Related to this, the proposed courses are presented in the table of Annex 1 according to their order of importance for training physical education and sports teachers who will be on duty at the basic education institutions.
As understood from the table, the group arithmetic average of the courses included in the applied group has been found as X = 3.02. In this respect, the basic and team sports such as gymnastics, athletics, rhythmic gymnastics, volleyball and handball have been found on the highest level, whereas the sports branches such as bodybuilding, marksmanship, and weight lifting have been found at the lowest values. When we investigate the education programs of Wales and England, we could see that team sports such as football, volleyball, basketball, handball, gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics were at the highest level in term of the values attributed to them (Anonymous, 1995).
The research of Acikada (1991), which was carried out of 22 physical education teachers with the purpose of development of physical education and sports curriculum, produced similar results. The arithmetic average for the courses which were under the information on teaching profession has been found as X = 4.16. Although the arithmetic averages of the views of the instructors for courses such Education Psychology, Education Sociology, Program Development, Introduction to Education Sciences and Education management has remained under the group average, these courses are compulsory for the teaching profession.
The arithmetic average of the courses under the group of general culture has been found as X = 3.41. in this respect, Foreign Language and already compulsory Revolution History of the Turkish Republic and Computer courses have been attributed and it has been noted that the Courses of Physics, Chemistry, mathematics and Statistics were not important according to the instructors for the physical education and sports teachers who will be on duty at primary secondary schools. The research of Acikada (1991 gives similar results (Acikada, 1991).
The group arithmetic average of the courses under the movement and Exercise Sciences has been found as X = 3.83. in this respect, the courses of motor Development and Exercise Information were at the highest level, while the course of Biomechanics has remained under the group arithmetic average (X = 3.52).
The group arithmetic average of the courses under the Sports health Sciences has been found as X = 3.95. In this respect the courses of First Aid and sports physiology were at the highest level, whereas the Anatomy course has been found under the group arithmetic average (X = 3.67).
Two courses were determined under the Sports Management Sciences. The group arithmetic average of the courses under this group has been found over the group average (X = 4.11). We think this is significant.
The group arithmetic average of the courses under the Sports Training Field has been found as X = 4.18. In this respect, the courses of Skill Acquiring and Special Teaching methods have been found at the highest level, while the course of Comparative Sports Education was at the lowest level.
There were two courses under the Psycho-Social Field in Sports and their group arithmetic averages has been found as X =3.73. The course of Sports Psychology was over the group arithmetic average (X = 4.11), while the course of Sports history has been found at the lowest level in terms of importance attributed to it, not only in its own group, but also in comparison with all of the proposed courses (X = 3.34). These results show similarities with those of the study carried out by Ursprung and his colleagues. Ursprung and his colleagues have grouped courses offered at the physical education and sports departments as Personal and Teams Sports pedagogy, Movement and Health Sciences, Social Sciences and Scientific method (Ursprung and his colleagues, 1995). Moreover, the groups of courses that should be offered are parallel to the courses determined by Harrison, Blakemore (1992) and Nicholas (1990), (Harrison and Blakemore, 1992), (Nicholas, 1990).
Results and Suggestions
According to the results of the research, the participating instructors proposed to include gymnastics (aerobics and rhythmic gymnastics), athletics, swimming and team sports such as basketball, volleyball, handball, football, and racket sports such as badminton in the curriculum of the eight-year-long compulsory basic education institutions, especially during the periods covering 1-5 (ages 6-11). On the other hand, courses such as First Aid and Sports Physiology under the Sports Health Sciences, Motor Development and Exercise Information under the movement and Exercise Sciences, Recreation under the Sports Management Sciences, Skills Acquiring and Special Teaching method under the Sports Training Fields, Sports Psychology under the psycho-Social Fields in Sports were also proposed by the instructors. Within this context, the compulsory and elective courses that were determined in the draft program with the purpose of training physical education and sports teachers are as follows:
| 1. Semester | T | P | CH |
Gymnastics |
1 |
4 |
3 |
Athletics I |
1 |
2 |
2 |
Foreign Language I |
2 |
0 |
2 |
Rev. History I |
2 |
0 |
2 |
Intr. To Teaching Prof. |
3 |
0 |
2 |
| 2. Semester | |||
Foreign Language II |
2 |
0 |
2 |
Rev. History II |
2 |
0 |
2 |
Turkish II |
2 |
0 |
2 |
Basketball I |
1 |
4 |
3 |
Handball I |
1 |
4 |
3 |
Athletics II |
1 |
2 |
2 |
Rhytm T. and R. Gym |
1 |
4 |
3 |
First Aid |
1 |
2 |
2 |
| 3. Semester | |||
Foreign Language III |
2 |
0 |
2 |
Gymnastics II |
1 |
4 |
3 |
Athletics III |
1 |
2 |
2 |
Volleyball I |
1 |
4 |
3 |
Gen. Teaching Meth. |
3 |
0 |
2 |
Motor Development |
2 |
0 |
2 |
Football I |
1 |
4 |
3 |
Program Dev. (Elective) |
3 |
0 |
2 |
Edu. Sociology (Elective) |
3 |
0 |
2 |
| 4. Semester | |||
Foreign Lang. IV |
2 |
0 |
2 |
Table Tennis |
1 |
2 |
2 |
Aerobic Gym. |
1 |
2 |
2 |
Swimming I |
1 |
2 |
2 |
Scouting |
1 |
2 |
2 |
Learning Skills |
3 |
0 |
3 |
Basketball II |
1 |
4 |
3 |
Edu. Psychology (Elective) |
3 |
0 |
3 |
Edu. Management (Elective) |
3 |
0 |
3 |
| 5. Semester | |||
Foreign Language V |
2 |
0 |
2 |
Exercise Information |
3 |
0 |
3 |
Sports Psychology |
2 |
0 |
2 |
Handball II |
1 |
4 |
3 |
Football II |
1 |
4 |
3 |
Psych. Counseling |
3 |
0 |
3 |
Sports Management (Elective) |
2 |
0 |
2 |
Sports history (Elective) |
2 |
0 |
2 |
| 6. Semester | |||
Foreign Language VI |
2 |
0 |
2 |
Volleyball II |
1 |
4 |
3 |
Swimming II |
1 |
2 |
2 |
Test. Evaluation |
3 |
0 |
3 |
Badminton |
1 |
2 |
2 |
Anatomy (Elective) |
3 |
0 |
3 |
Biomechanics (Elective) |
3 |
0 |
3 |
Anthropometry (Elective) |
3 |
0 |
3 |
| 7. Semester | |||
Foreign Language VII |
2 |
0 |
2 |
Recreation |
2 |
0 |
2 |
Teaching Application |
2 |
4 |
4 |
Natural Sports |
1 |
2 |
2 |
Research Techniques (Elective) |
2 |
0 |
2 |
Campa. Sports Teaching (Elective) |
2 |
0 |
2 |
| 8. Semester | |||
Foreign Language VIII |
2 |
0 |
2 |
Sports Physiology |
3 |
2 |
4 |
Optional Specialization |
2 |
4 |
4 |
Teaching Application |
2 |
4 |
4 |
Sports Sociology (Elective) |
3 |
0 |
3 |
Sports Health (Elective) |
3 |
0 |
3 |
| Total Credit Hours: 145 |
T = Theoretical Courses
P = Practical Courses
CH = Number of Credit Hour Values
Table 1: The distribution of the courses that are proposed to be included in the main program, which trains physical education and sports for eight-year-long basic education institutions (according to the field and order of importance).
Fields |
Courses |
N |
Median |
SD |
Order of |
|
|
|
Subjects |
Median |
Standard |
Importance |
|
|
|
|
|
Deviation |
|
|
Applied Sports Field |
Gymnastics |
171 |
4.6056 |
0.64 |
1 |
|
|
Athletics |
171 |
4.5352 |
0.88 |
2 |
|
|
Rhythm Training |
171 |
4.2113 |
0.97 |
3 |
|
|
Volleyball |
171 |
3.9014 |
0.93 |
4 |
|
|
Handball |
170 |
3.9 |
0.98 |
5 |
|
|
Basketball |
171 |
3.8592 |
0.96 |
6 |
|
|
Swimming |
171 |
3.662 |
1.29 |
7 |
|
|
Scouting |
171 |
3.662 |
1.08 |
7 |
|
|
Football |
171 |
3.5775 |
1.13 |
8 |
|
|
Table Tennis |
170 |
3.4 |
1.1 |
9 |
|
|
Natural Sports |
170 |
3.1857 |
1.15 |
10 |
|
|
Aerobics |
171 |
3.1127 |
1.29 |
11 |
|
|
Badminton |
170 |
3.0571 |
1.14 |
12 |
|
|
Tennis |
169 |
2.9275 |
1.12 |
13 |
|
|
Wrestling |
171 |
2.7324 |
1.3 |
14 |
|
|
Cycling |
170 |
2.7286 |
1.18 |
15 |
|
|
Skating |
171 |
2.5352 |
1.21 |
16 |
|
|
Fencing |
170 |
2.1714 |
1.06 |
17 |
|
|
Archery |
171 |
2.1408 |
1.06 |
18 |
|
|
Rowing |
171 |
2.0704 |
1.11 |
19 |
|
|
Underwater Sports |
169 |
2.0435 |
1.04 |
20 |
|
|
Far Eastern Sports |
170 |
1.9714 |
1.09 |
21 |
|
|
Weightlifting |
170 |
1.9571 |
1.12 |
22 |
|
|
Marksmanship |
171 |
1.9155 |
1.04 |
23 |
|
|
Bodybuilding |
170 |
1.8286 |
1.15 |
24 |
|
Info. On Teaching |
Teaching Application |
170 |
4.6286 |
0.76 |
1 |
|
|
Gen. Teaching Methods |
171 |
4.4225 |
0.8 |
2 |
|
|
Psychological Counseling |
169 |
4.2609 |
0.92 |
3 |
|
|
Testing Evaluation |
171 |
4.2113 |
0.92 |
4 |
|
|
Educational Psychology |
171 |
4.1408 |
0.97 |
5 |
|
|
Educational Sociology |
171 |
4.1127 |
1.02 |
6 |
|
|
Program Development |
171 |
4.0428 |
1.06 |
7 |
|
|
Intro. To Educ. Science |
171 |
3.9296 |
1.11 |
8 |
|
|
Education Management |
171 |
3.7465 |
1.04 |
9 |
|
General Culture |
Foreign Language |
171 |
4.0141 |
1.13 |
1 |
|
|
History of Turkey |
171 |
3.6479 |
1.32 |
2 |
|
|
Computer |
170 |
3.5286 |
1.15 |
3 |
|
|
Research Techniques |
171 |
3.4085 |
1.3 |
4 |
|
|
Statistics |
170 |
3.0143 |
1.2 |
5 |
|
|
Basic Services |
170 |
2.8714 |
1.14 |
6 |
|
Movement/Exercise |
Motor Development |
170 |
4.4714 |
0.96 |
1 |
|
|
Exercise Info. |
170 |
4.0857 |
1.13 |
2 |
|
|
Antropometry |
170 |
3.5286 |
1.16 |
3 |
|
|
Biomechanics |
170 |
3.2676 |
1.23 |
4 |
|
Sports Health |
First Aid |
169 |
4.2609 |
0.83 |
1 |
|
|
Sports Physiology |
170 |
3.9571 |
1.26 |
2 |
|
|
Sportive Health |
117 |
3.8286 |
1.08 |
3 |
|
|
Anatomy |
171 |
3.7606 |
1.2 |
4 |
|
Sports Management |
Recreation |
170 |
4.1143 |
1.08 |
1 |
|
|
Sports management |
170 |
3.4714 |
1.14 |
2 |
|
Sports Education |
Learning Skills |
169 |
4.4348 |
0.78 |
1 |
|
|
Special Teaching Methods |
169 |
4.3913 |
0.93 |
2 |
|
|
Intro to PE and Sports |
170 |
4.0714 |
1.13 |
3 |
|
|
Comparative Sports Education |
170 |
3.5857 |
1.2 |
4 |
|
Psycho- social field |
Sports Psychology |
170 |
4.1143 |
1.15 |
1 |
|
|
Sports History |
169 |
3.3478 |
1.23 |
2 |
|
