Katerina Zounhia

The impact of occupational socialization on physical education pre-service teachers’ beliefs about four important curricular outcomes A cross-sectional study

Most national Physical Education (PE) curriculums worldwide are based on a variety of outcome goals. The most important are physical activity and fitness, self-actualization, motor skill development and social development. Capturing PE Teacher Education pre-service teachers’ beliefs toward these outcomes may offer a useful insight into the process of identifying and understanding prospective teachers’ decisions and actions. The aim of the current study was to compare PE pre-service teachers’ beliefs regarding four important outcome goals, according to year in university, athletic background and occupational orientation. A total of 483 undergraduate pre-service teachers from a Greek faculty of PE completed a previously validated four factor instrument. Significant differences were observed in the four outcome goals beliefs between pre-service teachers in different years of studies and between teaching and coaching oriented pre-service teachers. No differences were found between pre-service teachers with different athletic backgrounds. Findings suggested that sport participation per se did not affect outcome beliefs toward a specific direction and all pre-service teachers rated higher the physical activity and fitness goal. Participants with a teaching orientation rated higher three of the four outcome goals than their coaching oriented counterparts. Furthermore, third year field-based experiences had a positive impact on pre-service teachers’ beliefs, while the fourth year of studies and the coaching specializations contributed to a beliefs ‘washout effect’. Recommendations arise from previous and present findings regarding the facultys undergraduate programme and we propose that future studies build on this research by continuing to examine PE students’ and teachers’ beliefs more thoroughly.

Perceived Effectiveness of Greek Secondary School Teachers

The purpose of this study was to explore differences in instructional and pedagogical effectiveness among Greek secondary school teachers of different subjects, as perceived by pupils. In this study 165 pupils (aged 13‐15 years) from 33 secondary schools in Athens, Greece, completed questionnaires regarding the effectiveness of 253 teachers. Within the framework of teacher preparation at university, the results indicated no significant differences in instructional and pedagogical effectiveness between those who attended courses in pedagogy, psychology and instructional knowledge (didactics) and those who did not However, pupils’ perceived the instructional role of teachers to be higher than the pedagogical role. Moreover, in teachers of different subjects, instructional and pedagogical effectiveness were associated and correlated to each other.

Motives for exercise participation: The role of individual and psychological characteristics

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of sex, body mass index (BMI), psychological characteristics (self-esteem, trait anxiety, social physique anxiety) on motives for exercise participation in the context of recreation and leisure. The sample consisted of 306 exercise participants. The results showed significant sex and BMI differences. More specifically, exercise motives were based on competition/ego for males, whereas females preferred psychological condition and appearance motives. Also, individuals low in BMI were motivated by physical appearance to participate in exercise programs. Psychological factors were also studied indicating that self-esteem was a significant predictor of competition/ego, affiliation, and physical condition motives, trait anxiety predicted motives of psychological condition, and to meet others’ expectations, whereas social physique anxiety predicted the appearance motive. Individuals with increased levels of the above psychological characteristics were not motivated to participate in exercise programs by intrinsic motives.