Student perception of caring teaching in physical education

Abstract

Student perceptions of caring physical education teaching were examined. Critical incident forms eliciting descriptions of caring teaching were administered to 518 United States elementary and secondary students. The forms were content analyzed and coded inductively to reveal 11 clusters of perceived caring teaching: showed me how to do a skill, honored my request, gave me a compliment, confronted my behavior, inquired about my health, attended to me when I was injured, allowed me to re-do my test, motivated me, played/participated with me during class, persuaded me, showed concern for my future health. The clusters were further analyzed into three subcategories—recognize me, help me learn, trust/respect me—and a main category—pay attention to me, to describe this phenomenon. The results suggest that numerous opportunities for physical education teachers to exhibit caring exist, that students notice attention provided by teachers, and that many identified caring behaviors support a theoretical framework that such behaviors are comprised of action and engrossment.

Keywords:

• Teaching behavior
• Ethic of care