The impact of a social cognitive theory‐based intervention on physical education teacher self‐efficacy

Abstract

Adolescents are physically inactive and non‐Caucasian adolescents achieve the least amount of physical activity. Hence, supporting teachers’ efforts to increase their students’ physical activity during physical education is important. We examined the influence of a social cognitive theory‐based intervention on teachers’ efficacy to teach physically active physical education lessons (i.e. Exemplary Physical Education Curriculum [EPEC] efficacy) and efficacy to overcome common barriers (i.e. barrier efficacy) to teaching physically active lessons. Forty‐seven elementary physical education teachers from a large inner‐city school district in the USA participated. We paired experienced teachers (n = 15) with novice ¹ teachers (n = 15) while learning how to teach a physical activity curriculum and compared them with a group of teachers (n = 17) who received no intervention. We hypothesized that the intervention teachers, relative to the comparison group, would improve in their efficacy to teach the EPEC and overcome barriers. All 47 teachers completed EPEC and barrier efficacy scales pre and post intervention. Analyses indicated a variety of significant main and interaction effects with mean scores in the expected directions. Both groups of intervention teachers improved their efficacy to teach the EPEC and their efficacy to overcome barriers. The comparison teachers’ efficacy remained stable or decreased. In general the significant results, combined with meaningful effect sizes, supported the effectiveness of our intervention and the importance of professional development training in a physical activity curriculum on teacher’s efficacy.

Notes

1. We use the term ‘novice’ in a relative manner versus an absolute manner given that this group of teachers have far less experience compared with the ‘experienced’ teacher group yet have averaged five years of teaching experience.