Professional Development Policies and Practices for Developing Content Knowledge of Physical Education Teachers

Overview & Synopsis

The study aimed to examine state requirements for K-12 physical education teacher licensures and professional development (PD) and PD funding opportunities and supportive practices for promoting physical education teachers' in-depth content knowledge (CK) at the SHAPE America national conventions. Four national reports published in the past decade were used to examine the state policies for physical education teacher licensures, PD requirements, and PD funding opportunities. In addition, all published abstracts at the SHAPE America national conventions during the past six years were used to examine PD practices focused on promoting physical education teachers' in-depth CK. Descriptive statistics were employed for answering the research questions using the SPSS (version 24.0). There were four findings: (a) increased state requirements for elementary physical education licensure, (b) increased state requirements for physical education teachers' PD with a lack of financial support, (c) fewer CK-focused presentations, and (d) fewer specialized CK-focused presentations after revising the national standards for beginning physical education teachers. These findings provide a future direction for enhancing physical education teachers' depth of CK in the United States.