Abstract
This study investigated how university students perceive an excellent physical education (PE) teacher at the university level. A sample of 2000 university students at four universities in China responded to a 53-item questionnaire. A 6-factor, 28-item model of an excellent teacher in PE was subsequently generated with a statistical good fit, using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The model included two traditional Chinese concepts, best defined as ‘Caring For Students’ and ‘Being Responsible.’ The other four concepts were: ‘Being A Subject Expert, Being Student-Focused, Prompting Students’ All-Around Growth’ and ‘Being A Lifelong Learner.’ Multivariate analysis of variance showed that students’ grade level and major contributed to statistically-significant differences in their conceptualisation of excellent PE teaching. Study findings were compared with those in other relevant literature.
Keywords
Introduction
Research on teacher effectiveness conducted in Western countries has provided a wealth of information; however, the majority of this research concentrated on more traditional core subjects such as mathematics, science and language arts. There are relatively few studies in the area of physical education (PE), especially considering China within the Eastern countries. Consequently, there is a lack of knowledge of what constitutes excellent PE teaching and how this supports student progress and learning in the PE classrooms at the university level in China.
Chen (2010) reports that 67.0% of Chinese teenagers do not participate in any physical exercise; one reason cited was the lack of interest in physical exercise. More specifically for university students, a 50-university survey in China shows that many university students seldom perform additional exercise after their compulsory PE courses. Some of them would prefer to be spectators at sporting competitions, rather than participants, because they lack guidance and encouragement from university PE teachers. This resulted in the fitness of university students declining dramatically in recent years, with female university students being the most affected (Chen, 2010).
To address the lack of physical activity and apparently sedentary lifestyles led by some young people, there has been an increased coupling between the previously-separate disciplines of PE and health, as measures of PE curriculum reform at the school and university level in China. These reforms attempt to transform the current Chinese education into a more student-oriented, quality education (Su Zhi Jiao Yu) (Ding, 2001; Hughes and Yuan, 2005). Under this curriculum, the emphasis in PE is shifting from distinguishing students who are highly capable in specific sport skills to a more general focus, based on the contribution of PE to physical, mental and social health. University-level PE teachers are expected to not only contribute to the proximal goals of students’ physical activity and health during their university years, but also to contribute to the more desirable outcomes regarding how they elect to live a physically-active lifestyle (Hickey and Jin, 2007; Li and Li, 2010).
Therefore, PE curriculum reforms require that PE taken at the university level focus on increasing the students’ interest in physical exercise, nurturing their lifelong habits of involvement (Wang et al., 2008). A key to this fundamental curriculum change is the teachers themselves, the quality of their teaching, and their specific teaching methods (Zhang and Collis, 1995). It is the teacher who translates curriculum changes into their practice (Thorburn et al., 2011). Hence, what constitutes PE teaching and excellent teaching should be changed. Before improving the quality of teaching and student intended learning, as well as stimulating students’ interest in PE at the university level, it is important to understand the nature of excellent teaching in PE. From a learner’s perspective, students who directly witness the changes in teaching could offer some valuable recommendations about how to improve learning, teaching, and schooling (Smith et al., 2005); therefore, the significance of listening to students’ voices in relation to their understanding of excellent teaching may be profound. This is also consistent with the proposal for more research on ‘what makes for effective teaching of science in the eyes of the pupil’ (Osborne et al., 2003: 1067). On the other hand, understanding excellent teaching is more than understanding the basis for enhancing student learning and achievement (Rowe, 2004). It can assist in designing teacher professional development programmes, in achieving the aims of various reforms, and in developing teaching standards in PE (Betoret and Artiga, 2004).
PE in China
To address the needs of the curriculum changes and push the shift from ‘sports education’ into ‘health, sport and PE’ at Chinese universities, these universities adjusted the structure of their PE curriculum; however, given that PE is compulsory in both schools and universities (for the first 2 years), this shift may perhaps best be explained by first describing the structure of education at large, in China. China’s compulsory school education programme is comprised of primary school (grades 1–6), middle school (grades 7–9) and high school (grades 10–12). During the 12 years of compulsory school education, students must receive at least 2 hours of PE classes and spend at least 1 hour exercising per week. Student assessment at the end of each semester includes both performance of sports and attendance. Additionally, students at the end of each school level must pass the ‘National Physical Culture Training Standards’ test (e.g. muscle flexibility, endurance and motor skills) in order to enter the higher school level or the university (Guan, 2005).
Once a week, the universities in China run a 2-hour PE class, which is compulsory for all first and second-year students who are not PE majors (see Table 1). Specialized PE courses are available for these first and second year students. The universities provide the third and fourth year students with elective PE courses, to encourage students to play sports on the basis of their interest, so hopefully they continue that physical activity after their university lives. The courses may include sports such as basketball, volleyball, soccer, track and field, martial arts, aerobics, swimming, skating, artistic gymnastics, table tennis, badminton and tennis, but the availability and choice will vary between universities.
Course information in the university, in China.
PE: physical education; Y: year.
Along with the goal of having PE in the new curriculum, universities have included the theory of PE as one of components of PE courses, so that students could learn to understand the benefits and risks of participation in sports and physical activities, their impact on the body, and the relationship between participation in physical activity and individual well-being. At the end of each semester, across 4 years, courses on the theory of PE are now provided, such as: sports/physical activity training methods, sports/physical activity health, sports/physical activity injury recovery, sports/physical activity competition rules, the value and function of sports/physical activity, leisure sports/physical activity, the technical principles of sports/physical activity, and individual and national well-being. These courses normally last for 2 hours. Student assessment at the end of the semester includes performance of sports, the results of the theory of PE and attendance, but the percentages these are given differ between universities.
As for the students from the PE major, who may become a PE teacher at a certain educational level, a trainer in a sports organisation, or a social worker in a health organisation, these have 4–7 specialised PE courses per week, from the first year to the fourth year. In each term within the first 2 years, the PE major must take compulsory courses such as basketball, volleyball, soccer, track and field, martial arts and gymnastics. In the third year, PE majors have to take more specialized PE courses, based on their planned area of expertise. For example, if they choose basketball, they must take basketball and basketball-related courses in the third and fourth years. As with non-PE majors, the courses on the theory of PE are provided across those four years.
In general, the courses provided at high schools and universities are similar; however, because high school students need to pass the additional assessment to enter the university, PE classes strongly focus on the development and boosting of motor skills (e.g. muscular strength, endurance, cardiovascular fitness and flexibility), rather than health promotion and well-being. Especially in the final year of high school, PE classes are the place where students practice what they will be tested on in the ‘National Physical Culture Training Standards;’ while the university PE classes aim at introducing a variety of sports and physical activities, developing student motor skills and encouraging habitual participation in regular physical activity.
Those who will be PE teachers are trained at specialized ‘normal’ colleges or universities in China. Primary school PE teachers are trained in these 3-year or 4-year normal colleges, middle and high school PE teachers are trained at 4-year normal colleges and normal universities, and university PE teachers are trained at 4-year normal universities or at a higher level (Zhou, 2006). The equivalent years of training at specialized PE institutes also applies to PE teachers, at each level. Note that the ‘normal’ university in China is a particularly specialized university that trains students to become teachers, including PE teachers, at different educational levels. In other countries, such an institute may be located within a regular university and may be called a Teachers’ College. PE teachers need to become specialised in at least one PE field and understand the other fields as well, because they may be assigned to teach courses that are not within their main area of expertise. PE teachers’ teaching loads range from 4–8 classes per week, at most universities. Each university can develop a syllabus and choose textbooks and teaching materials, according to their own situation.
Research on teacher effectiveness in PE, in the West
Influenced by the general teacher effectiveness literature, research in PE has focused on the characteristics or qualities of successful PE teachers, the behaviours or instruction of successful PE teachers, and their impact on student learning (Armour et al., 2012; Arrighi and Young, 1987; Australian Government Preventative Health Taskforce (AGPHT), 2010; Beveridge et al., 1986; National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE), 2004; Parker, 1995; Schempp, 1985; Silverman, 1991; Wallian and Chang, 2006).
Initially, studies in PE tended to examine the characteristics or qualities seen as essential for a person to become an excellent PE teacher in schools, even though the characteristics are difficult to define in a precise manner (Harris, 1999). Arrighi and Young (1987) found that the characteristics of an excellent PE teacher in schools included dedication, enthusiasm, fairness, fitness and being skillful. Baley and Field (1976) identified five general characteristics at the school level: health, competency in a variety of sports, desire to serve others, an attractive personality and concern for one’s appearance; however, in reality teachers always pay more attention to presenting knowledge and nurturing their students in learning, rather than having a focus, as is suggested by Kottler and Zehm (2000: 20), ‘being a teacher is a way of life.’ They claim that a teacher’s human dimensions are important in being a schoolteacher: charisma, compassion, egalitarianism, a sense of humor, together with additional desirable traits that give ‘all teachers, whether in the classroom, the sports arena, or the home, their power as effective influencers’ (Kottler and Zehm, 2000: 2). Similarly, Kottler et al. (2005) identified ‘being a teacher as a person’ as one of the essential characteristics of excellent teachers in schools.
In the early 1990s, research on teacher effectiveness in PE focused on investigating the teaching process in the classroom. Through an extensive review of PE effectiveness literature, Silverman (1991) suggested nine successful practices for PE in schools, which comprised the planning for class management and student learning, the anticipation of situations and contingency plans, the awareness of individual student skill differences, the acquisition of information to plan, the knowledge of a repertoire of teaching styles, the accuracy and focus of explanation and demonstration, the provision for adequate student practice time, the maximisation of appropriate student practice and engagement, and the minimisation of waiting time for students.
The findings drawn from the above investigations seem to focus on what teachers do and how teachers behave personally and professionally, but they ignore the impact of teaching excellence on a school’s students: for example, how do students feel about the teaching and how does the teaching affect student progress and outcomes (Hickson and Fishburne, 2004; Mawer, 1995). Hickson and Fishburne (2002) confirm these results through working with pre-service and in-service teachers. Placek and Dodds (1988) studied pre-service teachers and found that excellent PE teaching should offer enjoyment, motivation and interest to students.
Parker (1995) identified four categories of excellent teaching through studying 14 secondary teachers: student success, teaching strategies, teacher-student interactions and evolution. Student success mainly comprised skill development and improvement, student achievement and task completion. A study of an excellent PE teacher (Hickson and Fishburne, 2005) gives emphasis to student evaluation and teacher reflection at the primary school level. These include: determination of needs, planning for student learning, selecting teaching methods, creating a positive and managed environment, student engagement, lesson reflection and effective evaluation. The teacher’s role has been discussed in the literature. For example, the Handbook of PE points out that the role of the teacher is to encourage students to become a creative, rather than a reproducing/replicating-type student (Wallian and Chang, 2006). Teachers provide support and allow student decision-making to increase their sense of responsibility during the class. Students may engage in the class more, because they have a greater voice in class decisions and events, and feel an increased sense of belonging (Brock et al., 2009). Providing a supportive environment could meet students’ individual needs (Hagger and Chatzisarantis, 2007). In addition, teachers are expected to support student interactions, such as allowing students to develop teamwork and cooperation, affording opportunities for students to develop small group discussions and social skills, and promote team affiliation (Jenkins and Alderman, 2011; MacPhail et al., 2004). On the other hand, it is believed that the teachers themselves need to behave like a reflective practitioner, rather than a manager (Wallian and Chang, 2006). More specifically, Armour et al. (2012) argues that PE teachers’ reflective practice is important for their professional learning.
Apart from focusing on the process-product effectiveness categories, the US national content standards for PE propose six areas that are critical to the development of a physically-active lifestyle at the school level (NASPE, 2004). They comprise: developing motor skills, imparting the knowledge needed for a physically-active lifestyle, encouraging regular participation in physical activity, facilitating the development and maintenance of fitness, cultivating responsible personal and social behaviours, and developing an appreciation of participation. These standards seem to move the focus on PE teaching away from the instant outcomes of promoting students to master motor skills and engagement, into the more desirable outcomes of promoting students to adopt a physically-active lifestyle. Similarly, AGPHT (2010) proposes that there are three components for establishing effective PE pedagogies: promoting high levels of physical activity participation, movement skill instruction and practice, and active learning strategies with an emphasis on enjoyment. These seem to align more with the aforementioned PE curriculum in China.
Research on teacher effectiveness in PE, in China
Research into understanding of excellent PE teaching in China is still in its infancy. A classic, traditional Chinese view of excellent teachers is that they should be completely devoted (in Chinese, the phrase is Hui Ren Bu Juan) (Watkins and Zhang, 2006). Han Yu, one of the most celebrated educators in the Tang Dynasty said, ‘A teacher is the one who shows you the way of being human, teaches you knowledge and enlightens you while you are confused’ (Liu, 1973). Among the old sayings to describe traditional teaching is the Chinese phrase, ‘Yin cai shi jiao,’ which means that teachers should ‘teach students in accordance with their aptitude.’
In the modern PE effectiveness literature, Chow and Louie (1992) investigated teaching excellence in detail, through surveying 137 pre-service PE teachers at universities and 80 in-service PE teachers in Hong Kong schools. Five categories of excellent PE teachers and their work are reported: personal qualities, professional qualities, classroom instruction, human relations and management. This study integrated teacher qualities with the teaching process, to form a picture of an excellent PE teacher. In mainland China, Du (2010) proposed that, under the new PE curriculum framework, PE at the high school level should focus on stimulating students’ interest and in implementing ‘healthy and lifelong PE.’ Li and Li (2010) examined the possible elements of excellent teaching in middle schools, identifying that teachers should present clearly and prepare well for their lessons, understand their students, encourage students to form good habits and work cooperatively, provide immediate feedback, and increase the teacher/student and student/student interactions.
A range of Western studies examine what constitutes excellent PE teaching at the school and university level. There are similar studies in China at the school level, showing that aspects such as personal and professional characteristics, classroom instruction, student engagement and student learning gains contribute toward excellent PE teaching; however, it is hard to find studies that focus on excellent PE teaching at the university level, especially in China. Concepts regarding excellence are bound to the context; thus, it is important to further explore excellent teaching concepts, especially when the teaching environments differ greatly from that of Western studies (Gao and Watkins, 2002). This is particularly relevant for China, which has one of the largest educational systems in the world. Furthermore, understanding PE teaching excellence is important to be able to achieve a quality-oriented education aligning with these education development aims, within the next 10 years, and meet the needs of education reform in China (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (MOE), 2010).
The current study investigated how university students perceived excellent PE teaching at the university level in China. Apart from examining university PE teaching, this present study, together with a parallel study that was examining university PE teacher’s conceptions of excellent PE teaching, was aimed at providing a platform for the establishment of PE teaching standards at the university level and gaining potential ideas for improvement. From our findings in the literature, the present study adopted four categories as the basis for constructing the instrument and for guiding analysis. These were: personal and professional characteristics, teacher behaviours, student engagement and student learning gains identified in the literature. These were utilized to construct the instrument and guide analysis in this study.
Methods
Sample
A sample of 2000 students, who were being taught by 25 PE teachers at four universities in two provinces in China, was approached to consider participation in the study. Two research assistants contacted the head of the PE department at these four universities though mail and follow-up phone calls. The two research assistants visited these four heads at the four universities that agreed to cooperate. They briefed each head with a written Participant Information Sheet, asking for permission to conduct the research within their departments. Once each head signed a consent form, they were asked to call for teacher volunteers within their department. Teacher Participant Information Sheets and consent forms were then distributed to the teacher volunteers by the department heads. Once teachers signed the consent forms, they were asked to distribute both Student Participant Information Sheets and the questionnaires to their students. Students were asked to return the questionnaires directly to the research assistants within 3 weeks, using the addressed stamped envelopes supplied with the questionnaires. After 3 weeks, 1097 of the 2000 potential student participants provided valid questionnaires, giving our study a response rate of 55.2%. Out of the 1097 respondents, 62.1% of the students were male. Results show that 55.2% of the participants were in Grade 2, while 44.8% were in Grade 1, yet only 44.1% of them were from the major of PE, while the other participants were from non-PE majors as diverse as mathematics, English, Japanese, Chinese, arts, social science, computing and politics. We found that each of the four participating universities contributed approximately the same number of students.
Instrument: Questionnaire
The content validity of the instrument was evaluated to examine whether all important aspects of excellent PE teaching were covered, to identify whether all items were essential and to eliminate items undesirable to a particular construct domain (Straub et al., 2004). Lynn (1986) describes a 2-stage process for the establishment of instrument content validity, which has been adopted by many researchers (e.g. Meurer et al., 2002; Stewart et al., 2005). This 2-stage process involves a development stage and a judgment stage. At the development stage, the content domains (categories) concerning excellent PE teaching were established after reviewing the above literature. These domains included personal and professional characteristics, classroom instruction, student engagement and student learning gains. Next, the items were generated to assess each specific content domain examined by the literature and the authors’ former qualitative study, which examined excellent PE teaching from the same sample population (draft under preparation for publication). We developed a 50-item questionnaire, to examine the strength of agreement towards various concepts of excellent PE teaching at the university level in China. Of those, 15 items were identified from the former qualitative study, and 35 items were derived from the reviewed literature.
Item validity concerning excellent teaching was checked qualitatively by four university students acting as the judges, for the judgment stage. Two were PE majors and the other two were non-PE majors. The four judges were asked to ascertain whether each statement was sufficiently clear and relevant to be involved in excellent PE teaching at the university level, and whether any important points were omitted from the statements. As a result, five items were revised, one was discarded, and four items were recommended; therefore, 53 items were kept in the survey.
This questionnaire contained two parts: Part 1 included statements about the nature of excellent PE teaching in Chinese universities. The participants were asked to indicate how strongly they agreed with each statement describing excellent PE teaching at Chinese universities. They were asked to respond to a 6-point, positively-packed agreement rating scale. This response scale included two negative and four positive agreement responses with identical scores (e.g. strongly disagree = 1, mostly disagree = 2, slightly agree = 3, moderately agree = 4, mostly agree = 5, and strongly agree = 6). Positively-packed rating scales are known to generate discrimination in the context of social desirability (Brown, 2004; Lam and Klockars, 1982). In Part 2, students were asked to give their personal demographic information. Completion of our questionnaire was estimated to take about 30 minutes. Students were asked to return the questionnaires to the research assistants within 3 weeks, using the addressed, stamped envelopes supplied with the questionnaires.
Analysis
Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with maximum likelihood estimation and oblique rotation was utilized to generate the model of excellent PE teaching (Costello and Osborne, 2005), using Predictive Analytics Software (PASW 18). Items were removed that had loadings > 0.30 on their intended conceptual factors, or which had cross-loadings < 0.30 on other factors, or which did not match logically and theoretically with other items in the same factors. During this procedure, 20 items were discarded and 33 items were kept for further analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed to test the 33-item model using Amos 18 within the same sample of participants (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988). Items were removed in CFA that still had low loading (< 0.30) on their conceptual factors or that had strong modification indices to other factors. During the CFA procedure, 28 items were kept. Estimates of reliability (α) within the range of 0.70–0.89, with an average value of 0.78 were considered good or close to good, which indicated that the items had sufficiently robust reliabilities such that the total of these items could be meaningfully used in further analysis. This analysis procedure was guided by the four categories (e.g. personal and professional characteristics, classroom instruction, student engagement and student learning gains) identified in the reviewed literature. Except for the category called personal characteristics, three of these four categories were identified in the final model of excellent PE teaching. One category, professional characteristics, was split into two categories on the basis of the participants’ responses, but Chinese elements were added. One new category, ‘Being Responsible,’ was also identified by these participants.
In this study, model fit indices can be seen as representing two categories of fit measurements: (a) the χ2 package, including χ2, df, χ2/df, Root Mean Square Residual (RMR), Standardised Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR), Root Mean Square Error of approximation (RMSEA) and 90% CI, where the values decrease as fit improves; (b) Comparative Fit Index (CFI) and gamma hat, where the values increase as fit improves. For the χ2 package, it is expected that a χ2 that is roughly equal to its df indicates a perfect model fit. When RMSEA and SRMR are < 0.50, it is a good fit. When RMSEA, RMR, and SRMR are < 0.80, it is acceptable (Browne and Cudeck, 1989; Byrne, 2010; Hu and Bentler, 1999). When 90% CI is within the range between 0.50–0.80, it is acceptable. For goodness-of-fit indicators, the fit was deemed good when CFI and gamma hat are > 0.95. When CFI and gamma hat are > 0.90, the fit is considered acceptable (Byrne, 2010; Hoyle, 1995; Hoyle and Duvall, 2004).
Results
As seen in Figure 1, we generated a 28-item model of students’ concepts of what excellent PE teaching is (χ2 = 1723.46; df = 335; χ2/df = 5.2; RMSEA = 0.06, 90% CI = 0.059 ∼ 0.064; RMR = 0.045; SRMR = 0.07; CFI = 0.91; and gamma hat = 0.91). These indices indicated our model was well-fitted. The model consisted of six conceptions of teaching excellence in PE: Caring For Students, Being Responsible, Being A Subject Expert, Being Student-Focused, Promoting Students’ All-Around Growth, and Being A Lifelong Learner. Caring For Students focused on understanding students, solving students’ personal problems, and generally helping the students to solve problems. Being Responsible was more likely to encompass the professional qualities of an excellent teacher, such as preparing for the lessons carefully and arriving on time to every class. Within the concept of Promoting Students’ All-round Growth, excellent teaching developed students’ motor skills, and created positive attitudes and awareness for physical activities. Being A Lifelong Leaner focused on keeping professional knowledge and skills up-to-date, staying current with research and adapting research findings into their teaching, reflecting on teaching with colleagues, and trying to improve teaching.
Model of Chinese students’ concepts of excellent physical education teaching at the university level.
All remaining item loadings in the figure were > 0.30 and each scale included at least four items. Item loadings indicated that the items were related to each other as separate factors in the model. The inter-correlations between the four major practices were moderate, ranging from 0.44–0.86, with an average of 0.57, which indicates that the concepts were relatively independent of each other.
Table 2 shows the descriptive statistics for the six scales. Generally speaking, these Chinese students agreed positively with the six concepts identified in the current study, with an average mean of 4.93. Students accorded most importance to Promoting Students’ All-Around Growth (M = 5.22) and gave the least importance (albeit still positive) to Being A Lifelong Learner (M = 4.25). This model portrayed students in China as being highly student-oriented in their conceptions of excellent PE teaching, without neglecting Caring For Students (M = 5.10), Being Student-Focused (M = 5.09), and Being Responsible (M = 4.87). The traditional Chinese concept of excellence as Being A Subject Expert was ranked in the middle (M = 5.06).
Descriptive statistics for scales.
The students’ characteristics (e.g. student gender, grade level, major and university) were examined as a possible source of variance in their concepts of excellent PE teaching. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to test whether participants’ characteristics caused any statistically-significant mean difference for the concepts and Cohen’s d effect size was used to examine the degree of mean difference. Multivariate statistics shows that students’ grade level and major had contributed to statistically-significant mean differences in their concepts of excellent PE teaching at the university level (Grade: Wilks’ λ = 0.99, F (6, 1091) = 2.07, p = 0.049, effect size = 0.11; Major: Wilks’ λ = 0.97, F (6, 1091) = 4.84, p < 0.001, effect size = 0.33). Although the p value shows the significant mean differences between the students in Grades 1 and 2, the effect of size for the grade level is small (Cohen, 1988). When the means for different groups of the participants were examined, the students in Grade 2 were found to hold lower mean scores for all six concepts, compared with their peers in Grade 1. This indicates that the students in Grade 2 were less likely to agree with the excellent PE teaching statements than their peers. In regard to the major, effect size was medium. The students who were PE majors agreed more with two concepts, as compared with their counterparts who were non-PE majors. These two concepts were: Being A Lifelong Learner and Being Student-Focused. Being A Lifelong Leaner held the largest mean difference among these six dimensions. The possible reasons were explored in the discussion section.
Discussion
The concepts of excellence in PE teaching at the university level identified in this questionnaire-based survey study were very much focused on the teachers’ responsibility, being a subject expert and a lifelong learner, being student-oriented, and the student outcome, including positive attitudes towards physical activities. Generally speaking, these findings represented the traditional Chinese views of excellent teachers (e.g. being subject experts; devoting to teaching, caring; and adopting a range of teaching methods) and the emerging ideologies (e.g. engaging students through student-focused methods, encouraging students to form the habit to do physical activities, positive attitudes towards physical activities, lifelong PE awareness and being a professional learner), which seem to meet the needs of the new PE curriculum in China.
In general, this study showed that Chinese students’ conceptualisation of excellent PE teaching at the university level was consistent with the results previously reported in the Western research literature, which covers student engagement, teacher characteristics, classroom instruction and student learning gains. In addition, this pattern has strong traditional Chinese features, such as the nurturing and facilitative perspectives and the teacher reasonability, which are also advocated by the studies conducted in the West. Under the influence of the Confucian culture, Chinese people believe that, except for the hard work of the students themselves, the secret of student success lies in having devoted teachers (Feng, 1994; Smith, 1992; Watkins and Zhang, 2006). One of the central themes in this model was teacher responsibility, which is an old Confucian conception advocated widely in China. In the traditional Chinese view, the teacher is expected to be completely committed to the job. Chinese people have high expectations for their children’s education, which results in a high demand for teacher responsibility. Chinese teachers in this study were identified as being responsible for their teaching role, which includes a commitment to the teaching task, lesson preparation, arriving on time to lessons and classroom management. These align partially with the findings relating to preparation and the role of the teacher in the Li and Li study (2010), at the middle school level. Similarly, some ideas relating to this concept, such as classroom management (Hickson and Fishburne, 2005; Silverman, 1991) and dedication (Arrighi and Young, 1987) were also identified in Western studies.
‘Caring For Students,’ another traditional Chinese concept, had a mean score ranking it second. Maintaining a positive relationship between teachers and students was one of the features. Excellent Chinese university PE teachers identified in this study acted as a friend to their students. Aligning with the traditional Chinese view, one of the influential Chinese educational sayings, ‘the teacher should be a good teacher and friend’ (in Chinese the phrase is ‘Liang Shi Yi You’) is commonly used to describe the traditional Chinese teacher-student relationship. The students in this study attached importance to student-teacher interactions and behaviours, such as caring for students, communicating well with students and encouraging students to solve problems. This concept was identified by other Chinese research related to PE (Li and Li, 2010), English and science subjects in schools (Cortazzi and Jin, 1996; Gao and Watkins, 2002), which indicates that the nurturing concept might be required across all educational levels in China. In the Western literature, PE teachers were expected to interact with students as well, such as helping students choose the right physical activities, listening to their concerns and providing constructive feedback (Zhang et al., 2011). Teachers provide support, and allow student decision-making and student interactions (Brock et al., 2009; Jenkins and Alderman, 2011; MacPhail et al., 2004)
Similar opinions of the other four concepts are reported in the Western literature (e.g. Being A Subject Expert and Being A Lifelong Learner were identified in this study). These students thought that excellent PE teachers were subject experts, had a good understanding of student psychology, and were good at one physical activity at least. The ideology of being a subject expert could be regarded as a common theme for being an excellent PE teacher (e.g. Chow and Louie, 1992; Hickson and Fishburne, 2005; Siliverman, 1991). Tsangaridou (2006) also stated that in-depth subject matter knowledge and skillfulness are essential features of expert PE teachers. The idea of being a professional learner aligned with the teacher effectiveness literature. For example, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (2009: 4) in the United States says that accomplished teachers ‘critically examine their practice, seek the advice of others, and draw on educational research and scholarship to expand their repertoire, deepen their knowledge, sharpen their judgment and adapt their teaching to new findings, ideas and theories.’ This concept suggests that PE teachers need to be professional lifelong learners (Armour, 2010; MacPhail, 2011), including upgrading of sports skills, theoretical PE knowledge, educational knowledge and teaching pedagogies. In doing so, PE teachers may be capable of engaging their students in learning and form positive views towards physical activities.
The central idea of ‘Being Student-Focused’ entailed stimulating students’ interest to learn, such as using a variety of teaching strategies, creating an interesting and challenging atmosphere, and teaching students in accordance with their aptitude. This notion is congruent with one of the educational aims of China, that is, ‘doing when learning’ (in Chinese, the phrase is ‘Zuo Zhong Xue’) and ‘learning when enjoying’ (in Chinese, that phrase is ‘Yu Xue Yu Le’). Also, it was expected that excellent PE teachers create instructional settings, using more appropriate teaching strategies to capture and sustain students’ interest and to maximize their potential, by recognizing individual differences within a challenging and encouraging learning environment (Byra, 2006; Hagger and Chatzisarantis, 2007). Thus, PE teachers in China are expected to try by all means to increase student enjoyment and engagement in physical activities, so that students’ intrinsic motivation is promoted, which leads to students actively participating in physical activities within and beyond the school setting and appreciating lifelong participation in physical activities (Zhang et al., 2011). In general, this instructional and pedagogical concept of excellent PE teachers aligns with other Western literature (Beveridge et al., 1986; Hickson and Fishburne, 2005), but it also aligns with one of the aims of the PE curriculum reform in China, which is to increase students’ interest in physical activities (Chen, 2010).
Promoting Students’ All-Around Growth was the concept of an excellent Chinese PE teacher that had the highest rating. This developmental, student-oriented perspective embraced teachers’ proficiencies in developing students’ personal growth with positive outcomes, including motor skills and abilities, lifelong awareness of physical exercise, and positive attitudes towards physical activities. From the traditional Chinese view, excellent teachers ‘teach as well as cultivate good persons’ (in Chinese, the phrase is ‘Jiao Shu Yu Ren’). This conceptualisation focused on promoting students’ physical, spiritual, and social health and a physically active lifelong awareness, which aligns with the aims of PE curriculum reform in China (Du, 2010) and the major goal of NASPE (2004). This dimension encourages students to promote physical development and movement, as well as healthy and lifelong PE awareness, to achieve personal and social development (Kougioumtzis et al., 2011). The only-one-child policy in China has led to a society where many adults (e.g. parents and grandparents) dote on their only child, who is more likely to have been brought up in isolation from their peers or others (Wang et al., 2008). PE is now expected to foster students’ physical, social, and emotional development; and also to promote a healthy lifestyle, lifelong learning and social inclusion (Atencio et al., 2012). Therefore, the findings in this study reflect the shift from the previously sports-focused or competition-focused PE into the new form of PE, which includes ‘health, sport, and physical education work,’ which is advocated by Kirk (2010), and this also aligns with the requirements in the new PE curriculum at the university level in China.
Chinese university students’ concepts of excellent PE teaching in this study mostly reflected the findings of Western literature, and in part the traditional Chinese and Confucian concepts of excellent teaching. These concepts focus more on instructional, pedagogical, nurturing, developmental and professional perspectives. The absence of evaluation and curriculum should be noted, although the relevant questions were provided in the questionnaire. These two aspects were expected to be identified in the model, because individual universities in China have a large proportion of freedom to make choices. More questions will be needed to explore this issue further in subsequent studies. Moreover, although the items related to teacher personal qualities (e.g. dedication, charisma, compassion and fairness) were included in the questionnaire, they were still missing in this study’s results, whereas these personal characteristics were advocated widely by the Western studies. This is probably because these students attached more importance to pedagogical and instructional perspectives, which needed further investigation to fully understand the responses.
In terms of students’ characteristics, as compared with the non-PE majors, the students who were PE majors agreed more with two concepts: Being A Lifelong Leaner and Being Student-Focused. The following reasons might be the possible cause: Normally, university PE teachers in China have expertise in at least one PE field; however, they may not pay so much attention to upgrading the theory of PE and involving themselves in research. They may not develop expertise in PE pedagogies, since some of them may be busy with sport competitions when they are at the university. The students in this study, especially those who were studying in the PE major, thought that it is important for PE teachers to stay up-to-date with current research, to upgrade their professional knowledge, and to make PE class more interesting. As for students’ grade level, the reasons why the students in Grade 2 were less likely to agree with the statements of excellent teaching are not clear. Our aim, however, was to begin research on this topic of excellent PE teaching, so replication and other studies are worth pursuing to extend the current findings at the university level in China.
A substantial implication is that these findings about excellent teaching may contribute to the development of advanced teaching standards in PE at the university level, standards which are currently absent in China. Those students who are currently experiencing PE teaching can provide valuable information for the construction of excellent PE teaching. Moreover, the model of an excellent university PE teacher was established through a relatively large sample of students. Thus, together with our parallel ongoing project, which is surveying PE teachers’ concepts of an excellent university PE teacher, both studies will serve as a starting point and a sound baseline for designing advanced PE teaching standards at the university level, for the purpose of PE teacher promotion and evaluation. However, when designing such teaching standards, policymakers and researchers may pay more attention to the concepts identified and those missed in this study, but advocated in Western studies.
The findings of this study may make a contribution to the professional development and teaching improvement for PE practitioners. As for university PE teachers, the current guidelines for university PE teachers comprise four sections (i.e. Chinese nationality, good personality and morality, professional spirit and attitude of serving education, degrees in line with education at the university level or above, and ability and skill in educating and teaching) (MOE, 2000), with the first three sections dominating the document. Academic requirements do not address details about teaching practice. It is expected that the concepts, especially regarding the teaching strategies and professional improvement, that we identified in this study may provide a lens for PE teachers who tend to improve their teaching practices and deliver excellent teaching. These innovations are expected to enhance students’ interest and attitude towards physical activities. This study will also provide useful information to high school PE teachers who wish to prepare their students to fit well into PE classes at universities. They may adjust their teaching, based on the findings in this study, to optimize their students’ motivation in PE across this transition.
Each set of existing advanced teaching standards (e.g. the Performance Threshold for advanced teaching in England and Wales, the Level 3 Classroom Teacher Position for exemplary teaching in Australia, and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards for highly-accomplished teaching in America), despite their prevalence, has risks in its adoption; hence, once such PE teaching standards are established in China, university management personnel and teachers need some very careful consideration when implementing them into practice. As for the university management, they need to think carefully and may modify the standards to suit their staff capabilities (e.g. motor skills and teaching level) and their university situations (e.g. availability of facilities and ease of staff evaluation). As for PE teachers, they need to consider the nature of courses (e.g. the teaching practice for basketball and aerobics could be different) and their students’ situations (e.g. motor skill levels), to improve their teaching practices.
This study also alerts us to the fact that these students did not perceive that university PE teachers need to become involved in curriculum development, even though this is potentially an important aspect of a teacher’s work. This may be because the students in this study apparently believed that university PE teachers have little opportunity and limited autonomy in terms of curriculum decision-making (Wang et al., 2008) and this is, in fact, the reality in China. Perhaps it is time for policy-makers and researchers to think carefully about this. University management needs to consider adding curriculum development to the professional development programmes and they may need to tend to teachers to help them become much more involved in curriculum-related decision making.
It is recommended for further research that student focus group discussions and/or interviews be conducted, to explore the reasons for the key findings in this study. It might be valuable to investigate the concepts about excellent university PE teachers from combined perspectives, such as a university’s PE teachers and its PE management team, as this joint effort could serve to further validate our findings. In short, enhancing the quality of PE teaching and student learning experiences is a complex matter that requires the involvement of a range of stakeholders.