Adapted physical education professors' perceptions of teaching behaviors of effective general and adapted physical educators

The purpose of this investigation was to determine, and then compare and contrast, the performance-based teaching behaviors of effective practitioners in three different environments: (a) general physical education (GPE) teachers who work with students without disabilities; (b) GPE teachers who work with students with disabilities in an integrated setting; and (c) adapted physical education (APE) teachers who work with students with disabilities in a segregated setting. A mixed methods design using both qualitative and quantitative methods with sequential procedures was used (Creswell, 2003). The sampling design was purposive. Participants (N = 10) were professors of master's degree programs in Adapted Physical Activity, Adapted Physical Education, and/or Special Physical Education. The questionnaire, Performance-based Teaching Behaviors of General and Adapted Physical Educators , consisted of informed consent information and a combination of close-ended (rating scale) and open-ended (comment) questions. Questions were developed using a three-phase approach: (a) an in-depth review and analysis of performance-based teaching behaviors listed in the literature, the National Standards for Beginning Physical Education Teachers (NASPE, 2003), the Standards for Advanced Programs in Physical Education Teacher Education (NASPE, 2001), and the Adapted Physical Education National Standards (Kelly, 2006); (b) information regarding performance-based teaching behaviors obtained from interviews; and (c) validity and reliability measures. Data were collected in summer of 2008. Participants were asked to rank the importance of each of the 145 teaching behaviors for each of the three physical education environments. Data were analyzed using descriptive and nonparametric statistics. Within the limitations of this study, both similarities and differences were identified in the teaching behaviors of effective physical educators who work with and without students with disabilities. Based on the results of this study, a number of teaching behaviors are necessary for effective physical education teachers in any setting and additional teaching behaviors are required for the effective teaching of students with disabilities in both general and adapted physical education.