Physical Education Teacher Education Majors’ Perceptions and Opinions of Social Skills in Physical Education Class

Abstract

The world requires that people interact with those they work with, live with, and play with. Because of these interactions with others, it is important that people exhibit proper social skills to get along and be successful in everyday activities. Within an educational context physical education (PE) class is a prime place for students to learn social skills and interact with classmates and their teachers properly. Research has been conducted in the context of PE with populations of K–12 students and PE teachers. Yet there is a paucity of research with physical education teacher education (PETE) majors regarding social skills in PE class. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate PETE majors’ perceptions and opinions of social skills in PE. For this study, 30 PETE majors (5 males, 25 females) from a private university in the Western United States were surveyed regarding their perceptions and opinions of social skills in PE class. It was generally found that PETE majors feel they will play an important part in teaching students’ proper social skills, sportsmanship is an important aspect in PE class, and PE class is a great context in which to teach social skills compared to other content areas.