The Examination of Physical Education and Sport Students Depth of Content Knowledge

Abstract

Effective teaching requires consistency between teachers’ goals and students’ learning outcomes. Content knowledge is one of the important knowledge bases for effective teaching. Content knowledge constitutes two sub-domains which are common content knowledge (CCK) and specialized content knowledge (SCK). The purpose of this study was to examine the depth of gymnastics content knowledge of students enrolled in physical education teacher education, sport management and coaching education departments. Participants were 32 coaching education, 36 sport management and 48 physical education teacher education, totally 116 students. To measure the depth of CCK of participants, gymnastics CCK test was utilized. Content maps were used for measuring participants’ depth of SCK. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA were used for statistical calculations. Results showed that CCK scores of three groups were lower than expected value (at least 70% correct answers). The physical education teacher education students’ mean SCK score was higher than the benchmark (3.0 or over) that distinguishes between deeper and shallower content knowledge. Sport management and coaching education students did not reach the benchmark score. ANOVA results indicated that physical education teacher education students’ CCK and SCK levels significantly better than coaching education and sport management students. Findings demonstrate that CCK and SCK can and should be saliently taught to teachers.