Students’ Perceptions of the Physiques of Self and Physical Educators Timothy Baghurst Health and Human Performance Oklahoma State University

Introduction NASPE’s mission is to enhance knowledge, improve professional practice, and increase support for high quality physical education, sport, and physical activity programs. “Participating in regular physical activity at a level sufficient to promote health-related physical fitness is an important behavior for professionals in all fields of physical activity at all levels, including coaches, K-12 teachers, physical educators and kinesiology faculty members at higher education institutions, and fitness professionals.”

Introduction Cont. All physical education professionals are expected to achieve these NASPE standards. There is little research investigating whether they are being met by educators in both school and university physical education programs. But why is this important?

Perceptions A fit physique is perceived to be a healthy physique. Students scored higher on fitness tests when the physical education teacher was perceived to be fit. Fit physical education instructors have been found to be significantly more liked, more knowledgeable, and a perceived expert on physical fitness.

Purpose Although an educator’s size does not necessarily dictate health, the perception is that larger physiques are less healthy. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine PETE students’ perceptions of the physiques of themselves and others in the physical education discipline.

Method - Participants 120 (67 male, 53 female) undergraduate students enrolled in physical education teacher education (PETE) programs who were in attendance at a state AHPERD conferences in one of four Southern states. 97 (81%) identified themselves as Caucasian, 15 (12.5%) African American, 5 as Hispanic/Latino (4%), and 3 (2.5%) as Other. 21% of participants were married.

Method - Instruments Survey designed for the study. Participants answered questions about physiques using the Contour Drawing Rating Scale (CDRS)

Method – Instruments 4 general categories which asked questions about the physiques of the (a) general population (b) current educators (c) current practitioners (d) the participant. Each participant was required to identify what physique he or she thought the individual under consideration currently resembled and what they should resemble. Each question was asked for each gender.

Method – Procedures IRB approval and pilot study conducted. Participants recruited at main conference table or following the general assembly. Data collection occurred over a one year period.

Results Overall Statistical differences were found for all tests with regard to contrasts between perceived body physiques of self and other physical educators (p < .001). For each pairing, the score for each “current” perception was higher compared to the corresponding “ideal” perception.

Results Overall

Results by Gender of Figure With regard to differences between perceptions by gender, five of the six tests were significant (p < .001) In each pairing, the score for the perception of females was lower compared to the corresponding perception of males. For example, within the same category (i.e., physical educator in the field) females were perceived to be significantly smaller than their male counterpart. There was no significant difference between the perceptions of the male versus female physiques of university level physical educators (p > .11).

Results by Participant Gender Means for Significant ANOVAs for Males vs. Females (all significant)   Males Females Perception of: M SD Average in Field PE Female 5.92 1.41 6.43 1.08 Ideal in Field PE Female 4.97 0.98 5.43 Current Self Physique 6.14 1.27 5.55 1.75 Ideal Self Physique 5.28 0.78 4.71 1.16

Discussion In physical education, modeling health and fitness becomes more than just a personal choice. Yes, university physical educators, physical educators, and the participants themselves were found to possess a significantly larger physique than ideal. This is concerning, as the importance of physical education professionals living a healthy lifestyle has been well-documented both in national standards and within academe.

Discussion Continued Both male and female participants reported larger physiques than ideal. This could be detrimental to their job prospects. However, getting this concept across to students could be problematic if students’ physique is similar to that of their educator or their supervising teacher. Do as I say, not as I do problem?

Recommendations and Conclusions PETE students perceive physiques among the physical education profession, including themselves, to be larger than ideal. Fitness testing needs to be re-evaluated regarding its effectiveness as a measure of achieving and maintaining health enhancing levels of physical fitness. With respect to the profession, PETE students appear to lack modeling examples, as physical education teachers and university educators were perceived to be significantly larger than they should be. Governing bodies for physical education need to consider strategies to motivate physical educators at all levels to better model their own teaching.

tbaghurst@live.com