Train pre-service teachers on their role in implementing a Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program (CSPAP)

A story from South Carolina

When Dr. Webster, Associate Dean for Research and Innovation in the College of Education at the University of South Carolina, began teaching his one semester physical education (PE) course for pre-service classroom teachers, he quickly realized that the course did not meet the actual needs of these future teachers.  Notably, most students graduating from USC’s education program were never going to teach PE since South Carolina requires a specialist to teach the subject at grade levels.  With that in mind, he updated the course to emphasize the role of a classroom teacher as a physical activity promoter.  We spoke with him to learn about the updates he made to this course.

Key Takeaways

Communicate the multi-faceted role a classroom teacher can have in promoting physical activity. While the majority of education students may not become physical educators, Dr. Webster recognized that “all teachers can work in their classrooms, recess environments, before and after school programs, and with families and communities and can be a major support in promoting physical activity.”

Integrate the course at the appropriate time in a student’s program of study. Initially, this course was offered to all students at any time in their program of study. As a result, freshmen undergraduates were taking the course at the same time as graduate students, resulting in a wide disparity in knowledge and skills. After strategizing with early childhood education and elementary education faculty in the college, now the course takes place after students have a foundation in teaching and lesson planning, and opportunities to apply learnings in their pre-service field placements.

“The course comes at a time when students already have access to schools, they’ve practiced lesson planning in other coursework, they have certain prerequisite skills that makes the course more uniform in how we can approach a successful learning experience for everyone in the class.”