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Educating the Student Body
BOX 5-8 
National Association for Sport and
Physical Education Standards for Beginning 
Physical Education Teachers
Initial Standards
1.
Scientific and theoretical knowledge
: Physical education teacher 
candidates know and apply discipline-specific scientific and theo-
retical concepts critical to the development of physically educated 
individuals.
2.
Skill-based and fitness-based competence
: Physical education 
teacher candidates are physically educated individuals with the 
knowledge and skills necessary to demonstrate competent move-
ment performance and health-enhancing fitness as delineated in the 
NASPE K-12 standards.
3.
Planning and implementation
: Physical education teacher candidates 
plan and implement developmentally appropriate learning experi-
ences aligned with local, state, and national standards to address 
the diverse needs of all students.
4.
Instructional delivery and management
: Physical education teacher 
candidates use effective communication and pedagogical skills and 
strategies to enhance student engagement and learning.
that were training future teacher educators (Boyce and Rikard, 2011a). A 
total of 140 doctoral students were receiving training offered by 114 profes-
sors (including part-time), and 11 percent of those professors were planning 
to retire. Boyce and Rikard (2011a) report that in the past 13 years, 479 
doctoral students graduated as physical education teacher educators—36.8 
each year on average—89 percent of whom were able to find positions in 
colleges and universities. During the same period, 61 positions were open, 
only 39 of which were filled (64 percent), with an applicant pool of 38 
candidates with earned degrees and 13 who completed the doctoral course-
work but did not complete the dissertation research (Boyce and Rikard, 
2011b). Clearly there is a shortage of physical education teacher educators 

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Educating the Student Body: Taking Physical Activity and Physical Education to School
Approaches to Physical Education in Schools
 
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5.
Impact on student learning
: Physical education teacher candidates 
use assessments and reflection to foster student learning and inform 
decisions about instruction.
6.
Professionalism
: Physical education teacher candidates demonstrate 
dispositions essential to becoming effective professionals.