Can Practicum Teaching Change Preservice Physical Education Teacher Value Orientations?

The purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which practicum teaching could lead to value orientation change of preservice physical education teachers. A group of preservice physical education teachers (N = 28) in China were randomly assigned to practicum-teach either a health-related fitness unit or a traditional sport unit. Their value orientations were measured before and after the practicum teaching. Their middle school learners were tested for knowledge gain. A repeated-measures model shows that the practicum teaching led to little change in their value orientations. The learners in the health-fitness curriculum gained more knowledge than those in the traditional curriculum. The findings suggest that an attempt to influence the value orientation in one practicum teaching experience may not be successful. The findings imply that physical education teacher education training programs may emphasize not only how to teach (via teaching methods courses), but also nurturing the values of teaching to meet the society needs.