Design and validation of a questionnaire to assess the Pedagogical Content Knowledge of Colombian Physical Education students in the practicum

Background and Study Aim In the training of Physical Education teachers, the practicum is considered a final stage of the training. The practicum implies an amalgamation and connection of the different knowledge acquired at the University and that, when contrasted with the real classroom practice, plays a fundamental role in the future professional development. The purpose of this study was to design and validate a questionnaire to measure the Pedagogical Content Knowledge of the Physical Education teacher trainee in the context of the practicum. Material and Methods The participants were 146 practicum students of the Bachelor's degree program in Physical Education from four Colombian universities (115 men, 31 women, with an average age of 25.7 +/- 5.2 years). A non-experimental descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in two phases, the first one: content validity and the second phase related to the analysis of psychometric properties. Results A Content Validity Ratio of.92 was presented, which indicates a very high content validity based on Lawshe's model and with a sample of 10 expert judges in the field. In the exploratory factor analysis by the principal component analysis method and varimax rotation, 7 dimensions were proposed, with 36 items explaining 66.78 of the total variance of the instrument. The internal consistency was very satisfactory (alpha=.9). Conclusions The questionnaire provides a valid, trustable, and specific instrument, which allows identifying the knowledge that a Physical Education practice student has about pedagogy, context, evaluation, teaching strategies, students, experience, and content. Furthermore, understanding this type of knowledge is a precondition that can allow improving the curricular designs of Physical Education degree programs.