SITUATION ANALYSIS OF TABLE TENNIS AS PHYSICAL EDUCATION CONTENT IN SECONDARY EDUCATION

The aim of this study is to find out whether secondary school teachers who teach physical education (PE) use table tennis as educational content, and to analyze the potential barriers to develop it. TTAQ questionnaire was used for conducting this research. The research involved 196 teachers (142 male and 54 female) of 104 secondary schools in the Region of Murcia (Spain). 23.5% of the surveyed teachers used the table tennis as an educational content. Age (p<0.001), gender (p<0.002), the administrative status (p<0.02) and the teaching experience of teachers (p<0.001) become barriers to teach this sport. The barriers scale was significantly higher in men than in women (p<0.02) and correlated with age (r=0.34, p<0.003). There is a link between not teaching table tennis (r=0.35; p<0.003) and to voice difficulties due to facilities (p<0.001; chi(2)=16.89) and materials (r=0.35; p<0.003). The content of table tennis in the PE classes does not have a major impact. Educational barriers, adequate facilities, specific materials (tables available) and curriculum material (books, videos, lesson plans, etc.) are argued to give table tennis lessons. The older and teaching experienced teachers are the higher resistance to use the table tennis as content. A stable administrative status is a barrier to introduce sport in PE classes. It is further observed that non-specialist professionals in PE become more open to teach table tennis.