High School Teachers’ Attitudes and Use of Fitness Tests

• In Event: Interest, Attitudes, Cognition, and Student Learning in Physical Education

Abstract

Recommendations for using and implementing fitness tests have been presented. Teachers’ attitudes toward fitness tests have also begun to be studied. What is less understood, however, is how high school teachers use fitness tests and the role their attitudes play in how they use fitness tests — ultimately affecting students’ attitudes toward physical activity. High school physical education teachers (N = 149) from 50 school districts completed an attitudes toward fitness tests survey with additional items on how they used fitness tests. Results indicated that teachers often do not implement fitness tests as recommended. Teachers who more frequently taught using fitness concepts showed significantly higher affective attitudes and teachers who sent fitness test results home showed significantly higher cognitive attitudes.

Authors

• Kevin Mercier, Adelphi University

• Sharon Rose Phillips, Hofstra University

• Stephen Silverman, Teachers College, Columbia University