Teacher candidate perceptions of the edTPA in physical and health education

Abstract

The purpose of this exploratory case study was to investigate physical and health education teacher candidate' s perceptions of factors influencing effective implementation of edTPA at one teacher preparation program in the Southeastern United States. The participants were six physical and health education teacher candidates who had recently completed the edTPA portfolio. In line with the principles of case study methodology data were collected through the application of a Qualtrics survey, followed by focus group and one-on-one interviews. NVivo 11 Pro software package was employed to analyse data using analytic induction and constant comparison techniques. The analysis revealed that the factors that influenced participant experiences of the edTPA fell into four themes: (a) tandem cooperating teachers and teacher candidates' edTPA learning, (b) essential faculty support, (c) boot camp workshop support, and (d) effective mock submissions. The study reveals that there are a number of strategic interventions that can improve the effectiveness of edTPA programs. These include, but are not limited to, targeted training for cooperating teachers, involving physical and health education faculty in boot camp workshops, and assigning mock edTPA assignments during methods courses.

“I Can Help Them Become Better Teachers, But I Can’t Help Them With Educative Teacher Performance Assessment”: Cooperating Teachers’ Knowledge and Experience of the Educative Teacher Performance Assessment in Physical and Health Education

“…It has been suggested that CTs knowledge of edTPA could improve over time through the supervision of TCs in states where it has only recently been adopted (Holden et al, 2020). However, this informal training approach is not ideal, as this study discovered.…”

“…Those CTs who have been provided with suitable training have reported more confidence in their TC supervising role during edTPA (Kissau et al, 2019;Seymour et al, 2018). These findings of CT opinions are supported by TCs' perceptions of CT views (Burns et al, 2015;Holden et al, 2020). Several scholars have concluded that adequate training for CTs is imperative if teacher preparation programs are to better educate and support TCs through edTPA (Behney, 2016;Burns et al, 2015;Holden et al, 2020;Lindauer et al, 2013).…”

“…These findings of CT opinions are supported by TCs' perceptions of CT views (Burns et al, 2015;Holden et al, 2020). Several scholars have concluded that adequate training for CTs is imperative if teacher preparation programs are to better educate and support TCs through edTPA (Behney, 2016;Burns et al, 2015;Holden et al, 2020;Lindauer et al, 2013).…”

“…Interviews were employed as the sole primary data collection method because they allowed the researchers to obtain rich data from the CTs in alignment with the thematic analysis methodology that emphasizes participant views (Creswell, 2014; Sarantakos, 2005). Interview questions were developed from an extensive examination of edTPA literature and the findings of comparable studies (see Behney, 2016; Holden et al, 2020; Lindauer et al, 2013; Seymour et al, 2018). In addition, the edTPA experiences of the lead investigators (professors in PE and health teacher education with involvement in methods courses that assess TCs’ mock edTPA assignments) enriched the development of appropriate interview questions.…”

“…A lack of empirical research regarding TC perceptions of edTPA in PE and health is conspicuous by its absence and must be addressed if TC preparation in this realm is to be enhanced. A detailed literature review found only one published empirical study within this field (see Holden et al, 2020), the findings of which suggested that TCs believed CTs lacked the knowledge and experience demanded of edTPA and needed to support them better. TCs recommended that CTs participate in edTPA training to improve their support for TCs during edTPA.…”