The effects of a short-term professional development program on physical education teachers’ behaviour and students’ engagement in learning

This study examined the effect of a short-term training programme οn in-service physical education teachers’ behaviour and students’ engagement in learning. Teachers (n = 32) were randomly divided into an experimental and a control group. Each teacher’s behaviour was observed in six lessons; two for each measurement (pre, post and retention) and analysed with qualitative dimensions of lesson introduction, task presentations and lesson closure. Student engagement was analysed with the time analysis form. The total and successful attempts of selected students were also recorded. The experimental group attended a two-hour lecture followed by a two-hour practicum, and showed significant improvement and learning of all the examined behaviours as well as significantly higher performance than the control group. Also, students of the experimental teacher group presented significantly greater activity time, more practice attempts and more successful ones than their peers in the control group. The results establish the effect of the training programme on teacher behaviour and student engagement in learning.