Teaching Physical Education Online: Challenges and Coping Mechanism of PE Teachers

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been deemed the world's destructive Pandemic in recent years, spreading across the globe and affecting the quality of teaching learning in higher education. Teachers recently faced several obstacles when teaching physical education utilizing the new teaching modality. Hence, this phenomenological research explored the lived experiences of 10 PE teachers during pandemic and how they dealt with them especially distance learning. This study aims to understand the issues and solutions faced by physical education teachers in teaching online. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded. The categories were grouped, and themes were developed. The respondents were chosen through purposive sampling. As a result of the findings, three main themes connected to challenges were identified: digital literacy, network connectivity, and assessment learning. Patience and understanding, embracing the challenge, adapting and change, exploration, and listening and being considerate are four themes for coping mechanisms. Furthermore, three themes emerged from PE teachers' insights during the pandemic: It’s tough, adaptation is a must, and it's okay to deal with it. The findings revealed that online programs are manageable even though the educational system is dynamic and is changing constantly. Respondents make the required preparations to ensure that they will be able to meet all the obstacles presented by the new modality. Implications of the study findings are presented in this paper.

Keywords: physical education, challenges, coping mechanism, phenomenology, PE teachers

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/15-1-05

Publication date: January 31^st 2024