Perceived expertise among physical education teachers: the role of personal and contextual factors

Abstract

This article focuses on teacher perceived expertise (TPE) influenced by both contextual and individual characteristics. By using a validated questionnaire based on two dimensions of TPE, i.e. subject matter and pedagogical expertise, the present study compares TPE in physical education (PE) to that of other subjects and examines the role of selected key personal variables and teaching context characteristics in TPE. Following a 2 × 2 * 2 MANCOVA, data on 482 teachers revealed a significant main effect of teacher sex and subject taught and a significant interaction effect between teaching context and subject taught on TPE, with a notably higher level of perceived subject-matter expertise for other-subject teachers than for PE teachers and for French other-subject teachers (than for French and Swiss PE teachers and Swiss other-subject teachers). This study discusses the importance of pedagogical expertise in TPE and of the interaction effects between personal and contextual factors on subject-matter expertise.