ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Teacher Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1615773
This article is part of the Research TopicPhysical Education, Health and Education Innovation-Vol IIIView all 17 articles
Can Cypriot Physical Education Teachers Fully Embrace Physical Literacy? An Initial Exploratory Sequential Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom
- 2University of Central Lancashire, Larnaca, Larnaca, Cyprus
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The purpose of this project was to explore whether Cypriot Physical Education (PE) teachers can fully embrace Physical Literacy (PL) and to determine the contributory factors. An exploratory sequential mixed methods design collected data from 135 Cypriot PE teachers utilizing the Teacher Change Questionnaire -Physical Education (TCQ-PE) and the Perceived Physical Literacy Instrument (PPLI) questionnaires. Follow-up semistructured interviews were then conducted and thematically analyzed (n=6). Findings revealed that only 23% of teachers demonstrated a willingness to change current practice. Most had generally high levels of the PPLI Knowledge construct perceived PL knowledge and understanding(M=4.59) but interviews found that actual selfreported knowledge was limited especially in relation to their awareness of PL's basis, its identification and aligned teaching behaviours. Key barriers and enablers to PL adoption were described and practical recommendations made. In conclusion the study identifies that both Top-down and bottom-up strategies are required with aligned professional development. Only it this happens will for PL be able to be embedded in Cyprus' Physical Education classes and achieve its health benefits for children..
Keywords: change, Disposition, Physical Literacy, teacher training, mixed methods, (Min.5-Max. 8)
Received: 29 Apr 2025; Accepted: 18 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Grecic, Christodoulides, Sprake and Tsivitanidou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: David Grecic, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom
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