ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
The system and characteristics of teacher beliefs of preservice physical education teachers in China: a qualitative approach
Provisionally accepted
- Capital University of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing, China
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A qualitative study based on grounded theory was carried out to analyse the system of teacher beliefs of preservice physical education teachers (PPETs) in China. The study aimed to understand the components and characteristics of PPETs' beliefs in current China and a total of 25 participants from three Physical Education Teaching Education (PETE) programs in three different types of universities participated in this study. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews. There were three core categories identified, 1) professional cognition and 2) emotional experience and 3) behavioural disposition. Professional cognition comprises four components including curriculum comprehension, understanding of PE learning, teacher cognition and cognition of the teaching process. Emotional experience comprises three components including initial emotions, emotional development and emotional sublimation. Behavioural disposition comprises three components including behavioural experience of the vocation, behavioural choice of the vocation and future plans. It is also found the system of PPETs' beliefs is dynamic and can be divided into different phases. The findings contribute to the theoretical understanding of PPETs' beliefs and some suggestions for teacher educators are provided.
Keywords: Physical Education, physical education teaching education, preservice teacher, system, Teacher beliefs
Received: 16 Jul 2025; Accepted: 04 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 LI. 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: LIN LI
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