Abstract (eng)
Background: When exploring the good, high-quality “Physical Education (PE)”, the profes- sional knowledge of the teacher plays a major role. The professional knowledge comprises the knowledge one has to have in order to enable a lasting education. This far-reaching subject matter was given a lot of attention in other subjects – however a modelling of pro- fessional knowledge as well as the empirical study is still missing in PE. So, on the basis of or in contrast to already existing models, a specially designed model is theoretically justified, relevant facets are filtered out, then the pros and cons of the model are discussed and, lastly, the model is empirically tested.
Method: To test the model empirically, a specially designed questionnaire is given to a large amount of PE teachers. At the beginning of the study it was planned to question at least 100 PE teachers. At the end of the study, which took place from January until March 2016, 193 PE teaches filled out the questionnaire. The results were analyzed with SPSS.
Results: The statistical analysis shines light on various issues. On the one hand, the ques- tionnaire at hand was proven to be regardless of gender. So, no significant different was found when the results of men and women were compared. On the other hand, no signifi- cant coherence of age of service and professional knowledge was detected. Next, the divi- sion in pedagogical knowledge, didactical knowledge as well as specialist knowledge was empirically proven.
Conclusion: The results give a first insight into the professional knowledge of Austrian PE teachers. Moreover, the results provide great insights for the revision of the current curric- ulum guidelines in the PE teacher training program.