Quality Physical Education (QPE) –

The Research, Findings and Inspiration for the QPE Study from 2010 to present

Walter Ho (University of Macau)

The United Nation Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) initiated the International Charter of Physical Education and Sport in 1978. As a follow up, member nations of UNESCO implemented different policies to achieve the quality aspects of physical education (PE) in schools. However, the UNESCO’s World-wide School PE Survey conducted in 2013 indicated a different picture of success between nations. This observation emerged curiosity among stakeholders for investigating antecedents of success and strategies for developing QPE. In 2009, the representatives from the four international associations namely ISCPES, FIEP, AIFAP and IAPESGW met in Brisbane and had the discussion of the issues in Quality Physical Education (QPE). There was the suggestion to conduct the QPE study in 2010. The project was then assisted by the team from Macau and different phases were initiated for this investigation. The phase which initiated in 2010 focused on the collection of statements in QPE. The team was able to collect responses from 436 professionals spanning from 44 countries. The next step focused on the garnered responses and these statements were scanned to potential items that were suitable to the QPE study. As such, 105 statements were identified in the initial scanning. Following the two-stage content-validity process, items were trimmed down to 65 items underlying 8 dimensions. These 65 items served as the foundation for the next questionnaire survey in late 2014. In this survey N=1669 responses were collected from PE professionals in 24 countries. Furthermore, data from three continents were analysed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). During the analytical process, a few items were detained due to low factor loading. As such the questionnaire survey helped to finalize the 48 items with 8 dimensions that were excellent with good psychometric properties and fit for research. With this understanding, the team in Macau decided to initiate the project of ‘Global Index of QPE (GIQPE)’ in late 2019. The project’s overarching aim is to design a questionnaire to comprehend the development of QPE development in nations and continents. The project also aimes to facilitate discussion of strategies to achieve success in QPE and barriers that limit its advocacy. The items consisting in the GIQPE questionnaire is identical to the findings in 2015. With the great help from different partners, it is successful to have the responses from 5911 professionals spanning from 87 cities. These numbers include all the returns from cities with sufficient number of responds for data analysis and places with few returns but will be good to serve as references in the study. Collection of data has been concluded recently, however, our team makes a few invitations in Asia and Africa to follow the data collection as extra information may help in advancing closer observation of strategies that have intrinsic value to this research work. Nevertheless, the data that are currently available helps to develop a very good data pool for analytical works in cities, nations, continents and between regions. This Panel Session on QPE study invite members from the research team in Macau to share the following issues.

1. The developmental process of QPE Research from 2010 to 2021 and beyond
2. The research tool development for QPE study and methodology for QPE research
3. The GIQPE Study – the overall work and performances of QPE in continents and cities
4. Cases Report on QPE development
5. QPE study – the issues, scenario and future strategies in investigation

The sharing in this Panel Session expects to help academics, professionals and planners who are interested in the quality works of PE in school to explore the QPE issue from different perspectives. There is the hope that you will find it valuable and engage as a member in the coming research works.