Re-thinking the field experience for pre-service physical education teacher education

Field experience constitutes a core part of pre-service teacher education programs. It enables student teachers to put theory into practice and helps them strengthen their self-image of a professional teacher. This paper suggests that field experience in physical education teacher education should be improved by making it more specific to physical education and more gradual in its development in terms of difficulty and complexity. A four-stage design for a PETE field experience program is then proposed to improve the current generic field experience design. Copyright © 2002 APJTED.