Investigation of the relationship between physical education teachers' educational philosophy trends, their readiness for authentic learning, and their attitudes towards authentic assessment methods

In this study, the educational philosophy trends of physical education teachers are identified, and the relationship of these trends with their readiness for authentic learning and their attitudes towards authentic assessment methods are examined in terms of gender, age, school level, years of service, and the location of the school they work at. In the research, data were collected using the "Personal Information Form," "Educational Philosophy Trends Scale," "Authentic Learning Readiness Scale for Teachers," and finally the "Attitude Scale towards Authentic Assessment Methods." The population of the study consisted of N=49,513 physical education teachers working under the Ministry of National Education (MEB), while the sample consisted of n=583 physical education teachers. In the research, the quantitative data collected were analyzed by calculating the arithmetic means (X̅), standard deviations (Ss), frequencies (f), percentages (%), Cronbach's Alpha values (α), as well as the measures of skewness and kurtosis. Subsequently, independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson correlation coefficient (r), simple and multiple linear regression analyses were conducted. The results of the analyses were interpreted based on the significance level of p<0.05. In this research, the following conclusions have been reached: Physical education teachers have shown the highest inclination towards progressive and the lowest inclination towards conservative educational philosophies. The readiness of physical education teachers for authentic learning and their attitudes towards authentic assessment methods were found to be high. Significant differences were found among groups of physical education teachers based on gender, school level, years of service, and work location regarding their educational philosophy dimensions (p<0.05). Significant differences were found among groups of physical education teachers in terms of their readiness for authentic learning based on gender, school level, and work location (p<0.05). However, there were no significant differences among groups of physical education teachers in their attitudes towards authentic assessment methods based on gender, age, school level, years of service, and work location (p>0.05). In the study, age was not found to have a significant effect (p>0.05). There was a moderately positive and significant relationship between progressive and reconstructive educational philosophy trends and readiness for authentic learning (r=0,56, r=0,49; p<0.05). There was a moderately negative and significant relationship between the essentialist educational philosophy trend and attitudes towards authentic assessment methods (r=-0.44; p<0.05). Approximately 24% of the variance in physical education teachers' levels of readiness for authentic learning can be explained by their reconstructivist educational philosophy trends. Moreover, around 22% of the variance in physical education teachers' attitudes towards authentic assessment methods can be explained by their essentialist and reconstructivist educational philosophy trends.