Physical education teachers' opinions relation to character education and practices

In this study, physical education teachers' views on the term of character and character education, and their views on character education games and practices that they integrated into the curriculum of physical education and sport lessons in order to develop good character virtues in students were investigated. Qualitative research method and phenomenology research design were used in the research. The study group of the research was selected based on snowball sampling and criterion sampling, which are purposeful sampling methods in qualitative research. Seven female and 15 male, a total of 22 physical education teachers working in private and public schools; aged between 29-60 (Mean=44.09, SD=7.44) and have professional experience ranging from 5-35 years (Mean=20.68, SD=6.97) participated to the research. Character Education Efficacy Belief Instrument (CEEBI), personal information form and semi-structured interview form were used as data collection tools in the research. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. Five themes emerged as a result of the analysis. These themes are "opinions about the concept of character", "opinions about the reasons for the necessity of character education", "opinions about the content of physical education course in character education", "opinions about the role of physical education teacher in character education" and "recommendations of physical education teachers". According to the interviews with physical education teachers, character is certain characteristics such as values, affective and behavioral phenomena, and the main factors affecting the development of these characteristics are family, school and environment. According to the opinions, good character virtues and bad character traits were determined. In addition, the virtues that can be developed in students through character education have been determined. It has been stated by the teachers that through character education activities, experiences and evaluations, students can adopt certain virtues and transfer these virtues to their daily lives. Physical education teachers' reasons to include character education in their lessons are that character education has an effective and important role in character education because it has the function of supporting positive behaviors and preventing negative behaviors, and the course contains some elements. The reasons for physical education teachers to include character education in their lessons are the supportive function of positive behaviors and the preventive function of negative behaviors. In addition, since the course contains 6 different elements, it has an active and important role in character education. To encourage and develop good character in their lessons, teachers use approaches such as curriculum-integrated classroom discussions, open instruction, holistic approach, project-based learning, and teachable moments and also games and apps for character education. Teachers use applications such as feedback, observations, and student portfolios to assess whether character education goals have been achieved. It has been determined that the physical education teacher has a very important and effective role in character education due to the necessity of being a role model for the students and the necessity to include character education through activities in their lessons. Physical education teachers have made many suggestions for student and teacher education by expressing their ideas on how to make character education more effective and effective. In addition, physical education teachers have suggested different types of resources that other teachers can benefit from.