Development of a Scale Measuring Chinese Preservice Physical Education Teachers’ Beliefs About the Physical Education Profession

This project aimed to develop a valid and reliable scale measuring Chinese preservice physical education teachers’ beliefs about the physical education profession (PPET-BPEP). The domains and items were created from a conceptual analysis of the previous literature and PPETs’ responses to an open-ended survey. Six experts in the field of physical education and educational psychology evaluated the content validity of the scale. The reliability and factorial validity of the scale were examined utilizing a sample of 696 Chinese PPETs. The PPET-BPEP scale with 12 items embedded in two domains revealed acceptable content validity, internal structure validity, and internal consistency. The two domains were labeled as “sense of calling” and “value of physical education profession” based on the shared content of items in each domain. We recommend using PPET-BPEP scale for PPET recruitment and preparation. The scale can also help establish teacher belief scales in other subject matters. Future validation of the scale is needed in different countries and institutions.