A status quo analysis on racquet sports teaching implementations in German primary schools

Physical education (PE) as a subject in German schools is often and controversially discussed in public and political debates. In the turn ofthe millennium, comprehensive educational reforms changed the task of PE in the federal school systems’ context in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW, federal state with the largest population in Germany). Thus, the curriculum stipulates the implementation of racketsports during the fourth school year. However, research examining the actual implementation of specific sports in PE is rare; in particularwith a focus on primary schools.
Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the actual implementation of racket sports at primaryschools’ PE, further addressing parameters that impact practical applied racket sport teaching.
551 NRW teachers volunteered to participate in this study (age: 44.91 ± 10.74 years, work experience: 17.17 ± 11 years as of male = 104,age: 49.49 ± 11.56, work experience: 21.82 ± 12.56 years and female = 433, age: 43.84 ± 10.16 years, work experience: 16.15 ± 10.29years). All participants were teaching PE at primary schools in NRW. A standardized questionnaire, including closed and open questionsin four thematic fields, was designed and sent using EvaSys®. Statistical analyses were computed using IBM SPSS 23® and Microsoft®Excel® 2011. Descriptive data calculated for the samples included frequency distribution and relative frequencies [%]. A chi-square test ofindependence was used, the level of significance was set at P < 0.05.
69.9% (as of relevant 541 participants) of the teachers teach racket sports in their primary school PE classes. The questionnaire’s item“Teaching racket sport in PE” was significantly related to “schools internal sport curriculum” (P=0.000), “work experience” (p= 0.001), “universitydegree in sport” (p=0.000) as well as “practicing racket sports during leisure time” (p= 0.000).
A 69.9% implementation of racket sports in PE is in line with the NRW core syllabus. With the school internal sports curricula, the workexperience, the university degree in sports, and practicing racket sports during leisure time having an impact on a teachers’ implementationof racket sports in PE, further expanding racket sports into PE teachers’ education may increase the implementation of racket sports inprimary school PE classes.Based on the present findings, it may be suggested that a change in study regulations, e.g. offering extra-occupational courses to teachers,may benefit the implementation of racket sports in primary school PE; however, additional research is necessary to examine possibleimpact differences between parameters and between different racket sports, e.g. Badminton, Tennis and Table Tennis.