Classroom Teachers' Perceived Barriers to Implementing Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programs (TPB- CSPAP):...

Area of Science:

• Educational Psychology
• Public Health
• Kinesiology

Background:

• Classroom teachers influence most student movement during the school day.
• Physical education teachers champion whole-school physical activity programs.
• Identifying classroom teacher barriers is crucial for program adoption.

Purpose of the Study:

• Develop an instrument to identify classroom teacher barriers to whole-school physical activity programs.
• Support the implementation of school-wide physical activity initiatives.

Main Methods:

• Instrument development followed a four-step process: literature review, expert review, quantitative evaluation, and validation.
• A validation phase involved 520 teachers (elementary and secondary).
• Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFA and CFA) were used to evaluate the instrument's models.

Main Results:

• Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported models with adequate fit for both elementary and secondary teachers.
• Specific fit indices (SRMR and Bentler CFI) indicated reliable data for identified barriers.
• The instrument effectively captured perceived barriers for whole-school programming.

Conclusions:

• The developed instrument can identify classroom teacher barriers to implementing whole-school physical activity programs.
• School personnel and researchers can use this tool to address and reduce identified barriers.
• Facilitating program adoption requires understanding and mitigating teacher-perceived obstacles.