Abstract

It is generally known that preschool teachers express positive attitudes toward physical activity (PA) for young children inasmuch as teachers consider it important to children’s well-being and overall development and learning. Less clear is the relationship between teachers’ positive attitudes in this regard and their backgrounds and classroom practices. A total of 149 preschool teachers completed questionnaires about physical activity practices in their classrooms. The results indicate that the majority of the teachers supported PA in preschool years. However, they have limited knowledge of and little competence in regard to teaching PA. Sixty-one percent of the teachers indicated their awareness of their limitations on this point and thus requested professional development opportunities relating to early-childhood PA. This study supports the case for concerted programming in an important yet neglected area of early-childhood education.

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