The PRIME PETE Mission

The mission of PRIME PETE is to prepare student teachers (generalists or specialists) as competent, analytically reflective, professionally effective professionals who are cognisant of personal health and wellbeing as they teach primary physical education.

Introduction

The PRIME PETE project partners recognize that one central issue for PETE curriculum or programme development is related to who teaches PE in primary schools. Hence the definition of a PE teacher merited discussion given the current diverse European-wide practices that need to be taken into account. Not all teachers who teach primary PE are specialist PE teachers in many contexts generalist primary teachers teach PE to children in primary schools.

When the terms “PE teacher” or “PETE (PE Teacher Education)” are used in the context of this project they refer to a teacher who has responsibility for teaching PE to children in primary schools or to a programme designed to educate any teacher who is teaching PE in primary schools. In summary, the project partners are adopting a general approach focusing on PE teacher education, allowing adaptation to national/regional contexts and/or different phases of teacher education. The diverse accreditation practices of well-established and legally constituted national PETE frameworks across Europe point to the need for flexibility in PETE provision to be recognized.

The PRIME PETE Project uses the terms ‘programme’ and ‘curriculum’ interchangeably and a definition is offered in the glossary.

The Erasmus+ project’s name PRIME PETE stands for Primary Physical Education Teacher Education.

The project involves 10 project partners – 9 higher education institutions and one international PE teacher association (see Partners). The project partners are collectively represented by teacher educators and/or researchers. They all have proven expertise in the field of PETE in primary education with which they pursue the following aims of the project:

PRIME PETE Objectives

bring together European Higher Education Institutions and other stakeholders active in Primary PETE and to foster their cooperation in PETE and mobility exchange
to provide an overview of Primary PETE in Europe
to inform and facilitate the formulation of a profile of a primary PE teacher and a modular curriculum
for Primary PETE based on this profile and core principles
to make this modular curriculum available for any interested stakeholders
to foster the delivery of Quality Physical Education (QPE) in primary education by strengthening the primary PE teacher profession

The PRIME PETE Mission

The mission of PRIME PETE is to prepare student teachers (generalists or specialists) as competent, analytically reflective, professionally effective professionals who are cognisant of personal health and wellbeing as they teach primary physical education.

Introduction

PRIME PETE Objectives

bring together European Higher Education Institutions and other stakeholders active in Primary PETE and to foster their cooperation in PETE and mobility exchange

to provide an overview of Primary PETE in Europe

to inform and facilitate the formulation of a profile of a primary PE teacher and a modular curriculum

for Primary PETE based on this profile and core principles

to make this modular curriculum available for any interested stakeholders

to foster the delivery of Quality Physical Education (QPE) in primary education by strengthening the primary PE teacher profession