Teaching Tertiary Physical Education in the New Normal: Gains, Drawbacks, and Suggestions

Abstract

The difficulty on the current situation brought by the COVID-19 Pandemic around the globe resulted in the students' insufficient knowledge, most especially in Physical Education subjects. It happens as the closure of institutions, colleges, and universities are closed immediately. In the Philippines, there are studies concerning medical fields and other necessary fields on front in fighting with the virus; however, few chose to talk about the gains, drawbacks, and suggestions based on teachers teaching at the tertiary level. Hence, this research was realized, and it aimed to: identify the favorable experiences of Tertiary Physical Education Teachers; determine the problems and challenges of Tertiary Physical Education Teachers; and generate sensible and feasible suggestions from the research participants to further improve the delivery of tertiary Physical Education and Health courses amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic. The data gathering method used was an In-Depth Interview. Research participants from selected schools in Cotabato Province in Mindanao, Philippines, were involved in an informal, unstructured, and open-ended type of interview to make the participants comfortable conceptualizing their thoughts and have the freedom to organize them into essential categories. In this paper, the tertiary physical education teachers have seen to cope with the fast-pacing new normal era and developed the character of resiliency. Thus, the tertiary physical education teachers have been creative than ever as they make the subject engaging despite the unfitted mode of teaching required for physical education. Moreover, conclusions and recommendations are based on the research findings.