Career profile Physical Education Professor

Table of Contents

• What does a Physical Education Professor do?
• What is a typical salary for a Physical Education Professor?
• What personality traits are common among Physical Education Professors?
  • Career Interests
  • Values
  • Psychological Demands
• What education and training do Physical Education Professors need?
  • Typical educational degrees
  • Required knowledge and expertise
  • Important abilities
  • Critical skills

What does a Physical Education Professor do?

Physical Education Professors teach courses pertaining to recreation, leisure, and fitness studies, including exercise physiology and facilities management.

In addition, Physical Education Professors includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.

What kind of tasks does a Physical Education Professor perform regularly?

Physical Education Professors are often responsible for overseeing or executing some or all of the following tasks:

• Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
• Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, or handouts.
• Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
• Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, papers, and oral presentations.
• Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as anatomy, therapeutic recreation, and conditioning theory.
• Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.
• Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, giving presentations at conferences, and serving on committees in professional associations.
• Compile, administer, and grade examinations or assign this work to others.
• Advise students on academic and vocational curricula, and on career issues.
• Supervise undergraduate or graduate teaching, internship, and research work.
• Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students.
• Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in scholarly journals, books, or electronic media.
• Serve on academic or administrative committees that deal with institutional policies, departmental matters, and academic issues.
• Participate in student recruitment, registration, and placement activities.
• Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues.
• Select and obtain materials and supplies, such as textbooks and performance pieces.
• Write grant proposals to procure external research funding and review others' grant proposals.
• Compile bibliographies of specialized materials for outside reading assignments.
• Participate in campus and community events.

The above responsibilities are specific to Physical Education Professors. More generally, Physical Education Professors are involved in several broader types of activities:

What is a Physical Education Professor salary?

What personality traits are common among Physical Education Professors?

Interests

Career interests describe a person's preferences for different types of working environments and activities. When a person's interest match the demands of an occupation, people are usually more engaged and satisfied in that role.

Compared to most occupations, those who work as a Physical Education Professor are usually higher in their Social, Realistic, and Artistic interests.

Physical Education Professors typically have very strong Social interests. Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

Also, Physical Education Professors typically have moderate Realistic interests. Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.

Lastly, Physical Education Professors typically have moderate Artistic interests. Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.

Values

People differ in their values, or what is most important to them for building job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Compared to most people, those working as a Physical Education Professor tend to value Relationships, Achievement, and Independence.

Most importantly, Physical Education Professors very strongly value Relationships. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment.

Second, Physical Education Professors strongly value Achievement. Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment.

Lastly, Physical Education Professors strongly value Independence. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to work on their own and make decisions.

Psychological Demands

Each occupation brings its own set of psychological demands, which describe the characteristics necessary to perform the job well.

In order to perform their job successfully, people who work as Physical Education Professors must consistently demonstrate qualities such as initiative, dependability, and integrity.

Below, you'll find a list of qualities typically required of Physical Education Professors, ranked by importance:

What education and training do Physical Education Professors need?

Many Physical Education Professors have earned a graduate degree. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a doctoral degree, such as a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D..

Physical Education Professors may need some on-the-job training, but most candidates will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Educational degrees among Physical Education Professors

• 0.6% did not complete high school or secondary school
• 1.4% completed high school or secondary school
• 2.0% completed some college coursework
• 1.8% earned a Associate's degree
• 14.6% earned a Bachelor's degree
• 32.1% earned a Master's degree
• 47.4% earned a doctorate or professional degree

Knowledge and expertise required by Physical Education Professors

Important Abilities needed by Physical Education Professors

Physical Education Professors must develop a particular set of abilities to perform their job well. Abilities are individual capacities that influence a person's information processing, sensory perception, motor coordination, and physical strength or endurance. Individuals may naturally have certain abilities without explicit training, but most abilities can be sharpened somewhat through practice.

For example, Physical Education Professors need abilities such as oral expression, oral comprehension, and written comprehension in order to perform their job at a high level. The list below shows several important abilities for Physical Education Professors, ranked by their relative importance.

Critical Skills needed by Physical Education Professors

Skills are developed capacities that enable people to function effectively in real-world settings. Unlike abilities, skills are typically easier to build through practice and experience. Skills influence effectiveness in areas such as learning, working with others, design, troubleshooting, and more.

Physical Education Professors frequently use skills like speaking, instructing, and reading comprehension to perform their job effectively. The list below shows several critical skills for Physical Education Professors, ranked by their relative importance.

What is the source of this information?

The information provided on this page is adapted from data and descriptions published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration under the CC BY 4.0 license. TraitLab has modified some information for ease of use and reading, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment, and Training Administration has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

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