Development and calibration of an instrument measuring barriers to physically active physical education classes

The purposes of this study were: (a) to develop and calibrate an instrument that measures barriers to providing physically active physical education classes and (b) to examine the severity of the barriers that teachers face and to determine differences in teacher perceived barriers by their characteristics. The study was conducted in two phases, consisting of a pilot study (N=66) and a calibration study (N=213). Rasch analysis was used in the calibration phase to investigate model-data fit and to examine the difficulty of the barriers. Results indicated that the model fit the data well, and that the two most severe barriers were 'I do not have enough fitness equipment' and 'students bring notes from parents to be excused from activity'. Results from t-tests suggested that the barriers teachers faced in providing physically active classes differed in terms of their years of teaching experience and level of teaching.