The contest for movement education teachers in primary schools: issues of the written exam

Purpose: On December 15, 2023, the written test for the first competition for teaching movement education in primary schools was held, reserved for graduates with a master's degree in Exercise and Sports Science (ESS), of which only 7% achieved a positive outcome. The aim was twofold: to measure the frequency of errors within each disciplinary field and their impact on the test result; to identify trends, relationships, and correlations among the variables to analyze and interpret the reasons for the negative outcome.Methods: The study involved 100 sport science candidates from 15 Italian regions, recruited nationally through direct inquiries using personal contacts and social platforms. After obtaining informed consent, candidates were asked to submit their written tests, omitting identifying data. Spearman's correlation was used to analyze relationships between variables. Multiple regression was used to assess the impact of errors in each field on the final score.Results: The biomedical area showed the strongest negative correlation with the final score, followed by the regulatory, psycho-pedagogical, ESS and English fields. The regression model predicting the final test score based on the errors in each field was statistically significant (P= .001); particularly, errors in the regulatory field seemed to have a greater impact on determining the final score.Conclusions: The study achieved its objective by clarifying that the high rate of negative outcomes was not due to flaws attributable to the specific training of the graduates in sports sciences, as they performed well in the ESS and psycho-pedagogical sections