Physical education Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programs allow students to study and conduct research in a variety of areas. Curriculum, exercise science, sports administration, adaptive physical education, and sport pedagogy are just a few of the specialties available to students. Obtaining a PhD in physical education is a difficult task; however, if students are willing to devote four to six years to graduate school, they can achieve their goal.
The path to obtaining a physical education degree Graduate school is not the place to start if you want to get a PhD. Rather, the path begins in the first year of college. There are two ways to qualify for a doctorate in physical education. An undergraduate degree in physical education is one option. The other option is to major in something other than physical education and then take the prerequisite courses required by the physical education graduate program you want to apply to.
After working in the physical education field for a few years after college, you may apply to the PhD program in physical education. Alternatively, during your final year of undergraduate study, you could apply to a physical education PhD program. You’d need letters of recommendation from former professors and applications for the specific schools you wanted to apply to in order to complete the doctoral application. You’ll also need to obtain copies of your official college transcripts, take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), and have your GRE scores sent to all of the schools to which you applied.
After that, you must complete the required PhD curriculum after being accepted into the program. The courses you take will be determined by the academic emphasis you choose. You’d take courses like EKG interpretation, fitness design, exercise biochemistry, exercise physiology, and professional writing for physical education if you chose a doctoral specialty in curriculum and instruction or exercise science, for example. If you choose adapted physical education, you’ll take classes that focus on physical education as it relates to children with special needs, such as courses on physical and sensory disabilities, motor development issues, physical education technology, and consulting techniques. If you choose sport pedagogy as your doctoral concentration, your coursework will be focused on curriculum research and physical education teaching research.
You would be required to complete pre-dissertation research projects in addition to your coursework, which could include assisting a professor with the writing of an article for publication in an academic journal. Alternatively, you could be given your own pre-dissertation research project to complete. Then you’d have to write a doctoral dissertation that demonstrated your research abilities. Under the supervision of the doctoral dissertation committee, you would select a topic of interest, conduct research, write the dissertation, and defend your findings orally. You would then be awarded a PhD in physical education after successfully defending your dissertation.