Teachers’ gender and utilization of class time in physical education lessons in new Juaben North municipality, Ghana

The primary objective of this study was to examine how male and female teachers utilize instructional time during Physical Education (PE) lessons in Senior High Schools within the New Juaben North Municipality of Ghana. To achieve this, the study employed the Academic Learning Time-Physical Education Observational Instrument Version II (ALT-PE II) a validated and widely used tool designed to systematically capture and categorize various dimensions of instructional time in PE settings, including management, transition, instruction, skill practice, and student engagement. A total of 24 PE lessons were observed, with each observation focused on a randomly selected target student to ensure consistency and minimize observer bias. These lessons were distributed across both male and female PE teachers to allow for a comparative analysis of gender differences in class time utilization. The data gathered were subjected to quantitative analysis using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), where descriptive statistics such as percentages and mean scores were computed to provide an overview of the time allocated to various teaching tasks. Furthermore, the Mann-Whitney U test, a non-parametric statistical method suitable for comparing two independent groups, was employed to determine whether there were statistically significant differences (p< 0.05) between male and female teachers in the distribution of time across different lesson contexts. The results revealed notable variations in how class time was utilized, with certain aspects of instructional time. Female teachers focus more on warm-ups and social behaviors, while male teachers focus more on strategy and skill practice. These findings provide insight into gendered instructional patterns and offer implications for professional development, policy formulation, and the promotion of equitable and effective PE instruction in secondary education settings.