Author(s)

Sigal Ben-Zaken¹, Ronnie Lidor¹, Alon Eliakim², Dan Nemet², Yoav Meckel¹

¹The Academic College at Wingate, Wingate Institute, Netanya, Israel.
²Meir Medical Center, Child Health and Sports Center, Pediatric Department, and Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.

A teacher preparation program for physical education (PE) is typically composed of a number of branches, including sport and exercise sciences, sport pedagogy, and activity classes. The activity classes play a key role in developing content knowledge that can be implemented by PE teachers in their classes. An attempt was made in this preliminary study to examine the use of a genetic score that has the potential to assist consultants/instructors in obtaining relevant information on the aerobic and anaerobic abilities of students enrolled in a PE teacher preparation program, as well as in assigning these students to activity classes included in the program. Participants were 219 PE students (111 males and 108 females; mean age = 20 - 29 yrs.), enrolled in a PE teacher preparation program at The Academic College at Wingate. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral bloodsamples. Genotyping of the ACTN3R/X and ACE I/D polymorphisms was performed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Two polygenetic scores were computed: Power Genetic Distance Score (PGDS2) and Endurance Genetic Distance Score (EGDS2). The main finding that emerged from our study was that both the male and female PE students were genetically predisposed toward aerobic skill rather than toward anaerobic skill: the students’ mean EGDS2 (52.6 + 23.0) was significantly higher compared to their mean PGDS2 (36.3 + 21.9) (p <0.001). This finding can be applied by consultants who provide academic/educational advice to PE students for selecting activity classes in the PE program, as well as by the instructors who teach these classes. However, when applying this finding a number of ethical concerns should be taken into account.

Physical Education, Genetic Score, Endurance Performance, Power Performance, Teacher Preparation Programs

Ben-Zaken, S. , Lidor, R. , Eliakim, A. , Nemet, D. and Meckel, Y. (2018) The Use of a Genetic Score in Assigning Students to Classes in PE Teacher Preparation Programs—A Preliminary Study. Advances in Physical Education, 8, 172-182. doi: 10.4236/ape.2018.82016.