MTTC Health and Physical Education (112/113) common mistakes
MTTC Health and Physical Education (112/113) · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Classifying immunization, fluoride varnish, or a health screening as the wrong level of prevention - for example, calling a vision screening 'primary prevention' or immunization 'secondary prevention.'
Candidates memorize the three prevention labels as slogans but do not anchor them to the time of disease onset, so familiar health services get sorted by whether they sound 'preventive' rather than by when they occur.
What to do instead
Before answering, classify each example by timing: before disease (primary), early detection before symptoms (secondary), after diagnosis to reduce complications (tertiary). Practice with 10 school-health examples and justify each placement in one sentence.
Applying HIPAA to school health records or promising a student that a disclosure of self-harm will be kept completely confidential.
Candidates conflate clinical privacy rules with education records and overvalue confidentiality because they fear damaging trust with the student.
What to do instead
Use FERPA as the default framework for education records; HIPAA generally does not govern elementary/secondary school records. For safety disclosures, ask directly, do not promise secrecy, and follow the district crisis/reporting protocol with counselor, administrator, and parent notification as required.
Mixing up health-behavior theory constructs - for example, choosing 'perceived severity' when a vignette describes a student who believes 'everyone vapes, so it is normal.'
Candidates memorize model names but not the operational meaning of each construct, so similar-sounding terms become interchangeable during the exam.
What to do instead
Build a construct-to-vignette table for the Health Belief Model, Transtheoretical Model, Social Cognitive Theory, and Theory of Planned Behavior. For each construct, write one school-health example and one contrasting example; 'everyone does it' maps to subjective/social norms, not severity.
Calculating calories or percent Daily Value from the whole package when the Nutrition Facts label is per serving, or treating %DV as a percentage of the calories in that food.
Candidates skim the label and grab the most visible number, missing serving size and servings per container.
What to do instead
Use a fixed three-step routine: identify serving size, multiply by servings consumed, then interpret %DV as the percentage of a 2,000-calorie daily diet contributed by one serving. Practice with a label that contains two or more servings per container.
Choosing 'keep the disclosure confidential' or 'wait for the student to ask for help' when a student mentions self-harm or suicidal thoughts.
Candidates worry that asking directly or notifying adults will betray the student, and they underestimate the legal and ethical duty to act.
What to do instead
Memorize the safety sequence: ask directly about suicidal thoughts, stay with the student, do not leave them alone, notify the counselor/administrator immediately, and follow district parent-notification and emergency protocols. Confidentiality is limited by safety and mandated-reporting duties.
Labeling agility, power, or reaction time as health-related fitness, or labeling body composition as skill-related fitness.
Candidates remember isolated examples but not the two-category structure, so they sort by whether an activity 'looks athletic' rather than by the definition of the component.
What to do instead
Memorize the five health-related components (cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, body composition) and the six skill-related components (agility, balance, coordination, power, reaction time, speed). Sort 20 activities into both lists and explain the borderline cases.
Designing a lesson that begins with prolonged static stretching before a sprint or plyometric unit, or prescribing flexibility training three days a week as though it followed cardiorespiratory FITT guidelines.
Candidates carry over old coaching habits and blur the FITT recommendations for different fitness components.
What to do instead
Use dynamic warm-ups before explosive or speed work and place static stretching after activity or in a separate flexibility session. Flexibility is recommended most days; cardiorespiratory endurance is typically 3–5 days per week. Write FITT plans for each component separately.
Describing a beginner as being in the 'autonomous' stage of motor learning or recommending infrequent delayed feedback and random practice for a cognitive-stage learner.
Candidates memorize stage labels without the behavioral characteristics, so they assume advanced-sounding methods are always best.
What to do instead
Map Fitts and Posner stages to observable behavior: cognitive = many large errors, needs frequent specific feedback and blocked practice; associative = fewer errors, refinement; autonomous = automatic performance, benefits from random/variable practice and delayed feedback. Match two lesson scenarios to each stage.
Allowing a student who reports headache, dizziness, or confusion after a collision to 'shake it off' and return to play, or continuing activity when heat stroke is suspected.
Candidates prioritize participation and misread early signs because they expect obvious symptoms such as loss of consciousness.
What to do instead
Apply 'when in doubt, sit them out': remove any student with suspected concussion from play and follow the district return-to-play protocol. Treat suspected heat stroke as an emergency - begin cooling and call EMS; do not simply give fluids and continue activity.
Grading students solely on FitnessGram percentile ranks or a single normative skill test, without assessing personal improvement, knowledge, or grade-level outcomes.
Candidates equate fitness performance with learning and rely on familiar fitness-test numbers because they are easy to record.
What to do instead
Base grades on current SHAPE America grade-level outcomes, personal improvement, skill rubrics, cognitive understanding, and participation/effort. Use formative checks before the summative test and allow multiple attempts; do not use normative fitness percentiles as the sole grade.