Affiliations: [a] Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, Kainan University, Taoyuan, Taiwan | [b] Department of Health Industry Management, Kainan University, Taoyuan, Taiwan | [c] Taiwan Railways Administration, Taipei, Taiwan
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Chih-Ping Li, Department of Health Industry Management, Kainan University, Taiwan. No.1 Kainan Road, Luzhu Shiang, Taoyuan 33857, Taiwan. E-mail:lichihping@hotmail.com
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to construct the quality
indicators of professional competence for exercise instructors of the
elderly, and then to rank the importance among those indicators. This study
used the Delphi technique to integrate the opinions of 11 experts to
construct the indicators, and then adopts the analytic hierarchy process
(AHP) to calculate the relative rank among each individual indicator.
Results revealed that the experts identified 3 first-degree indicators
(professional attitude, professional skills, and professional knowledge), 10
second-degree indicators (teaching attitude, exercise knowledge,
professional growth, exercise safety, personal characteristics, exercise
instructor, gerontology knowledge, communicative competence, curriculum
design, and motor skill), and 72 third-degree indicators. In the indicator
weighting system, professional attitude was the most important among all
other first-degree indicators, and the teaching attitude was the most
important among all other second-degree indicators. The results provided
will help in planning the curriculums of training, professional growth and
evaluation. The results also provide a reference for future research.
Keywords: Elderly people, professional growth, Delphi technique, analytic hierarchy process (AHP)
