Why and What to Assess in PE

Assessment is an important but often undervalued component of a physical education curriculum. It can be used to determine students’ proficiency and growth as well as program and curriculum effectiveness (Matanin & Tannehill, 1994). Using assessment is not a simple or easy task, and I think this is one reason why teachers avoid using it. A teacher must select an assessment that accurately measures student learning and performance, validly administer the assessment, provide students with feedback, and choose an effective way to translate that assessment into a grade. Also, I believe evaluations should be given regularly and consistently as a way to hold students accountable for their learning. Assessment can take a lot of time which I think is the main reason why teachers do not use assessment.

There are many different aspects of assessing students in physical education and additionally many different testing methods. For example, teachers can evaluate the health-related and physical fitness domain, psychomotor domain, cognitive domain, or affective domain (Lacy, 2011). Within assessing those areas teachers can pick from a wide variety of methods such as written test/quizzes, rubrics, fitness tests, journals, videos, rating scales, and checklists. The domain and method a teacher uses to evaluate should be in line with learning tasks and curriculum goals (Lacy, 2011). It is important that the test accurately measures the learning objectives for the lesson. Before teachers can plan assessments, they need first to develop program goals, plan program activities and determine learning criteria and objects (Lacy, 2011). I believe this process can be arduous, but without it, assessments can lack authenticity and validity.

Assessment can help improve the image and perception of PE as an academic subject. The data collected from tests provide valuable information on student performance and achievement of standards. This data can show that PE is an important topic and essential for students to lead physically active lifestyles. I think if we want our PE program to be seen as important we need to assess in a similar way that other academic subjects do. Also, without assessment, we have no way of knowing the strengths and weaknesses of our program (Dejong, Kokinakis, & Kuntzleman, 2002). For this reason, we need to assess our PE programs and compare that data to other schools and other grade-levels. Without assessment, we have no way of knowing if our instruction and program is effective at building physically literate students who will be physically active for a lifetime.

References

Dejong, G., Kokinakis, C. L., & Kuntzleman, C. (2002). The role of assessment in meeting the NASPE physical education content standards. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 73(7), 22-25.

Lacy, A. (2011). Measurement and evaluation in physical education and exercise science (6th ed.). New York, NY: Benjamin Cummings

Matanin, M., & Tannehill, D. (1994). Assessment and grading in physical education. Journal of teaching in physical Education, 13(4), 395-405.