Enhancing Physical Education Assessment Strategies

1. chapter Principles of Assessment 12 Celia Regimbal

2. Grading vs. Assessment • Grades • Based on previous performance • Summative • Assessment • A continuous collection and interpretation of information about student performance • A high-stakes event • Outcomes often equated to a teacher’s effectiveness

3. Developmentally Appropriate Authentic Assessment • Assessment of individual students as they participate • Provides information on progress since the previous assessment • Compare results to growth and maturation benchmarks

4. Assessment Provides • Opportunities to address the components of health-related fitness • Opportunities to focus on individual outcomes and guide students in personal goal setting • Feedback on teacher and overall program effectiveness (continued)

5. Assessment Provides (continued) • Important feedback about student instructional needs to guide future planning • Information for parents about the fitness status of their children and what can be done to improve or maintain that fitness • Subject matter credibility

6. Developmentally Appropriate Authentic Assessment • More than a single assessment score • Results for one student do not depend on the performance of other students in class

7. Assessment in the Three Domains: Stretching Example • Cognitive: understanding. Assess student’s understanding of why it is important to stretch. • Psychomotor: student’s ability or score. Assess how far students can stretch. • Affective: student’s attitudes and values. How often a student stretches when performing strenuous activity out of class reflects student attitudes and values toward stretching.

8. Assessment Tools • Rubrics • Teacher observations • Journal and log entries • Student projects • Health-related fitness assessments • Discussions • Self-assessment • Peer assessment • Portfolios

9. Grading and Reporting Student Progress • List health-related fitness outcomes as well as specific motor skill performance in a physical education report card • Send home individual Fitnessgram or Activitygram printouts when formative assessments are completed

10. Use Assessments • To help students understand where they can improve • To help teachers recognize whether students are meeting program objectives and content standards • To promote the health-related physical fitness education program • To justify the ongoing need for health-related physical fitness education in the curriculum

11. Motivating Through Assessment • Give students the responsibility for tracking their own progress • Help students set goals for personal improvement • Focus on small improvements and progress toward achievement of goals

12. Remember • Separate health-related fitness assessment from the grading system • Help students develop strategies to achieve personal goals • Provide specific feedback that informs students about progress toward personal goals

13. Can You Differentiate Between Assessment Grading A unit or measure of a summative assessment conducted at the end of an instructional period Typically combines numerous measures (continued) • A continuous collection and interpretation of information of student performance

14. Can You Differentiate Between (continued) Formal assessment Informal assessment Typically received during teacher or peer observation during practice (continued) • A more precise measure that results in recorded data that are often necessary to document final grades

15. Can You Differentiate Between (continued) Traditional assessment Authentic assessment Takes place in a setting that represents or replicates the real world Includes consideration of the context of the activity and is likely to assess a student’s ability to perform or demonstrate knowledge in a game or real-life setting (continued) • Often takes the form of rules tests, skill tests, and informal teacher observation • Often time consuming and lacks a clear relationship to learning outcomes

16. Can You Differentiate Between (continued) Formative assessment Summative assessment Conducted at the end of an instructional period Typically combines numerous measures to provide a final unit or course grade • Conducted during a period of instruction • Typically provides information about student mastery and helps guide content development

17. Summary To be authentic, assessment in physical education must allow students to demonstrate, in real-life settings, that they are moving toward the goal of becoming physically active adults. To assist students in achieving that goal, the teacher should provide specific feedback using alternative methods of assessment that inform students about progress toward personal goals and strategies to achieve them.