Assessment Strategies in P.E.

   Physical education and assessment strategies are always a tough act to balance. There is a need for assessment in P.E. and a need for more research within this field. How do we assess whether a student is learning the skill? Not all students are athletically inclined and so this can be a difficult task for them to excel in. You also can't test a student by BMI or bad fat percentages because they often are innacurate and invasive assesment tools. So What is the best method?
   In this article: Integrating assessment into physical education teaching from the  Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, they emphasized the importance of discorvering what your intent behind assessment was before deciding what type of assessment should be done. Students should be assessed on specific criteria that is measurable and shows improvement. Students do not need to exceed greatly within that specific criteria but if they are showing improvement that is an important aspect to learning. The following three points were emphasized within the text.

• By having students work with partners and in small groups the high student/teacher ratio is reduced creating some time for teacher based assessment
• Teacher can and should have students be evaluated on what they have learned by other students and themselves and also reflect on what they have learned through authentic assessment opportunities
• The way of teaching physical education is changing dramatically and we will be held highly accountable for what our students are learning, therefore have students keep a portfolio through the year is a way of determining what students have learned and documenting student learning.

   I like the idea of having students keep a portfolio. This gives them the opportunity to see their own improvements and also helps them to see the importance of tracking their fitness levels. Our goal as physical educators is not simply to make better athletes. We want to teach the importance of daily physical activity. Health and wellness for a lifetime should be the required goal, not simply just daily participation. But daily participation is how we get our students to meet that end goal.
   I also liked the fact in the article that the students can help with assessments. By grouping students together we can assess small groups faster than a whole group. Students can also share their portfolios and do small assessments as the quarter goes on to help each other improve. It is hard to put a measureable number on the assessments as to what the student should be able to do by the end of the year. I think the biggest part about teaching physical education is teacher students the importance of daily personal improvement.
  It is hard to find good research on assessment strategies for physical education because there are so many varied viewpoints. I learned that I need to learn more about myself as a teacher and what type of assessments I want to utilize and which ones will be of the most use to me.