Teacher and school outcomes of the Physical Education and Physical Literacy (PEPL) approach: a pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial of a multicomponent intervention to improve physical literacy in primary schools

ABSTRACT

Background: Physical education (PE) can be considered the centrepiece of school physical literacy (PL) programs, but ineffective lessons or an absence of PE across the public primary school system has raised concern. This study aimed to evaluate the implementation, acceptability and impact of teacher delivery of PE as part of a multicomponent Physical Education Physical Literacy (PEPL) approach, designed to improve classroom teachers’ provision of PE and PL opportunities within a cluster of suburban primary schools.

Method: Within a pragmatic randomised cluster-based trial with mixed methods, a PEPL coach was appointed to seven schools for one school year, with another seven schools continuing their usual practice as the control group. The coach’s role was to support and professionally develop classroom teachers to teach PE and to create opportunities that develop PL inside and outside the school environment. Focusing on Grade 5 teachers, the implementation, acceptability and teacher impact were assessed using direct observations of PE teaching style, a daily log kept by the coach and interviews with principals and teachers.

Results: The PEPL coach visited each school on average once a week for the 33 available weeks of the school year. There were several positive effects for teachers and schools. With no classroom teacher initially taking PE or classroom physical activity breaks, all seven teachers regularly introduced a PE lesson and activity breaks into their weekly schedule. PE class instructional time increased (intervention; +4.8 vs. control; ?3.5 min/lesson; β?=?1.69; SE?=?0.76; p?=?.05), with lessons of greater duration (intervention; +8.6 vs. control +1.9 min/lesson; β?=?1.14, SE?=?0.58, p?=?.05) and moderate and vigorous physical activity increased 5.7 min in intervention classes (p?<?.05). The PEPL coach introduced regular physical activities before and after school and linked the schools with a national sports coaching scheme. Interviews indicated that the PEPL approach was both valued and well-accepted by staff, that classroom teacher confidence to teach PE increased and that principals perceived a shift toward a school ‘culture’ of physical activity.

Conclusions: Well-received by classroom teachers and principals, the PEPL approach resulted in classroom teachers introducing both PE and activity breaks into their weekly teaching program and schools were linked to external sport coaching programs. These effects suggest that the PEPL approach enhanced opportunities for the development of physical literacy in this suburban primary school setting.

Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry identifier: ACTRN12615000066583.     

Coeducational and single-sex physical education: students’ situational interest in learning tasks centred on technical skills

Background: A student’s choice to engage in a learning task is highly related to the student’s environmental stimuli and his or her perception of interest. From this perspective, the construct of situational interest (SI) has been used to interpret students’ motivation in task engagement. SI is assumed to be transitory, environmentally activated, and context specific. It has been conceptualized as a multidimensional construct with five dimensions: instant enjoyment, exploration intention, attention demand, novelty, and challenge. Few prior studies have compared SI between girls and boys in physical education (PE) contexts, and these studies have offered contrasting findings. They were conducted in coeducational (coed) or single-sex contexts and used learning tasks centred on a variety of outcomes: technical or tactical skills, creativity and cultural understanding.

Purpose: In the context of the debate on single-sex and coed classes in PE, this study aimed to estimate the effects of single-sex and coed PE classes on students’ situational interest (SI) within learning tasks centred on technical skills. The researchers decided to study learning tasks centred on the development of students’ technical skills, since these tasks are often used by teachers in PE.

Participants: The sample consisted of 177 Swiss secondary school students, aged 11–17 years (M?=?14.07, SD?=?1.41, 96 boys, 81 girls).

Data collection: The students completed the French 15-item SI Scale after practising a technical learning task in single-sex and coed PE contexts. The researchers chose five physical activities (i.e. athletics, basketball, dance, gymnastics, and volleyball), which are commonly taught in the state of Vaud (Switzerland) and provide a balance between masculine and feminine activities.

Data analysis: A two-way repeated-measures MANOVA was performed to examine the main and interaction effects of student sex and class sex composition on the five SI dimensions.

Findings: The results showed a main effect of class sex composition on student SI but no main effect of student sex and no interaction effect of student sex and class sex composition. More precisely, the scores for three SI dimensions (i.e. instant enjoyment, exploration intention, and attention demand) were higher in the coed context than in the single-sex context.

Conclusions: This study encourages teachers to propose coed PE classes to enhance students’ motivation and engagement when practising learning tasks centred on technical skills. This study offers supplementary evidence of the teacher’s role in promoting student SI. Beyond accounting for students’ dispositional factors (e.g. sex), PE teachers can significantly impact students’ SI in technical learning tasks through instructional choices.     

Comparing effects of a TPSR training program on prospective physical education teachers’ social goals,discipline and autonomy strategies in Spain,Chile and Costa Rica

Background: Conflict prevention, respect, tolerance and acceptance of others should be basic outcomes in any educational context. Physical Education (PE) has the potential to be one of the curricular subjects that could help students meet these goals. However, teachers need to use appropriate instructional approaches like Teaching for Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR).

Purpose: The objectives of this study were two: (1) to compare the impact of TPSR training on social goals, discipline strategies and autonomy support of future PE teachers from Spain, Chile and Costa Rica; and (2) to assess participants’ perceptions of their country's social, cultural and curricular aspects that may influence TPSR implementation.

Participants and settings: 156 prospective PE teachers (48 from Spain, 54 from Chile and 54 from Costa Rica), with an average age of 21.41?±?2.57 years, agreed to participate. 88 (54%) were males, while 75 (46%) were female. They were enrolled in teacher training programs in three different universities located in three different countries: (i) Faculty of Education of the University of Burgos (Spain); (ii) Nursery School of the University of Valparaiso (Chile) and (iii) School of Physical Education and Sports of San José (Costa Rica). All students experienced the same TPSR intervention program, conducted by the same university teacher.

Research design: This study followed a quasi-experimental, pre-test/post-test non-equivalent research design with mixed methods.

Data collection: Three validated questionnaires were used to obtain quantitative information from the participants before and after the training program. Qualitative information was obtained from three discussion groups conducted with the participating students (one from each country).

Data analysis: Statistical analysis of quantitative data was conducted with the statistical package SPSS (version 22.0), while content analysis and constant comparison were used to assess qualitative data.

Findings: The prospective PE teachers from the three countries held different views of the effects of the TPSR program on social goals, discipline strategies and autonomy support, and they were based on socio-cultural considerations of the subject (PE), the teachers’ academic training and their professional identity as teachers on each country. Spanish and Costa Rican PE teachers demonstrated a significant positive change in their perspectives on discipline strategies, and Chilean PE teachers demonstrated a significant positive change in their perception of social goals after experiencing a TPSR intervention.

Conclusion: If cultural context is considered, TPSR can be an effective teacher training approach related to discipline strategies, social goals and autonomy support in PE.     

Exergames ‘as a teacher’ of movement education: exploring knowing in moving when playing dance games in physical education

Background: A fundamental dimension of school physical education (PE) is arguably movement and movement activities. However, there is a lack of discussion in the context of PE regarding what can be called the capability to move in terms of coordinative abilities, body consciousness and educing bodily senses.

Purpose: This article explores and articulates what there is to know, from the mover's perspective, when knowing how to move in specific ways when playing exergames (dance games). Taking different ways of moving as expressing different ways of knowing as a point of departure, the following questions are the focus of this article: (i) How do students move when imitating movements in a dance game, and what different ways of knowing the movements can be described in the student group? (ii) What aspects of the movements are discerned simultaneously through the different ways of knowing the movements? (iii) What aspects seem critical for the students to discern and experience in order to know the movements in as complex a way as possible?

Design and analysis: The theoretical point of departure concerns an epistemological perspective on the capability to move as knowing how with no distinction between physical and mental skills, and also knowing as experiencing aspects of something to know. The data in this study comprise video recordings of students playing Nintendo Wii dance games in PE lessons in a compulsory school (for children aged between 7 and 16 years) in a small Swedish town. There were three PE lessons with four different stations, of which one was Nintendo Wii dance games (Just Dance 1 and 2). In total, the videoed material covers three 60-minute PE lessons, recorded during the autumn of 2012 and in which just over twenty students participated. In the study, we have used video observation as a data collection method. Jordan and Henderson maintain that video observation removes the gap between ‘what people say they do and what they, in fact, do’ (51). To conduct a systematic and thorough analysis of how the students experienced the avatar's movements, we looked for moments where all the students and the avatar could be simultaneously observed. Two video sequences were chosen, showing four students imitating two distinct and defined movements which constituted the basis for a phenomenographic analysis.

Conclusion: The result of the phenomenographic analysis shows different ways of knowing the movements as well as what aspects are discerned and experienced simultaneously by the students. In other words, these aspects also describe knowing in terms of discerning, discriminating and differentiating aspects of ways of moving. By examining a certain exergame's role ‘as a teacher,' we have emphasized the capability to move, from the mover's perspective, as an intrinsic educational goal of PE while highlighting the need for systematically planning movement education.     

Effectiveness of physical education to promote motor competence in primary school children

Background: Motor skill (MS) competence is an important contributing factor for healthy development.

Purpose: The goal was to test the effectiveness of primary school physical education (PE) on MS and physical fitness (PF) development.

Methods: Three classes (n?=?60, aged 9.0?±?0.9) were randomly assigned to three diverse conditions during a school year: two PE lessons/week (PE-2), three PE lessons/week (PE-3), and no PE lessons control group (CG). BMI, skinfolds, PF (9-min run/walk, sit-up, modified pull-ups), gymnastics, soccer, handball, basketball and track-and-field skills were evaluated. Effect sizes (d) were reported as magnitude of change.

Results: Skinfolds significantly increased only in CG (d?=?1.21). PF composite z-scores improved in PE-3 (d?=?0.61), but decreased in PE-2 (d?=?0.57), and had no changes in CG. Statistically significant improvement was verified in gymnastics and handball skills in both experimental groups (gymnastic: d?=?2.95 and d?=?2.61 for PE-3 and PE-2, respectively; handball: d?=?1.87 and d?=?0.57 for PE-3 and PE-2, respectively), and no changes were seen in CG. In soccer, there were improvements only in the PE-3 (d?=?0.55), and in basketball only in PE-2 (d?=?0.46). There were no changes in any group for track-and-field skills.

Conclusions: PE programs can effectively promote PF and MS development.     

Assessment quality and practices in secondary PE in the Netherlands

Background: Assessment can have various functions, and is an important impetus for student learning. For assessment to be effective, it should be aligned with curriculum goals and of sufficient quality. Although it has been suggested that assessment quality in physical education (PE) is suboptimal, research into actual assessment practices has been relatively scarce.

Purpose: The goals of the present study were to determine the quality of assessment, teachers’ views on the functions of assessment, the alignment of assessment with learning goals, and the actual assessment practices in secondary PE in the Netherlands.

Participants and setting: A total of 260 PE teachers from different schools in the Netherlands filled out an online Physical Education Assessment Questionnaire (PEAQ) on behalf of their school.

Data collection: The online questionnaire (PEAQ) contained the following sections: quality of assessment, intended functions of assessment, assessment practices, and intended goals of PE.

Data analysis: Percentages of agreement were calculated for all items. In addition, assessment quality items were recoded into a numerical value between 1 and 5 (mean?±?SD). Cronbach’s alpha was calculated for each predefined quality aspect of the PEAQ, and for assessment quality as a whole.

Findings: Mean assessment quality (±SD) was 3.6?±?0.6. With regard to the function of assessment, most PE teachers indicated that they intended using assessment as a means of supporting the students’ learning process (formative function). At the same time, the majority of schools take PE grades into account for determining whether a student may enter the next year (summative function). With regard to assessment practices, a large variety of factors are included when grading, and observation is by far the assessment technique most widely applied. A minority of PE teachers grade students without predetermined assessment criteria, and usually criteria are identical for all students. There is an apparent discrepancy between reported PE goals and assessment practices; although increasing students’ fitness levels is the least important goal of PE lessons according to the PE teachers, 81% reports that fitness is one of the factors being judged. Conversely, while 94% considers gaining knowledge about physical activity and sports as one of the goals of PE, only 34% actually assesses knowledge.

Conclusions: Assessment in Dutch PE is of moderate quality. The findings further suggest that PE teachers consider assessment for learning important but that their assessment practices are not generally in line with this view. Furthermore, there seems to be a lack of alignment between intended learning outcomes and what is actually being valued and assessed. We believe that these results call for a concerted effort from PE departments, school boards, and the education inspectorate to scrutinise existing assessment practices, and work together to optimise PE assessment.     

The effects of an enhanced quality Physical Education programme on the physical activity levels of Grade 7 learners in Potchefstroom,South Africa

Background: The absence of Physical Education (PE) from the South African school curriculum before its reintroduction in recent years contributed to health concerns regarding the low physical activity (PA) levels of children and adolescents in South Africa.

Purpose: This study evaluated the effects of a once-a-week enhanced quality PE programme on the PA levels of South African Grade 7 learners.

Methods: Using a pre-test and post-test control-group design, 110 Grade 7 learners aged 12–13 years (experimental school, n?=?40; control schools, n?=?70) from two primary schools in Potchefstroom, South Africa, were studied. They participated in a 12-week PE intervention programme based on the guidelines of the South African Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement, which allocates one hour per week to PE teaching. The intervention included five quality-enhancing components, namely well-trained teachers, homework activities, a reward system, hand-made apparatus and the monitoring of activity intensity. In the experimental school, 40 learners were randomly assigned from the total Grade 7 class (n?=?124) to the experimental group, while two control groups (n?=?37 and n?=?33) were used, one from the same school as the experimental school and the other from a different school. Additionally, to control for PE teacher interaction effect, the experimental group was divided into 4 experimental sub-groups of 10 learners each, which were taught by 4 different PE teachers, and the pre-test and post-test data of these experimental sub-groups were also analysed. Children's PA levels were measured before and after the intervention using a validated Children's Leisure Activities Study Survey questionnaire. The Kruskal–Wallis and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to evaluate the effects of the intervention programme.

Results: No significant differences were found within the experimental group between the 4 experimental sub-groups and between the 2 control groups at pre- and post-test measurements (p?>?.05). There was a significant effect for the experimental group as a whole, as results of the total experimental group showed statistically significant increases in moderate PA (ES?=?0.47; p?=?.014), vigorous PA (ES?=?0.48; p?=?.012) and total PA (ES?=?0.51; p?=?.008) as well as decreases in sedentary behaviours (ES?=?0.39; p?=?.041) after the 12-week intervention programme, whereas no significant changes were found in the control group. Statistically significant improvements were also found in all 4 experimental sub-groups between pre- and post-tests for the time spent in moderate PA (p?=?.028–.05; ES?=?0.23–0.64), vigorous PA (p?=?.018–.036; ES?=?0.23–0.63), total PA (p?=?.017–.05; ES?=?0.30–0.68) and sedentary time (p?=?.014–.049; ES?=?0.26–0.66), whereas no marked changes were observed among the two control groups, indicating no PE teacher interaction effect on the results.

Conclusions: The enhanced quality PE programme can be used as a valuable framework for PE implementation targeted at promoting learners’ PA levels, even in the presence of restricted time allocation, and limited teaching and learning resources.     

Physical education teacher education students' knowledge,perceptions and experiences of promoting healthy,active lifestyles in secondary schools

Background: Physical education teacher education (PETE) offers a context for students to learn about the promotion of active lifestyles in secondary schools through their interactions and experiences during the teacher education process. However, previous studies have found low levels of health-related fitness knowledge amongst PETE students, which is a concern given that there are high expectations of physical education (PE) to promote healthy, active lifestyles. In addition, international literature reveals a number of problematic issues associated with health-related teaching, learning and professional development in PE. Exploration of health-related experiences within the PETE process and consideration of the extent to which they address these previously identified issues were considered worthy of study because of PETE's potential to influence the health-related teaching of the students, and to ultimately impact the health-related knowledge and behaviour of the pupils they go on to teach.

Purpose: To explore PETE students' health-related physical education (HRPE) knowledge, perceptions and experiences during a PETE programme.

Participants and setting: Purposive selection of PE students on a one-year post-graduate secondary PETE programme at one University in England, working in partnership with up to 60 schools.

Research design: Case study.

Data collection: A qualitative approach founded on the interpretive paradigm was used, utilising a questionnaire completed by 124 PETE students.

Data analysis: Responses to the open-ended questions were analysed by means of the generation of themes using constructivist grounded theory methods.

Findings: At the outset of their programme, PETE students' knowledge of how active children should be was limited and confused. Their initial perceptions of the learning associated with promoting healthy, active lifestyles in PE were at variance with what they experienced in schools during their training. These experiences were diverse, the most common structure being discrete units of study with no health-related learning evident within the rest of the PE programme. The focus of the HRPE learning was predominantly physiological with minimal attention to physical activity recommendations or monitoring. Most students experienced school-based HRPE programmes, which they considered not particularly effective in promoting healthy, active lifestyles amongst young people.

Conclusion: It would seem that PETE is not adequately preparing future PE teachers to promote healthy, active lifestyles and is not addressing previously identified issues in health-related teaching and learning. Changes clearly need to be made to the health-related interactions and experiences within PETE and within any PE, and sports science degree programmes preceeding or associated with PETE. PE is unlikely to effectively promote healthy, active lifestyles without the health-related aspect of PETE being radically changed, especially and crucially the school-based provision. This requires professionals working together to draw upon and utilise up-to-date health knowledge, as well as the best available guidance on how to ensure that teachers are able to use such information.     

The productive effect of power: (dis)pleasurable bodies materialising in and through the discursive practices of boys’ physical education

Background: Pleasure is often a key feature of school physical education (PE) and, indeed, a lot of students find pleasure in and through PE while others do not. However, pleasure is rarely considered to be of educational value in the subject [Pringle, R. (2010). “Finding Pleasure in Physical Education: A Critical Examination of the Educative Value of Positive Movement Affects.” Quest 62: 119–134]. Further, since pleasure is linked to power [Foucault, M. (1980). Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–1977. New York: Pantheon; Gerdin, G., and R. Pringle. (2015). “The Politics of Pleasure: An Ethnographic Examination Exploring the Dominance of the Multi-Activity Sport-Based Physical Education Model.” Sport, Education and Society. doi:10.1080/13573322.2015.1019448] it is in fact not entirely straightforward to legitimise the educational value of PE in relation to pleasure.

Purpose: In this paper, we explore how a group of boys derive pleasures from their involvement in PE, but also how these power-induced pleasures are integral to gender normalisation processes. The findings presented are particularly discussed in terms of inclusive/exclusive pedagogical practices related to gender, bodies and pleasures.

Research setting and participants: The research setting was a single-sex, boys’ secondary school in Auckland, New Zealand. Participants in this study were 60 Year 10 (age 14–15) students from two PE classes.

Data collection and analysis: Using a visual ethnographic approach [Pink, S. (2007). Doing Visual Ethnography. London: Sage] involving observations and video recordings of boys participating in PE, the boys’ representations and interpretations of the visual data were explored during both focus groups and individual interviews. The data were analysed using (a visually oriented) discourse analysis [Foucault, M. (1998). “Foucault.” In Michel Foucault. Aesthetics, Method and Epistemology, edited by J. D. Faubion, 459–463. New York: The New Press; Rose, G. (2007). Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials. London: Sage].

Findings: By elucidating the discursive practices of PE in this setting and employing (Butler, J. (1993). Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’. New York: Routledge] concept of ‘materialisation’, we suggest that boy’s bodies materialise as productive and pleasurable or displeasurable bodies through submitting/subjecting to certain bodily regimes, developing embodied mastery when it comes to certain sports, and displaying bodies in particular ways. The analysis indicate that the discursive practices of PE contribute to boys’ bodies materialising as pleasurable or displeasurable and the (re)production of gender in the subject as shaped by discourse and the productive effect of power.

Discussion and conclusions: In line with [Gard, M. (2008). “When a Boy’s Gotta Dance: New Masculinities, Old Pleasures.” Sport, Education and Society 13 (2): 181–193], we conclude that the focus on certain discursively constructed bodily practices at the same time continues to restrict the production of a diversity of bodily movement pleasures. Hence, traditional gender patterns are reproduced through a selection of particular sports/physical activities that all the students are expected to participate in. We propose that the ongoing constitution of privileged forms of masculinity, masculine bodies and masculine pleasures as related to fitness, health and sport and (certain) boys’ subsequent exercise of power in PE needs further critical examination.     

Response of brain-derived neurotrophic factor to combining cognitive and physical exercise

Purpose: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is well known for its potential to promote brain plasticity. It has been proposed that combining cognitive and physical exercise (CCPE) may have the potential to generate more synergistic benefits in cognitive function than either cognitive exercise (CE) or physical exercise (PE) alone. The purpose of this study was to examine acute responses of peripheral BDNF levels and cognitive performance to CE, PE, and CCPE.

Methods: Thirteen healthy adult men participated in four experimental sessions; a 30-min CE, a 30-min cycling PE at an intensity of 60% peak oxygen uptake, a 30-min CCPE at the same intensity as PE, and a 30-min session of complete rest. Plasma BDNF levels and cognitive performance were measured before and after each session.

Results: Both PE and CCPE significantly increased plasma BDNF levels (p?p?≥?.05), and there was no significant difference in peripheral BDNF levels between PE and CCPE (p?≥?.05). No session induced a significant change in cognitive performance (p?≥?.05).

Conclusions: Our study suggests that CE and PE have different responses of peripheral BDNF levels and that CCPE had no additional or synergistic effect on peripheral BDNF levels compared with PE alone. This study offers further insights into the potential mechanisms underlying the respective roles of CE, PE, and CCPE for peripheral BDNF levels and cognitive performance.     

Aesthetic experience as an aspect of embodied learning: stories from physical education student teachers

In this article we explore aesthetic experience as an aspect of embodied learning with focus on the moving body. Our theoretical framework is mainly based on the work of John Dewey. In the first part of the article we identify our understanding of central concepts and draw some lines to their implication for physical education (PE). In the second part we then use the theoretical framework in an empirical study inspired by the tradition of pragmatism. The aim is to study how physical education student teachers (PETE students) feel when participating in ball game, and how their feelings are related to the moving activity. Empirical data were mainly generated through observations from two ball game lessons and stories written by 16 PETE students. All stories were subjected to a categorical analysis of content. After analysing the empirical material, four categories emerged built on two pair of words: familiar or unfamiliar, and pleased or displeased. In the discussing section of this article, we put forward that moving activities in PE often are regarded as being technical or instrumental. By using an aesthetic perspective on embodied learning, however, we can go beyond that impression and show other dimensions of participation in ball game. It may become an important shift from exploring performance only to studying learning connected to feelings.     

The changing value of vigorous activity and the paradox of utilising exercise as punishment in physical education

Background: Previous research on physical education (PE) teaching practice indicates that an exercise physiology discourse has assumed a dominant position within the field. Research shows that PE teachers are likely to emphasise physical fitness training in their teaching, and PE teachers seem to appreciate pupils who show high levels of physical exertion.

Purposes: Our aim is to examine how vigorous activity/exercise is represented in the practice of PE teaching. We will also examine teaching as a discursive practice, and thereby contribute to a critical perspective on PE pedagogy.

Research design: This study was conducted in four upper secondary schools in Oslo, Norway. Data material was produced through fieldwork, during which we observed 92 PE lessons. Additionally, we conducted qualitative interviews with the eight teachers who participated in the study. Our methodological framework was discourse analysis.

Findings: Our material shows that vigorous activity plays a complex role in PE class: it can be beneficial, but it can also be punitive. The PE teachers we observed drew on an exercise physiology discourse to portray vigorous activity/exercise as beneficial and valuable to the promotion of pupils’ physical fitness and health. However, the teachers also drew on a military discourse when assigning vigorous activity to rebuke a disobedient pupil. The teachers also introduced vigorous activity in the form of additional exercise ‘punishment’, which they assigned to losers in competitive activities. In these instances, the teachers drew on exercise physiology and sports discourses. Thus, we identified how vigorous activity changed value according to context, and discuss how teachers’ use of vigorous activity as punishment can seem paradoxical in a PE setting.

Conclusion and recommendation: Our study indicates that, rather than adhering to modern educational practices, PE is rooted in ideas and practices derived from military, sports and exercise physiology discourses. PE teachers inculcated with these discourses have limited ability to discern the paradox of assigning vigorous exercise to their pupils as both a high-value activity and a punishment. PE Teacher Education should therefore problematise how teaching practice is influenced by these discourses, and facilitate discussions on how such discourses constitute PE.     

Assessing with new eyes? Assessment for learning in Norwegian physical education

Background: The latest curriculum reform in Norway is one example of an education reform with a highly emphasised assessment for learning (AfL) agenda. Acknowledging that there is a lack of empirical research on AfL in physical education (PE), and that AfL potentially can have an important role to play in development of PE pedagogy, this paper set out to examine the extent to which the emphasis on AfL from educational authorities has led to change in assessment practice in PE.

Purpose and research question: The purpose of this paper is to examine the implementation of AfL in PE at upper secondary level in Norway, and discuss possible implications. More specifically we ask ‘How do students’ and teachers' perspectives of assessment practices in PE reflect AfL key principles?'

Methods: A mixed-method design has been applied in this study. Quantitative data, collected through a questionnaire answered by 1486 students from six upper secondary schools (15–19 years), were combined and compared with qualitative data from focus groups of a total of 23 PE teachers at the same schools. Data were analysed in relation to four key principles of AfL.

Findings: For the majority of the students in the study, their reports of assessment practice in PE did not reflect the four key principles of AfL. This result was supported by the fact that their PE teachers conveyed very varied understandings and enactments of AfL. The study revealed some difference between teacher and student perspectives regarding AfL key principles, in particular regarding feedback that moves learners forward.

Conclusions: The study demonstrates limited implementation of AfL principles in PE and we conclude that the educational authorities' emphasis of AfL has not proven productive in PE. However, most of the teachers acknowledged the need to change teaching and assessment practices in PE, and all schools in the study are observed to be in an area of changing assessment. Considering the findings on different AfL key principles, this study highlights engaging student more directly in assessment processes as an important development area.     

The Physical Education Predisposition Scale: Preliminary development and validation

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to develop and test psychometrically the Physical Education Predisposition Scale, to assess secondary school students' cost–benefit assessment of physical education (PE) participation (PE attitude affective and attitude cognitive) and self-perceptions (PE perceived competence and self-efficacy). Secondary aims were to explore how the two variables were related, and to investigate age and gender differences. Altogether, 315 Year 8 and 9 students (aged 12–14 years) from four North West England schools completed the Physical Education Predisposition Scale. Principal components analysis revealed the presence of a simple two-factor solution explaining 60.7% of the variance. Factor 1 (labelled Perceived PE Worth) reflected attitude affective and attitude cognitive (α = 0.91), and factor 2 (Perceived PE Ability) represented perceived competence and self-efficacy (α = 0.89). Significant positive correlations were observed between the factors (r = 0.67 to 0.71, P < 0.001). Boys scored significantly higher than girls on Perceived PE Worth (P < 0.001) and Perceived PE Ability (P = 0.02). Similarly, Year 8 students scored significantly higher than Year 9 students on Perceived PE Worth (P = 0.005) and Perceived PE Ability (P < 0.001). Our results support the potential of the Physical Education Predisposition Scale as a concise measurement tool for use in the PE setting, for both teachers and researchers.