Recent Developments in Measurement and Possible Applications to the Measurement of Psychomotor Behavior

Abstract

Elementary physical education instructors and movement development clinicians frequently employ movement observation as their primary assessment strategy. The purpose of this study was to determine the minimal conditions of observation needed to obtain generalizable results across observers, trials, and subjects for the hop, jump, and run. The developmental sequences developed at Michigan State University were used as the observation system. Twelve children in the age range of 33–111 months were rated on five trials by 15 observers. The sample consisted of an equal number of males and females and did not involve children with handicapping conditions. The results suggest that when observers receive 1 hour of training for each skill, one observer and three trials are needed for evaluating the hop (.88), while three observers and three trials are required for the jump (.83). None of the nine measurement conditions resulted in acceptable (.80) generalizability for the run.     

Differential Effects of Three Teachers Over a Unit of Instruction

The purpose of this study was to describe the effects of three teachers on psychomotor, affective, and cognitive outcomes over a 15-lesson volleyball unit. Three intact middle school physical education classes were used. Pre- and posttests were administered for the overhead set, forearm pass, and serve psychomotor skills. A semantic differential test with four affective dimensions and a written test on the rules, strategies, and mechanics of volleyball were also administered pre- and posttest. Data on instructional characteristics were obtained using academic learning time (ALT-PE); observation system for content development (OSCD-PE), and a content analysis of lessons.

The following were key aspects of the results: (a) Teachers differed in their approaches to the content of the unit more than in the characteristics of their instruction as determined through observational data; (b) teachers differed in respect to the psychomotor skills for which they were able to produce statistically significant student gain; (c) the skill level of students played a major role in psychomotor outcomes; (d) affective measures started high and remained high from pre- to posttest with significant change occurring positively with the low-skilled in one measure; (d) cognitive learning was significant from pre- to posttest in rules and mechanics but not in strategies. Instructional characteristics, as described in this study, did not change from skill to skill, but student learning did. This led the authors to conclude that the instrumentation for instructional variables was not sensitive to differences in the way individual skills were handled by individual teachers.     

Teacher Perceptions of a Physical Education Statewide Assessment Program

Abstract

A statewide program assessment was established to make positive change in physical education school programs in South Carolina. Reform efforts depend both on balancing accountability for change and teacher support for change (Odden &Anderson, 1986). The purpose of the study was to determine teacher perceptions of the South Carolina Physical Education Assessment Program and its effects across six related themes including: changes in teaching and learning, changes in curriculum and instruction, teacher awareness of the assessment program, teacher support for the program, work place conditions, and the advocacy role of the program. It was also the purpose of this study to determine if the survey responses were in any way related to teacher and school variables. The overall results of the study indicated positive change and support for the assessment program, supporting the viability of the standards, assessment, and accountability reform effort to positively impact physical education programs.     

Registered nurses' constructed meaning of concepts of solution and their use in clinical practice

Since the introduction of nursing into tertiary institutions in Australia in 1975, there has been increasing interest in the teaching of physical science to nurses. Various courses in physical science for nurse students have been developed. They vary in length and content but there is agreement that concepts taught should be closely related to nursing applications. The choice of relevant concepts tends to be made by individual curriculum developers. This paper reports an examination of the use of physical science concepts and their relevance from the perspective of registered nurses practising in general ward areas. Inherent in this study is the premise that for registered nurses to have ideas of the physical science underlying their practice they must have constructed meaning first for these concepts. Specific chemical concepts related to solutions are discussed in these terms. Specializations: phenomenology, thinking, caring, euthanasia and palliative care, curriculum development for nurses. Specializations: thinking, science curricula for nurses, isotope geochemistry, mass spectrometry.     

Ability Grouping Practices in the Primary School: A survey

In 1997, the DfEE suggested that schools should consider 'setting' pupils by ability as it was believed that this would contribute to raising standards. This survey of primary schools aimed to establish the extent to which primary schools, with same and mixed age classes, implement different grouping practices including setting, streaming, within class ability and mixed ability groupings for different curriculum subjects. Schools were asked to complete a questionnaire indicating their grouping practices for each subject in each year group. The findings showed that schools predominantly adopted within class ability groupings, either mixed or ability grouped, for most subjects. Ability grouping (within class and setting) was most common in mathematics, followed by English and science. Its implementation increased as pupils progressed through school. The type of setting adopted, same or cross-age, tended to reflect the nature of the class structures within the school.     

The Community of Practice among Mathematics and Mathematics Education Faculty Members at an Urban Minority Serving Institution in the U.S.

Using narrative inquiry as a research method, four mathematics and mathematics education faculty members explored the integration of theoretical perspectives into their personal narratives as they developed a community of practice. Initially their focus was strictly on improving their students’ mathematical knowledge. As their community of practice matured, however, their work took on a larger meaning as they contributed to the institution’s strategic goal of raising the annual dollar amount of external funding and to the development of their personal and collective identities. This unusual level of inter-departmental collaboration has been recognized by the institution’s highest administrators, who have called upon its members to develop new, collaborative partnerships with regional school districts and community colleges.     

Mothers' Concepts of Young Children's Areas of Personal Freedom

White suburban working- to upper-middle-class mothers ( N = 40) of children ages 5 and 7 were interviewed regarding their concepts of children's areas of personal discretion, autonomy, and individuality. Mothers treated standardized moral, conventional, and prudential items as issues that mothers should control, while standardized personal items were treated as up to the child. In open-ended interviews, mothers reported setting limits around issues of safety, family conventions, and daily routines but permitted children to make decisions about food, recreational activities, clothes, and playmates. Mothers viewed mother-child conflict as occurring over these same issues and viewed children's choices as helping them to develop autonomy and competence. Mothers viewed their roles as educators and nurturers and valued the development of individuality in their children, which was thought to emerge in infancy or toddlerhood. Few age differences were observed, but gender differences were found in the ways mothers characterized boys and girls' resistances to parental authority and in the content of mother-child disputes. Results were interpreted in terms of the emergence of the personal domain in children.