Preparing pre-service primary school teachers to assess fundamental motor skills: two skills and two approaches

Abstract

Background: Pre-service teacher education (PSTE) programmes for generalist primary school teachers have limited time allocated to Physical Education, Health and Personal Development. In practice, teachers in schools are required to assess motor skills despite the fact that their training provides minimal preparation. This necessitates creative approaches by tertiary educators in Australia to prepare teachers to effectively teach the fundamental motor skills (FMS), which also includes the need for assessment. Purpose: To evaluate PSTE students' experiences of assessing peers across a range of FMS in a practical group environment. The performance of each FMS was assessed in real time and simultaneously video recorded for later re-assessment. The PSTE students were provided with student-centred pedagogical experiences designed to expose the effect of assessing movement in 'real' time and comparing this to the same performances with 'video' time. Participants and setting: Across a 2-week module of an 11-week semester, second year Bachelor of Education (Primary) students (N=44) were provided with both a lecture and an aligned workshop to progress students' skills of FMS movement analysis. Students were allocated to groups comprising four individuals, who were required to perform a series of FMS performance and assessment tasks at each of the seven testing stations. Data collection: At each station, each individual performed three trials for the run, strike, catch, throw, dodge, vertical jump and stationary kick, and results recorded using assessment sheets from the Get Skilled: Get Active (2000) resource. Peers were assessed in real time and in addition each performance was simultaneously video recorded for later assessment. Of the seven skills, the run and the overarm throw were selected for reporting in this paper. Data analysis: The data from 44 pre-service teachers' codings, i.e. 1320 for the run and 1584 for the overarm throw were analysed for trends in levels of agreement and disagreement for each skill component. Levels of significant differences were explored using a z-test. Self-evaluative comments on the value of the learning experience were subjected to the Leximancer text analytic software for commonly occurring concepts and themes. Findings: The components of the run demonstrating the highest level of disagreement between real and video analysis were component 3: arms bend at elbows and move in opposition to legs and component 4: contacting ground with front part of foot. For the overarm throw, both components 3: throwing arm nearly straightened behind the body, and component 5, marked sequential hip to shoulder rotation during the throw, had the highest level of disagreement. The components noted here as having the highest level of disagreement were also significant at the p < 0.05 level, when statistically analysed, using z-scores. Conclusions: These students reported a high level of satisfaction regarding the value of this peer assessment learning-pedagogy as an awareness raising exercise and as a potential tool to assist them to learn to analyse movement. PSTE educators may find value in the approach described in this paper for inclusion in their programme.