Australian Physical Education and School Sport: An Exploration into Contemporary Assessment

Abstract

While the last two decades have seen substantial shifts in the purpose and practice of assessment across education, from assessment of learning to assessment for learning (AfL), there is limited research to suggest that these innovations have penetrated into the fields of Physical Education (PE) and School Sport (SS). To address this neglect this paper focuses on both the current academic positioning of assessment in this field and the practice-oriented views of assessment held by Physical Education and School Sport (PESS) teachers. We analyse the rhetoric of assessment practice highlighted in PESS texts and academic research. This is then considered with reference to interviews with PESS teachers (N = 17) in government schools across the state of New South Wales in Australia who were asked to comment on assessment of PESS in relation to their current practice. A large disparity between academic and teacher perspectives is highlighted and difficulties in aligning PESS learning objectives, curriculum, instruction, and assessment are discussed with reference to Biggs’s (1999) theory of constructive alignment. We identify poor constructive alignment as one weakness that needs to be addressed before PESS can harness the potential benefits of AfL.