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.
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Steeds meer leerlingen groeien op met een andere taal dan het Nederlands. Zij krijgen onderwijs in een taal die niet hun eerste taal is. Op het gebied van toetsing brengt deze situatie uitdagingen met zich mee. Meertalige leerlingen kunnen, bijvoorbeeld in het rekenonderwijs, niet hun volledige potentieel aantonen wanneer zij beoordeeld worden in een taal die zij nog aan het verwerven zijn. Functioneel Meertalig Assessment (FMA; De Backer et al., 2017) biedt een mogelijke oplossing voor dit validiteitsprobleem, omdat FMA kennis en vaardigheden van leerlingen via een pallet aan evaluatievormen (bijv. toetsen, observaties, gesprekken) en via hun meertalige repertoires zichtbaar maakt. De daadwerkelijke toepassing van FMA staat echter nog in de kinderschoenen (De Backer, 2020). In de huidige studie verkenden we daarom hoe onderwijsprofessionals vormgeven aan en leren over deze nieuwe benadering van toetsing en in hoeverre een Lesson-Study-aanpak daarbij ondersteunend is. Professionals (N=15) van vijf basisscholen die onderwijs verzorgen aan jonge nieuwkomers voerden samen met een procesbegeleider (N=4) een zogenaamde Assessment Study uit. Een analyse van de FMA-praktijken die deze Assessment-Study-teams ontwikkelen en inzichten uit reflecties van deelnemers op het Assessment-Study-proces laten zien dat een Lesson-Study-methodiek onderwijsprofessionals een effectief kader biedt bij het ontwikkelen van en leren over FMA.
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Obesity, especially morbid obesity, is a major health problem with considerable impact on physical, mental and social quality of life. Assessment of quality of life is considered crucial to understand and evaluate the consequences of obesity. However, the heterogeneity of the quality of life concept makes it difficult to compare and value studies on quality of life. Both generic -applying to any disease- and obesity specific quality of life instruments can be used as assessment instruments in obesity. Generic instruments have the advantage that they can be used to compare the quality of life consequences of divergent diseases, whereas the major advantage of obesity specific instruments is that these are more sensitive to changes in obesity. Obesity has major consequences for quality of life, as a result of co-morbidities of obesity, weight stigmatization, and other less frequently ventilated problems. Bariatric surgery has been proven to lead to significant weight loss and improvement of quality of life. Instruments differ in the suitability to assess quality of life after surgery and weight loss, and they differ in the domains of quality of life that are tapped by the instruments. Besides obesity, also personal and psychosocial variables influence quality of life and affect the outcome of surgery. Obesity, even after substantial weight loss by gastric bypass surgery, is a chronic disease requiring life long consideration, in order to attain long standing quality of life improvement.
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Formative assessment (FA) is an effective educational approach for optimising student learning and is considered as a promising avenue for assessment within physical education (PE). Nevertheless, implementing FA is a complex and demanding task for in-service PE teachers who often lack formal training on this topic. To better support PE teachers in implementing FA into their practice, we need better insight into teachers’ experiences while designing and implementing formative strategies. However, knowledge on this topic is limited, especially within PE. Therefore, this study examined the experiences of 15 PE teachers who participated in an 18-month professional development programme. Teachers designed and implemented various formative activities within their PE lessons, while experiences were investigated through logbook entries and focus groups. Findings indicated various positive experiences, such as increased transparency in learning outcomes and success criteria for students as well as increased student involvement, but also revealed complexities, such as shifting teacher roles and insufficient feedback literacy among students. Overall, the findings of this study underscore the importance of a sustained, collaborative, and supported approach to implementing FA.
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Obesity, especially morbid obesity, is a major health problem with considerable impact on physical, mental and social quality of life. Assessment of quality of life is considered crucial to understand and evaluate the consequences of obesity. Obesity has major consequences for quality of life, e.g., as a result of co-morbidities of obesity and weight stigmatization.Bariatric surgery has been proven to lead to significant weight loss and improvement of quality of life. Besides obesity, also personal and psychosocial variables influence quality of life and affect the outcome of surgery. Moreover, obesity, even after substantial weight loss by gastric bypass surgery, is a chronic disease requiring life long consideration, in order to sustain long standing quality of life improvement.
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The quality of teaching has a clear impact on student success, but how can good teaching be defined? The European QualiTePE research project, funded by the Erasmus+ programme and involving ten European countries, seeks to adress this question specifically for Physical Education (PE). The QualiTePE instrument was designed for use in teacher training and further training to enable criteria-based observation and assessment of the quality of Physical Education lessons. The instrument is designed for diverse PE teaching and learning scenarios, alongside teacher resources, facilitating the practical assessment of teaching quality in PE. The QualiTePE instrument quantifies teaching quality by assessing specific, observable teaching characteristics via questionnaire items. Each assessment is conducted by three different population groups: 1) the students 2) the PE teacher 3) an observer. The comparative analysis of the data collected from these three perspectives enables systematic and criteria‐based feedback for (prospective) teachers, identifies areas of improvement, and informs content development for PE across Europe. The QualiTePE digital web-based evaluation tool for assessing the “Quality of Teaching in Physical Education” is now available in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Slovenian, Czech and Greek.
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Students often struggle with constructing models of system behaviour, particularly in open modelling tasks where there is no single correct answer. The challenge lies in providing effective support that helps students develop high quality models while maintaining their autonomy in the modelling process. This study presents a procedure for assessing the quality of student-generated qualitative models in open modelling tasks, based on three characteristics: correctness, parsimony, and completeness. The procedure was developed and refined using student-generated models from two secondary school tasks on thermoregulation and sound properties. The findings contribute to the development of automated support systems that guide students through open modelling tasks by focusing on quality characteristics rather than adherence to a predefined norm model.
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from the article: Abstract Based on a review of recent literature, this paper addresses the question of how urban planners can steer urban environmental quality, given the fact that it is multidimensional in character, is assessed largely in subjective terms and varies across time. The paper explores three questions that are at the core of planning and designing cities: ‘quality of what?’, ‘quality for whom?’ and ‘quality at what time?’ and illustrates the dilemmas that urban planners face in answering these questions. The three questions provide a novel framework that offers urban planners perspectives for action in finding their way out of the dilemmas identified. Rather than further detailing the exact nature of urban quality, these perspectives call for an approach to urban planning that is integrated, participative and adaptive. ; ; sustainable urban development; trade-offs; quality dimensions
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Research Findings: A growing number of stakeholders in early childhood education (ECE) rely on self-assessment to assess and improve the quality of ECE. In this systematic review, we investigated the reliability and validity of self-assessment in ECE, summarizing findings from 27 publications. We meta-analytically synthesized findings from 25 publications for 1,882 groups and 79,163 children aged 0–72 months in center-based childcare. Most studies reported high internal consistency, but one study reported a lower consistency. Inter-rater reliability was generally high. A three-level meta-analysis (k = 13, ES = 45) revealed a positive association between self-assessment ratings and ratings with validated measures of ECE quality (r = .38), indicating a moderate convergent validity. Studies with lower methodological quality and published “peer reviewed” studies reported somewhat higher correlations between self-assessment ratings and ratings with validated measures. The meta-analytic correlation remained significant after removal of studies with lower methodological quality (r = .33) or studies from the “grey” literature (r = .44). A second meta-analysis (k = 16, ES = 71) with a focus on the predictive validity of self-assessment ratings showed a small significant association between self-assessed ECE quality and child outcomes (r = .09); there were no significant moderators. Practice or Policy: Despite empirical evidence for the validity of self-assessment, further studies are needed to investigate potential bias in self-assessment. Future studies should further explore the validity and reliability of self-assessment measures in ECE, including countries outside the United States.
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This study examines completion rate for a self-assessment survey designed to assess employees' digital skills levels in the workplace. The aim is to improve data quality by investigating completion of the survey. The study reviews the theoretical background related to self-assessment surveys and completion rate, and explores the influence of survey length and format in survey design on completion rate. The research design and data analysis are described in detail, with a focus on identifying factors that may influence completion rate. Results suggest that survey designers should consider using Likert scales to optimize completion rate and completion time. However, this study did not find a significant increase in completion rate as a result of motivation, which was claimed from the literature. The study concludes with implications for the design and implementation of self-assessment surveys in the workplace, including the importance of reducing length and complexity of survey items and questions.
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