Professional Inquiry Project Summary

Introduction and Context

Assessment in Physical Education is a topic of much debate throughout this
school and this inquiry project was produced through multiple discussions with
individuals in the physical education department and our university consultant about how
to authentically assess student learning in physical education. Throughout our time in the
Faculty of Education, both of us have experience different forms of assessment strategies
and because of the subjectivity of assessment in physical education, there were both
positive and negative aspects to each of the assessment strategies implemented. A
prominent concept that remained unanswered however, was a lack of student ownership
of learning in this particular field. In both of our experiences, we found students would
perform physical activities in PE without knowing why they were performing the
activities.
This project has given us an opportunity to examine ways to make assessment an
authentic representation of student ability and we found that it needed to be a two way
process. There was a need for both the student and the teacher to be engaged in the
material. 21st century learning requires students to be engaged in their material and know
why they are performing the tasks that they are. Therefore, we wanted to continue this
process in physical education and give students the opportunity to analyze the learning
objectives set out before them, interpret them into their own words and have a resource
set up for the student to illustrate exactly how they are being assessed. This notion of
student ownership in the learning process was the driving force behind this project, where
students would be able to think critically about the purpose behind the skills in activities,

the benefits to health, the cooperation in team activities, and strategies to performing
physical activity on a daily basis.
Question(s) to Guide the Inquiry
How can physical education teachers authentically assess students on a daily basis?
The Basic Plan: Strategies and Interventions
Our plan was to create authentic assessment for physical education through
students taking ownership of their learning by interpreting the program of study outcomes
into their own language. We modified the language of the program of studies in order for
it to be meaningful for the student body. We gathered a group of students who wanted to
help out with the project. In order for the final project to be achieved, students were asked
to put different program of study outcomes into their own words. With student
interpretations, we also approached other Phys. Ed. teachers around the school to get
different interpretations of the outcomes as well. With both perspectives (student and
teacher) we made the final edit, if needed, to the modified outcomes so that the main
concepts of the outcome are still presented in a reader friendly format.
From there, rather than putting them into their original language we formatted
them into I can statements. These statements were read in front of a camera by students
who volunteered to do so. Once all the outcomes were recorded, they put into a collective
folder that can be accessed by staff throughout the school, mainly the Physical Education
staff.

End of September: Gather a volunteer group from the student population to interpret and
read out the program of studies.
End of October: Have I can statements for each outcome from the program of studies
finished.
End of November: Have videos recorded.
Presentation in December: Video clips organized into outcomes and folders
Results
The purpose of this particular inquiry project was to give students an opportunity

to take a sense of ownership over their learning in Physical Education. We believe the
result of our project, from conversations with both students and fellow Phys. Ed. teaches,
is that by giving the students the platform to interpret the learning outcomes and put these
outcomes into their own words, they have been able to gain a stronger understanding of
how they are going to be assessed on a daily basis, moving forward. We also believe that
this can simplify the planning of educators in physical education as the program of
studies have already been transformed into I can statements which can be relayed to the
students and adapted to the activity in which is taking place. An example of this could
include:
A205: Analyze, evaluate and modify performance of manipulative skills and concepts
effort, space and relationshipsto perform and create a variety of activities to improve
personal performance
Vs.
A20-5: I can analyze, evaluate and modify how I throw and catch in the game of flag
football, in order to improve my personal performance.

We believe that by simplifying the outcomes to our students, we are doing a more
effective job of tailoring our objectives directly to student learning, thereby allowing
students the opportunity a higher chance to succeed in class.
Reflections
During and after the completion of this project we realized the importance for a
revamp of the physical education program of studies. Many of the outcomes were
confusing and hard to understand what the learning goals were. It was beneficial not only
for the students but for ourselves as well to go through the process of revisiting the
outcomes and changing the wording. It allowed us an opportunity to take ownership of
our field of expertise and what students are required to learn. We both have a greater
understanding of what needs to be taught and assessed in physical education after
completing this project.
We think it is important for students to get similar opportunities in physical
education classes as they did in our project; that is to go through and analyze what they
are supposed to learn. We heard many comments during the interpretation stages such as,
what does that even mean?, I didnt know we needed to learn that!, and so on. We
think that students getting the opportunity to look at what they are supposed to learn and
getting time to put it into their words is a beneficial opportunity for them to see the why
behind physical education activities.
Future Directions
As previously mentioned, our goal of this project was to provide students the
opportunity to take ownership over the learning process in physical education as well as
give them the knowledge of how they are to be assessed. Our desire is that physical

education teachers use this resource, as it is an easily accessible resource through an

interactive means. As conversations of curriculum redesign happen throughout Alberta,
moving forward we hope that this project can serve as a reminder to physical education
staff that government learning outcomes can be hard to interpret and rather subjective,
therefore there must be an opportunity for students to gain a better understanding of what
is being required of them. That is what this project did, and we believe that this can
function not only as a quality resource for our students of the present day, but as a
platform moving forward for future students to be authentically assessed within a
physical education context.