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1.
Within the UK and internationally, schools are increasingly being encouraged to call on external agencies and draw on the services of individuals, including sport coaches, to ‘help teach or lead sports within the school setting and out of school time’. This trend arises from and has contributed to a changing policy landscape and relations that characterise ‘physical education and school sport’ (PESS) and the growing use of the terminology of ‘PESS’. Previous research has highlighted that neither PESS considered broadly as a policy space, nor specific initiatives centring on ‘partnership-based’ development of physical education (PE) and/or sport in schools, can be assumed to facilitate greater equity in provision for young people. This study reports on research that has sought to build on past studies revealing gender and ability inequities amidst PESS developments. The research was designed as a small-scale case study investigation to critically explore the equity-related messages being conveyed in and through the hidden curriculum in a context of coaches’ involvement in extra-curricular provision. Utilising observations and interviews with coaches and PE teachers, data collection focused on ways in which ideas of ability, masculinity and femininity were being constructed and reproduced in and through coach's pedagogy, and sought insight into the prospective impact of the particular constructions on girls’ and boys’ involvement in extra-curricular PE. Analysis revealed that the hidden curriculum expressed in and through the organisation of extra-curricular PE and coaches’ pedagogical practices in this context can be seen as reaffirming limited conceptions of ability in PE and gender inequity in relation to girls’ and boys’ respective participation opportunities. Discussion critically addresses the relationship between policy and pedagogy in PESS in pursuing apparently ongoing tendencies for long-standing inequities to be reproduced in and through extra-curricular provision. 相似文献
2.
Physical education (PE) in primary schools has traditionally been taught by qualified primary teachers. More recently, some teaching of PE in primary schools has been undertaken by coaches (mostly football coaches). These coaches hold national governing body awards but do not hold teaching qualifications. Thus, coaches may not be adequately prepared to teach PE in curriculum time. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the perceptions of a group of community-based football coaches working in primary schools for the impact of a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme on their ability to undertake ‘specified work’ to cover PE in primary schools. The programme focused on four areas identified as important to enable coaches to cover specified work: short- and medium-term planning, pedagogy, knowledge of the curriculum and reflection. Results showed that for the majority of coaches the CPD programme had made them more aware of the importance of these four areas and had helped to develop their knowledge and ability to put this into practice in covering planning, preparation and assessment time. However, further input is still required to develop coaches’ knowledge and understanding in all four areas, but especially their curriculum knowledge, as well as their ability to put these into practice consistently. These findings are discussed in relation to the implications of employing coaches to cover the teaching of PE in primary schools and, if employed, what CPD coaches need to develop the necessary knowledge, skill and understanding for covering specified work in schools. 相似文献
3.
Dawn Penney 《Sport, Education and Society》2013,18(1):6-20
This article offers a conceptually based commentary that addresses a longstanding dilemma for physical education, of what theoretical insights can usefully be pursued as a basis for advancing physical education curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. It utilises the work of Basil Bernstein to argue that structural and symbolic boundaries are key to understanding and productively engaging with stability and change in physical education. Relations between curriculum, pedagogy and assessment are examined in terms of their linkages with legitimate knowledge structures and knowledge relations in/of physical education, and in turn, with equity in physical education. While curriculum, pedagogy and assessment are each identified as important avenues for critically informed pedagogic action, the collective dynamic is identified as over-riding any single influence. Furthermore, that dynamic is shown to be inseparable from the knowledge structures in/of physical education. 相似文献
4.
Background: New curriculum developments present opportunities for established thinking and practice in physical education to be reaffirmed or challenged in government, professional and institutional arenas. The introduction of a new official text for the Victorian Certificate of Education Physical Education [VCEPE] in 2011 provided a prompt for renewed debate about the ways in which ‘multiple ways of knowing' could prospectively find expression in senior secondary physical education. Previous analysis of the new VCEPE official text and associated assessment requirements led to a prediction that a theoretical–practical binary may well be reaffirmed amidst implementation of the new course in schools, such that senior secondary physical education (SSPE) in Victorian schools may remain an essentially propositional/theoretical subject.
Purpose: This paper reports on research that has pursued this prediction and specifically explored the expression of Arnold's three dimensions of education in, through and about movement, in teachers’ interpretation and enactment of the new VCEPE Study Design. The research sought to pursue the potential for originality and creativity in SSPE amidst the introduction of a new official curriculum text, examine factors facilitating or limiting this and document the ‘pedagogic realities’ of SSPE in Victorian schools.
Methodology: The study used a case study approach, involving two government and two independent secondary schools in Victoria, Australia. Data gathered from teacher interviews, classroom observations and documentary sources in 2012–2013 are reported. Analysis pursued internal and external factors framing the curriculum and pedagogical practices prominent in enactment of the new course in the case study schools, and the individual and collective representation of Arnold's three dimensions of movement in the schools’ curriculum and teachers’ pedagogical practices.
Findings: The findings reveal complexities and tensions associated with the representation of new curriculum policy in school curriculum and teachers’ pedagogic practices. Attention is drawn to ways in which the interplay between official texts, accompanying assessment requirements, other professional texts and the wider educational context variously shape the ‘pedagogic realities’ of the VCEPE in practice. The discussion explains how this interplay influences (and limits) the expression of Arnold's dimensions in VCEPE.
Implications: This paper reaffirms previous work in SSPE that has highlighted the need for conceptual coherence between curriculum texts and assessment frameworks. This research directs attention to opportunities for development of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment, through both official and professional channels, in ways that facilitate teachers’ professional learning about the potential expression of Arnold's dimensions in VCEPE. It also calls for curriculum authorities, professional learning associations and teacher education institutions to work more coherently to be at the fore of thinking about pedagogic possibilities in senior secondary physical education. 相似文献
5.
The ‘Curriculum for Excellence’ (CfE) guidelines and associated learning experiences and outcomes have been developed following a national debate on the purposes of education in Scotland. The recent development shifts physical education's (PE) role in Scottish education, changing from contributing to the ‘Expressive Arts’ area of the curriculum, to one central to the newly created curriculum area of ‘Health and wellbeing’ in the CfE. This paper provides an analysis of the broader policy context at national and global levels examining the policy developments for PE in Scotland situating them within a globalised discourse emphasising concerns about ill-health and obesity within society. Drawing on the work of Bowe et al., the paper examines the context of production and the context of influence that has contributed to the recent development of ‘Health and wellbeing’ within the CfE. It is argued that the role for PE and the focus on schools promoting daily physical activity within the CfE masks the complexity of addressing the issues of health and well-being. In conclusion it is highlighted that in the interpretation and implementation of policy there will be further issues for PE and as yet unknown consequences for the context of practice and pupils' experiences of PE in Scotland. 相似文献
6.
Background: The latest curriculum reform in Norway is one example of an education reform with a highly emphasised assessment for learning (AfL) agenda. Acknowledging that there is a lack of empirical research on AfL in physical education (PE), and that AfL potentially can have an important role to play in development of PE pedagogy, this paper set out to examine the extent to which the emphasis on AfL from educational authorities has led to change in assessment practice in PE.Purpose and research question: The purpose of this paper is to examine the implementation of AfL in PE at upper secondary level in Norway, and discuss possible implications. More specifically we ask ‘How do students’ and teachers' perspectives of assessment practices in PE reflect AfL key principles?'Methods: A mixed-method design has been applied in this study. Quantitative data, collected through a questionnaire answered by 1486 students from six upper secondary schools (15–19 years), were combined and compared with qualitative data from focus groups of a total of 23 PE teachers at the same schools. Data were analysed in relation to four key principles of AfL.Findings: For the majority of the students in the study, their reports of assessment practice in PE did not reflect the four key principles of AfL. This result was supported by the fact that their PE teachers conveyed very varied understandings and enactments of AfL. The study revealed some difference between teacher and student perspectives regarding AfL key principles, in particular regarding feedback that moves learners forward.Conclusions: The study demonstrates limited implementation of AfL principles in PE and we conclude that the educational authorities' emphasis of AfL has not proven productive in PE. However, most of the teachers acknowledged the need to change teaching and assessment practices in PE, and all schools in the study are observed to be in an area of changing assessment. Considering the findings on different AfL key principles, this study highlights engaging student more directly in assessment processes as an important development area. 相似文献
7.
Håkan Larsson 《Sport, Education and Society》2013,18(5):637-651
Over the last one of two decades, researchers within the physical education (PE) and sport pedagogy research frequently use the concept ‘the material body’. An initial purpose of this article is to explore what a concept of a ‘material body’ might mean. What other bodies are there? Who would dispute the materiality of bodies? I suggest that the use of a concept as ‘the material body’ suggests a hesitation before the radicalism of the linguistic turn in the sense that the concept ‘discourse’ does not include a material dimension. In this way ‘the material body’ relates to an interpretation of ‘the socially (or discursively) constructed body’ as void of matter. A further purpose with the article is to re-inscribe matter in the concept of ‘discourse’. This is done by way of discussing what theorists like Michel Foucault and, in particular, Judith Butler, has to say about the materiality of the body. In their writings, discourse should not be limited to spoken and/or written language. Rather, discourse is understood in terms of actions and events that create meanings—that matters. One conclusion of the article is that it is important to problematise the mundane view of discourse as ‘verbal interchange’ because it reinforces the promise of an objective knowledge that will eventually shed light on the ‘real’ body and the mysteries of sexual difference, what its origins are, what causes it. Another conclusion is that the PE and sport pedagogy research should pay less attention to the body as an object (what it ‘is’), and pay more attention to how the body matters, and e.g. how movements make bodies matter. 相似文献
8.
In the field of education, the international trend is to turn to criterion-referenced grading in the hope of achieving accountable and consistent grades. Despite a national criterion-referenced grading system emphasising knowledge as the only base for grading, Swedish physical education (PE) grades have been shown to value non-knowledge factors, such as students’ characteristics and behaviour. In 2011, a new national curriculum was implemented which attempts to deal with the problem by prescribing specific knowledge requirements with a clear progression as the only basis for different grades. The aim of the present study is to explore the impact of the new knowledge requirements on what teachers consider important when assigning grades. It is also to discuss what non-knowledge-related aspects (if any) teachers continue to look for and why these seem to remain resilient to the reform. The Repertory Grid technique was employed to interview the teachers before (2009) and after the implementation (2013). During the interviews, the grading of 45 students was discussed, which generated 125 constructs. After the implementation, there was a near doubling of knowledge constructs, half as many motivation constructs and an almost total elimination of constructs based on confidence and social skills. While motivational factors were still considered valuable for the award of a higher grade, clear criteria seemed to be important, but too limited for the teachers’ needs. In order to understand the persistence of motivational factors, we discuss the results in relation to Bernstein’s interrelated message systems of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. We emphasise the need to discuss how valid grades can be achieved and, at the same time, give value to the regulative discourse in order to realise the overarching national goals of values and norms in education and PE. 相似文献
9.
Primary physical education (PE) lessons tend to be taught by one, or a combination of, three different groups: generalist classroom teachers, specialist primary PE teachers and so-called adults other than teachers, who are almost exclusively sports coaches. Drawing upon data gathered from one-to-one interviews with 36 subject leaders (SLs), this study sought answers to two main questions: ‘Who delivers primary PE nowadays?’ and ‘What are the consequences?’ The findings revealed that the most common model for the delivery of PE involved responsibility being shared between the generalist class teacher and either a sports coach or specialist PE teacher. The SLs recognised strengths and weaknesses in all of the three main approaches used. However, while they favoured the use of specialist teachers because of their subject knowledge and expertise, the more prosaic constraints of cost and flexibility meant that the use of coaches had become increasingly popular. Whether or not, the growth of coaches is de-professionalising the delivery of PE, it certainly appears to be exacerbating any existing tendency to turn primary PE into a pale imitation of the sport-biased curricular of secondary schools. Ironically, the apparent ‘threat’ to the status of PE in the primary curriculum (as well as the status of PE specialists) posed by the growth of coaches in curricular PE in primary schools may well be exaggerated by the Primary PE and Sport Premium which appears to have added momentum to a change of direction regarding staffing the subject—towards sports coaches and away from generalist classroom teachers and PE specialists. As the shift towards outsourcing PE to commercial sports coaches becomes increasingly commonplace, it seems appropriate to talk of transformation, rather than mere change, in the delivery of primary PE. 相似文献
10.
Lars B. Borghouts Menno Slingerland Leen Haerens 《Physical Education & Sport Pedagogy》2017,22(5):473-489
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. 相似文献
11.
12.
This paper explores physical educators’ perspectives on race and racism as a first step towards disrupting whiteness and supporting the development of antiracist practice. With close links to sport, a practice centrally implicated in the creation and maintenance of racialised bodies and hierarchies, Physical Education (PE) offers an important context for a study of whiteness and racism in education. Using collective biography we examine physical educators’ narrative stories for what they reveal about the operation of whiteness and racism in PE. Teachers draw on narratives from curricula texts which uphold and reinforce notions of the racialised other, thereby reasserting normative, universal white knowledge. Their pedagogy is underpinned by a colour blind approach where race is ‘not seen’, yet essentialist and cultural discourses of race are nevertheless deployed to position particular racialised and gendered bodies as ‘problems’ in PE. Engagement with antiracism is limited to professional rhetoric within pedagogical practice. 相似文献
13.
Andrew C. Sparkes Daniel Martos-Garcia Anthony J. Maher 《Sport, Education and Society》2019,24(4):338-348
Pupils with disabilities have been found to experience a narrower physical education curriculum and participate less frequently than pupils without disabilities. A lack of knowledge, skills, relevant experiences and confidence amongst physical education (PE) teachers has been said to contribute to these differential educational experiences. This article adds to the paucity of research that analyses the PE experiences of pupils with disabilities while, at the same time, evaluating embodied pedagogy as a tool for better preparing PE teachers for their role as inclusive educators. Specifically, the article aims to: (1) explore the PE experiences of a university student named Violeta who lives with the condition of Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI); (2) analyse the views of a group of prospective teachers who participated in a PE lesson (Experience 1) which included Violeta; and (3) examine the perceptions of a group of prospective teachers who participated in a simulated attempt at embodied pedagogy (Experience 2). Data were gathered using field notes, observations and interviews with Violeta and the prospective teachers who participated in Experience 1 and Experience 2. The findings suggest that in both Experience 1 and 2, the prospective teachers developed a greater aware of OI and a more positive attitude towards inclusive PE. That said, the nature of the student learning experience and their ability to empathetically imagine themselves in, and through, the bodies of others that were different from themselves varied significantly in Experience 1 and 2. Such a contrast, especially in relation to notions of alterity, related to the presence or absence of the other as a corporeal entity involved in the lessons. Neither Experience 1 or 2 was found to be ‘better’ than the other, they simply provided different contexts, resources and opportunities for learning to take place. We discuss some implications of these differences for those wishing to engage in embodied forms of pedagogy as a way of helping prospective teachers to have the knowledge, skills and experience to develop a more inclusive culture in school PE. 相似文献
14.
The field of physical education (PE), as it exists in teacher education, is dynamic as ways of preparing teachers to meet the needs of young people in contemporary times change. Such endeavours are underpinned by concerns about school-based PE, the alienation of students from PE, and responsibility for producing healthy students. Concerns also exist around a perceived propensity amongst pre-service teachers of PE to steadfastly retain initial beliefs and values and resist more socially critical perspectives and pedagogies. An engagement with socially critical discourses in teacher education is critical if PE is to be a site of inclusion rather than marginalisation and exclusion. This paper examines how a group of pre-service teachers of PE, who experienced a teacher education programme, at an Australian university, that was infused with strong social justice discourses constituted subjectivities and pedagogical practices. We explore how, emotional connectivity, and an ‘ethic of care’, instil broadened perspectives and engagement with socially critical pedagogical practices. Whilst emotions and caring are generally perceived as marginal attributes in the field of PE, we suggest that the affective domain is significant to effective pedagogical practices, subjectivities of teachers of PE and the reality of teaching. We seek to trouble ‘truths’ disseminated by hegemonic discourses that construct PE teaching as a technical undertaking, founded on disciplinary knowledge and curricular expertise. We close by providing possibilities for others working with PE pre-service teachers around foregrounding affective dimensions of pedagogical practices and teacher subjectivities and propose that these possibilities might address calls for a new type of PE teacher. 相似文献
15.
Many children and young people enjoy physical education (PE), yet many do not, and subsequently become disengaged from PE. Previous research that has explored pupil disengagement from PE has focused on what teachers should do to re-engage their pupils, or has encouraged dis-engaged pupils to create a curriculum that they perceive to be socially and culturally relevant. While this research is extremely important, it does not highlight enough what teachers bring to the teaching and learning process. An alternative approach to understanding (dis)engagement in PE is to start by asking both teachers and pupils: what is currently working, why is it working, and what could be in the future? This ‘appreciative inquiry’ (AI) approach is underpinned by the belief that everyone and everything has strengths that can be developed, and that those strengths should be the starting point for change. Consequently, in establishing the use of AI as an important means of understanding and potentially enhancing PE pedagogy, this research sought to understand the successful teaching strategies developed by PE teachers to re-engage disengaged pupils. Importantly, in recognising the value of understanding pupil experiences we also explored and shared the success stories of the ‘re-engaged’ pupils. Finally, in extending the research in this area, we examined the impact that teacher engagement in the AI process had on their professional learning. As the teachers engaged in the AI process, they discussed, listened to (each other and their pupils), reflected and shared their success stories. This, in turn, appears to have encouraged them to re-articulate and re-enact their practice and learning within the context of a more positive future. They designed (and in some cases, co-design with their pupils) meaningful and empowering PE programmes for their ‘disengaged’ pupils and have subsequently made a commitment to future professional learning and inquiry. 相似文献
16.
Focussing on the ideological aspects of privatisation, this paper explores ways in which ‘freedom’ has been activated discursively to justify actions involving changes to both the structure and the content of formal education in the UK. Empirically, the paper will analyse examples in England of UK Government ‘new provider’ rhetoric relating to ‘Academies’ in order to address both the claims and the counterclaims made by governments, educational producers and others for the privatisation of education and physical education (PE) within it. The paper suggests that such changes may have significant implications not only for teachers of PE, but also the educational entitlements of pupils and specifically, their opportunities to enjoy a liberal, comprehensive, high-quality PE. Privatisation may also consolidate rather than help erode and eradicate existing social hierarchies and associated distributions of educational social and physical capital. 相似文献
17.
Julie Stirrup 《Sport, Education and Society》2018,23(6):547-562
Policy agendas for early childhood education in the UK as in many countries elsewhere are driven by expectations that play will impact positively on a child’s educational attainment, health and well-being. This paper focuses on health knowledge, social class and cultural reproduction within early year education in England, looking specifically at how health discourse is framed by Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) policy imperatives and subsequently by practitioners as they re-contextualise health knowledge through play across three socially and culturally different early years education (EYE) settings within England. Across the three settings, 15 practitioners and 80 children, aged 3–4 years old, participated in the research. Drawing on the theoretical work of Basil Bernstein particularly his concepts, ‘pedagogic device’ and ‘classification’ (c) and ‘framing’ (f), the paper documents how health is designed, defined, constructed and experienced through play pedagogy within each of these EYE settings. The analyses illustrate how the different organisational and curriculum structures, pedagogical interactions and transactions of each setting cultivate distinctive relationships to health knowledge. These relationships, in turn, play their part in the reproduction of social class and cultural inequalities, despite the best intentions of EYE policy to address these matters. 相似文献
18.
Timothy Lynch 《Sport, Education and Society》2017,22(3):355-376
The purpose of this study is to explore what the role of a health and physical education (HPE) specialist teacher in the primary school entails. The new Australian Curriculum: HPE Framework requires schools and teachers to implement the HPE key learning area. Many self-perceived physical education (PE) teachers have voiced concern about not knowing how they go about this. This research investigates ‘How PE teachers best become HPE teachers?’ We are reminded by Kirk that this is not the first time teachers have implemented this very change in Australia. Many similarities can be drawn between the recent national Australian Curriculum: HPE and the 1994 HPE National Statement and Profile, which provided a foundation for the construction of the 1999 Queensland HPE (P-10) Syllabus. As recommended by Kirk this study ‘look[s] to the past for lessons about the present and where we might be heading in the future’, by investigating school responses to the 1999 Queensland HPE (P-10) syllabus and curriculum documents. Within the constructionist paradigm, an interpretivist study was conducted. The methodology chosen to construct meanings through capturing the context of each school was ‘evaluative’ and ‘multiple’ case study. The sites for the three case studies involved: one small; one medium; and one large-sized Brisbane Catholic Education primary school. The three case studies were selected as representative of different demographics and the methods engaged so as to enable precision of details were semi-structured interviews, reflective journal, observations and document analysis. Data gathered suggest that enacting the HPE key learning area is very achievable. Implementation is enhanced by HPE leadership, underpinned by clear communication. More so, barriers can be overcome through professional development and support. This study is significant nationally, and the findings may be of wider international interest. It models how school leaders can optimise the health opportunities within their context and models how PE teachers can become HPE teachers. 相似文献
19.
Background: Within the last half century, the Korean national curriculum has undergone seven periods of reform, each at intervals of just 6–8 years. The most recent ‘seventh curriculum’ was developed in 1997, and implemented in schools from 2001. Continual curriculum change has been driven by national and social needs, keeping in line with the philosophical and theoretical positions popular in the field of education. The main theme for the seventh curriculum that sets it apart from previous curriculum reform is it is a ‘differentiated curriculum.'Purpose: This study is intended to reflect and analyze the historical change of the Korean National Curriculum for Physical Education (KNCPE) over the past 60 years, covering the first through to the seventh curriculum reform phases, and then to propose the shaping and future directions of physical education (PE) national curriculum in Korea in a context of demonstrable global academic achievement among other neoliberal concerns.Discussion and conclusions: Fifteen years have passed since the inception of this ‘new’ curriculum. A number of studies have been conducted to investigate its educational effects. Nevertheless, the results are unclear and many problems exist in this area. First, PE is still regarded as a minor subject area compared with other subjects such as mathematics or science. Second, major philosophies and principles employed to construct the framework for movement activities are heavily based on Western concepts and approaches. And lastly, many students are still physically unfit and passive in their daily life suggesting that the curriculum messages have not been effective. Now, further change is needed to refocus the PE curriculum, arguing that PE in Korea is at a curriculum cross-roads. 相似文献
20.
Terje Dalen Rolf Petter Ingvaldsen Truls Valland Roaas Arve Vorland Pedersen Ingebrigt Steen Tore Kristian Aune 《European Journal of Sport Science》2017,17(4):482-487
Physical education (PE) is perhaps the school subject most likely to produce relative age effects (RAE). Like in sports, physical maturity gives students an advantage in PE, which might well be mistaken for superior ability. The aim of the present study is to investigate the extent to which physical growth, measured as height, and RAE reflect the assessment in Norwegian PE. Furthermore, we wanted to examine whether there is any gender differences in the assessment in PE as a function of physical growth and RAE. The participants (n?=?2978) were pupils in the last three years of secondary school (13–16 years old). A custom-made questionnaire was designed to collect the necessary data. The correlations between height and mark in PE for boys in 8th, 9th, and 10th grades are respectively r?=?0.14, r?=?0.32, and r?=?0.29. For girls, the correlations are r?=?0.11, r?=?0.33, and r?=?0.21. All correlations are significant (p?<?.05). The number of pupils achieving top marks was 114 in the first half of the year, whereas it was 65 in the second half of the year. The present study showed that physical growth has an impact on the pupils’ PE attainment. The physical growth is of course also mediated by the pupils’ age. RAEs were found in PE attainments also in the Norwegian school system for both genders, despite all the intentions expressed in the PE curriculum. 相似文献