Assessment matters in all sorts of ways to many people, including students, teachers, principals, parents, and policy makers. Assessment, and more specifically, assessment in physical education ‘is’ many things. It is a statement about the skills, knowledge and understandings that we (most) value and therefore, also about whose learning we value. It has a central role to play in either fostering or inhibiting feelings of belonging in physical education and sport. It is, in many instances, a driver of curriculum planning. It has intended and unintended consequences – for teachers, and students.
Is assessment driving innovation and greater equity in physical education? – and how, potentially, can assessment play such a role? In this keynote presentation Dawn will problematise thinking about assessment and approaches to assessment in physical education, and explore the potential for changes in assessment to be the driver of more widespread innovation in teaching and learning, and importantly, greater equity for students. Drawing on her own and others’ research,she will take a critical look at the relationships between assessment, teaching and learning in physical education, and explore what the notion of ‘quality assessment’ requires us to consider and do!
