1 / 18

Reimagining Fitness Testing in Physical Education: A New Approach for Student Success

This article explores the critical need for a paradigm shift in fitness testing within physical education frameworks. It highlights the importance of measuring fitness components such as aerobic capacity, balance, and core strength, while addressing the flaws of traditional methods. By focusing on child-centered, developmentally appropriate practices, this approach aims to foster intrinsic motivation, combat negative attitudes toward physical education, and promote overall health and well-being. Emphasizing individualized feedback and positive experiences, the recommendations pave the way for effective and meaningful assessments.

garson
Download Presentation

Reimagining Fitness Testing in Physical Education: A New Approach for Student Success

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. ABC Fit A New Paradigm Glenn Young, BEd, MEd Physical Education and Athletics Coordinator Surrey Physical Education

  2. Why Schools Fitness Test • To improve overall performance • Diagnosing weakness/deficiency • Improvement over baseline • Effectiveness of program • Gathering data • Communicate achievement • Only standardized test we have for PE Surrey Physical Education

  3. Lab vs Field Based Tests • Much more accurate than field based • Lab tests to costly • Can not be replicated with large numbers Surrey Physical Education

  4. Field-Based Fitness Tests • Canada Fitness Award, CFA (1970), European Test of Physical Fitness, Eurofit (1988), President’s Challenge, Fitnessgram • Focus primarily on Health-Related components of fitness (endurance, flexibility, strength) Surrey Physical Education

  5. What are we actually measuring? • Genetics/heredity (potential) • Maturation (young people show a linear increase in VO2 max w/age) • Intervention (our PE programs, PA programs) • Motivation • Lifestyle • Skilled at taking the test • NOT True Improvement Surrey Physical Education

  6. Critical Questions • Are you fit? • How do you know? • What criteria did you use? Surrey Physical Education

  7. ABC Fitness • District has defined fitness for our students • Aerobic Fitness (4 station circuit) • Balance (Stork) • Core (Plank) Surrey Physical Education

  8. Why Aerobic? • One of the best indicators of overall fitness • Obvious positive health-related outcomes • Tests are easy to administer to large groups • Many standards developed Surrey Physical Education

  9. Why Balance? • Used on a daily basis (static & dynamic) • Foundation for all movement • Changing and controlling your center of gravity • Directly rewires the brain • Injury prevention Surrey Physical Education

  10. Why Core? • Bridges lower body to upper body • Effective force transfer and skillful movement depend on the core to sustain proper spinal position • Enhances throwing, jumping, rotary skills • Engine of the body • Wrong focus on extremities first Surrey Physical Education

  11. Why a Paradigm Shift • Fitness testing antithetical to the goal of promoting physical activity • Children are not small adults • Tests need to be appropriate • Testing needs to be efficient • Functional fitness (used daily) before performance • Criterion referenced standards • Safe--not maximal exertion or to exhaustion • Promote learning and positive attitudes Surrey Physical Education

  12. Effects on Children of Fitness Testing • Intrinsic motivation increased with positive feedback after test, but decreased after negative feedback (Whitehead & Corbin, 1991) • Major contributor to negative attitudes towards PE (Luke & Sinclair, 1991) • Tests only motivate those that do well (PEA, 1988) • Over emphasis on the product-related issues (fitness level, performance) rather than the process-related issues (health, physical activity behavior) (Cale & Harris 2002) Surrey Physical Education

  13. Effects on Children of Fitness Testing • Improper testing turns many “off” activity rather than “on”(Docherty & Bell, 1990, Corbin et al. 1995) • Communicates a false message that competition and excellence are necessary for health and fitness (Cale & Harris, 2005) • Children have little understanding why they are tested (Hopple & Graham, 1995) • Inappropriate or undesirable use of fitness scores to grade children as a primary indicator of achievement (Corbin, 2002) Surrey Physical Education

  14. Recommendations (Cale & Harris, 2005) • Be child-centered & developmentally appropriate • Positive & meaningful experience • Provide individualized baseline scores and feedback to improve • Promote learning and positive attitude towards being active • Scores interpreted carefully because of limitations • Use criterion-referenced standards Surrey Physical Education

  15. Aerobic Fitness Surrey Physical Education

  16. Balance Surrey Physical Education

  17. Core Surrey Physical Education

  18. Pilot Results Surrey Physical Education

More Related