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Assessment in Invasion Games: Part Five – Analysing the Data

This is the fifth part of the Assessment in Invasion Games blog post series. If you have not yet read part onepart twopart three and part four, start there before continuing to read here.

At the start of the Assessment in Invasion Games series I shared that over these posts I wanted to share how I aimed to use proven physical education research to change the way I assessed student learning in invasion games.  In the previous four parts to the series I have described why I wanted to change the way I assessed students in invasion games, how I planned for an implemented the assessments, as well as shared examples of assessment templates that I used with my students and how technology assisted me and my students throughout the unit.

In part two of the Assessment in Invasion Games series I mentioned that the purpose of the assessments was because I wanted to know if students knew what they should do with and without the ball and if they could execute the skills necessary to be successful. Essentially, I wanted to be able to assess their decision making ability as well as their skill execution.

By using the Passing and Catching Peer Assessment  as mentioned in part three and the GIF assessments in part four, I was able to collect data for both of these areas which I hoped would help me to show that student learning and improvement had taken place.

As Shane Pill concluded in his paper, Involving students in the assessment of game performance in physical
education (2008)
, the data that was collected and interpreted using these two assessments has assisted me to “do more than provide evidence for summative assessment.”  Through using a modified version of the GPAI it “helped facilitate learning as well as provide for the collection of evidence of learning having occurred.”

By collecting data for each individual student both formatively, before and during the unit, as well as at the end of the unit it helped me to see if these students had made progress in their ability to make appropriate decisions, as well and execute skills effectively over the course of the unit.

Decision Making: GIF Assessment Data

As mentioned in part four, the students took part in quick GIF assessments throughout the course of the unit, during their rest times in between the small sided games. At the end of the unit the students completed a final GIF assessment containing all of the tactical problems. Some of the data that was collected during both the formative and summative assessments is displayed below.
Looking at the change in students’ average scores over the course of the invasion games unit we can see that students’ tactical knowledge and decision making skills showed improvement in Maintaining Possession, Creating Space and Defending Space. There was a significant increase in students’ average score for Defending Space. There was a slight decrease in average score for Getting the Ball Back.
This data suggests to me that overall students showed improvement in their decision making skills throughout the course of the unit.

Skill Execution: Passing & Catching Data

In part three, I described how my students used a Passing and Catching Peer Assessment to observe gameplay during the unit and collect data on students skill execution. Below is an analysis of the data collected for students in Grade 3, Grade 4 and Grade 5. The graph shows the total number of passes observed, the % of effective passes and the % of ineffective passes.
Overall, the passing and catching data indicated that students in all three grade levels were successful in executing passes within the simple invasion game more often than not. Students in Grade 3 were less successful, with only 57.33% of effective passes, than students in Grade 4 and 5 who were able to pass effectively more than 70% of the time. This is likely due to the fact that invasion games are only taught during our curriculum for the first time in Grade 3, showing that experience likely plays a factor in students ability to execute skills effectively. The volume of passes observed for students in Grade 5 is significantly higher (161 passes observed) than that of students in lower grades. The % of effective passes for Grade 5 was lower than Grade 4, however I believe that with an increase in the number of observed passes for Grade 4 there would also be a decrease in the % of effective passes, allowing for an upward trend in passing effectiveness across grade levels.

Data Rich Assessment

In part one, I shared how Doherty & Brenna argued that physical education has traditionally been a relatively “data-poor” environment because of an absence of effective strategies to capture what learning has taken place. I believe that the data that was collected using the GIF assessments and Passing and Catching Peer Assessment helped me as a teacher to capture the learning that had take place over the course of the unit. It allowed me to see improvement in individual students ability to make good decisions with and without the ball, as well as execute skills effectively. It also allowed me to reflect on the way that I taught the unit and which tactical areas need more focus next year.

Next week, in the final part of the Assessment in Invasion Games series I will be reflecting on the whole assessment journey from start to finish as well as providing some tips to help you use authentic assessment strategies in your physical education program.

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Nathan Horne is a Physical Educator based in Singapore and founder of iPhys-Ed.com. Be sure to never miss out on any of iPhys-Ed.com’s future posts by connecting with us via TwitterFacebook or subscribing to our RSS Feed
Nathan can be contacted on Twitter @PENathan or via email at nathan@iphys-ed.com

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