Assessment Practices among Secondary Physical Education Teachers in Ghana

Abstract

Assessment is lacking in many physical education classes. Rather, many teachers base evaluations on student behavior and participation. The primary purpose of the study was to describe Ghanaian secondary physical education teachers’ assessment practices. Participants included a purposive sample of 63 secondary physical education teachers (43 males and 20 females). An open-ended questionnaire served as the main data source. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis (Patton, 2002), comprising of both inductive and deductive analyses. The inductive analysis indicated that teachers used the following assessments in their practical lessons: teacher observation, skill test, knowledge test, demonstration, peer observation, and oral report. Similarly, they reported utilizing three types of assessment practices in their theory lessons: knowledge test, individual project, and essay. The deductive analysis indicated that the highest percentage of assessment practice utilized by the teachers in practical lessons was teacher observation (70.11%), while that with the lowest percentage was oral report (1.15%). Teachers also reported knowledge test (81.43%) and individual report (7.14%) as the highest and lowest percentage of assessment practices used in their theory lessons respectively. Most of the teachers in this study used assessment for documenting learning, rather than for accountability purposes. In-service professional development programs for physical education teachers should stress the use of wide range of assessment practices.