Adapted from The Missing Think – Effective Assessment Strategies in Health and Physical Education by Joe Grdisa 

It is our pleasure to share this Ophea platform with Joe Grdisa, a valued member of Ophea’s Board of Directors. Along with being on Ophea’s Board, Joe is the Coordinator of Health and Physical Education (H&PE) and Extracurricular Athletics at the Peel District School Board. As a School Board Consultant, Joe supports H&PE, Extracurriculars, Athletics, Daily Physical Activity, and Outdoor Education for grades K-12. He is also a member of the Region of Peel Secondary School Athletic Association Council, PHE Canada, CIRA Ontario, and the Ontario Association for the Support of Physical and Health Educators (OASPHE). 

Joe has spent his career as a leader working to connect teachers, stakeholders, and communities, in order to support healthy, active living and the development of physical and health literacy. He is an advocate of the whole child, wellness, and H&PE, including embedding H&PE topics and movement in all curriculum subjects. 

Something is missing in the subject of Health and Physical Education (H&PE).  

A cross-jurisdictional review of provincial H&PE curricula across Canada reveals that each contains the common goal of lifelong, healthy, active living, and yet an examination of available data concludes that these goals are not meaningfully transferred into lifelong learning or habits: only 39% of children and 16% of adults meet the minimum daily physical activity recommendations.¹ 

Canadian children and adults alike are clearly struggling to be active. Society is suffering from an epidemic of inactivity driven by factors like sedentary behaviour (screen time, transportation, etc.), environmental factors (lack of facilities, unsafe infrastructure, etc.), and urbanization.² If the desired learning outcomes of H&PE curricula and teacher pedagogy are to teach concepts that will encourage healthy, active living for life, the statistics are a stark indication that students are not being given the tools to internalize the concepts: they are not learning how to be active for life. H&PE educators need to determine why this is and take steps to reverse this trend. 

Historic models of teaching H&PE rely on strict adherence to long-range plans, regurgitated each year, made up of set units based on “traditional” sports and activities in which all students are required to participate. H&PE teachers have the goal of ‘getting their students moving’. While it is important to get students moving to combat sedentary behaviours and to support wellness, the internalization of concepts must be prioritized if the ultimate goal is establishing healthy, active living at home and for the rest of students’ lives. Evaluating students based on task compliance, rather than an ongoing and engaging assessment process, contributes to disconnects between learning, internalizing concepts, and transference to lifelong habits.  

“The H&PE curricula goal of establishing lifelong, healthy, active living is not being met by a large portion of society – how can H&PE educators bridge this gap?” 

Movement and wellness are highly personal, and the current model of teaching H&PE has proven ineffective and outright exclusionary for some students. Intentional approaches to learning that involve student voice and choice in developing curricula that engage students’ minds in thoughtful reflection and inquiry have educational benefits and provide relevance to learning³; to address the clear gap between curricular goals and current outcomes, H&PE educators must find ways to connect with this “missing think”. The ongoing practice of the teacher-centered, skill-based, sport driven, thoughtless, model of task compliance needs to change to a student-centered, thoughtful model with student involvement (voice) and more options to meet differentiated needs and interests (choice).  

H&PE educators must prioritize effective and accountable teaching and assessment strategies. 

H&PE educators should find ways to engage their students’ minds as well as bodies, ensuring that teaching methods allow students to “use critical and creative thinking processes as they set goals, make decisions, and solve problems. These skills clearly overlap with and reinforce the learning skills…and will help students succeed in school and throughout their lives.”⁴ Luckily, effective teaching practices are common to all subjects and learning. In Ontario, there are performance standards upon which all students are assessed and evaluated, regardless of subject or grade. This framework provides the foundations of learning for all subjects: Knowledge and Understanding, Thinking, Communication, and Application. These categories are key aspects of the critical thinking that is necessary for the learning process that needs to occur in H&PE.  

Accountable assessment strategies in H&PE connect student engagement and thinking with purposeful learning - getting students moving with a ‘just do it’ focus is not enough. H&PE educators must demonstrate the connections between what students are learning, why they are learning it, and how it connects to real life. No matter the teaching model, teachers must become more intentional in their practices to ensure that all students are actively engaged in the learning process, rather than simply complying with potentially unclear teacher expectations and being assessed on criteria of which only the teacher is aware. 

Research has shown that in H&PE classes, students are unsure, confused, or ill-informed about goals and what assessment criteria are being used.⁵

The purpose of assessment is to support student learning. Assessment ‘for’ learning (diagnostic) can be used in a backward design model to plan for a rich, authentic, and impactful curriculum in which students may engage, but this practice has its limits. Student involvement, coupled with a differentiated lesson focus, creates a diverse and inclusive learning environment. When assessment ‘as’ learning is utilized, “students develop their capacity to be independent, autonomous learners who can set individual goals, monitor their progress, determine next steps, and reflect on their thinking and learning.”⁴ Teachers may believe that ongoing assessment ‘as’ learning requires the teacher to observe, engage, and check off boxes on a list while recording anecdotal comments for each individual student - this is a teacher-centered model. In practice, assessment ‘as’ learning empowers students to be independent, responsible learners who can reflect on their thinking and learning.  

Assessment ‘as’ learning takes the form of non-evaluative feedback that can come from the teacher, peers, or the student themselves. Rather than assess and monitor each student every day, teachers engage students on an ongoing, as-needed basis due to the autonomous nature of the thinking and learning process. 

Accountable assessment practices are an effective model in which student voice and critical thinking can support learning. Examples like Peel District School Board’s 2017 “Assess Peel Guides” provide a useful framework that includes descriptive feedback, forms of assessment, inclusive design, and learning maps. They outline Learning Goals and Success Criteria, co-created with students, connecting knowledge and skills with the curriculum in clear and concise student-friendly statements.⁶

These assessment strategies are different from those most often utilized by current H&PE teachers, and when engaged in conversations about re-imaging their pedagogy, teacher apprehension is clear. Students spend much of their day sedentary and inactive, including sitting in class, and H&PE should keep students as active as possible. Many educators feel that there is not enough time to engage students in such a deep manner, and that students would be bored if H&PE were to become too cerebral.  Ultimately, these arguments are rooted in a traditional lens that data shows has failed to meet the needs of students. 

Utilizing intentional assessment strategies such as clearly identified learning goals and co-constructed success criteria is a process. 

Implementing these strategies into H&PE classrooms will take time. Skills, strategies, and best practices will only improve and become more impactful as more educators adopt these approaches. Cross-curricular collaboration and application of these assessment strategies would support transference of skills and increased thoughtful learning by students. The Ontario H&PE Curricula Grades 1-8 and 9-12 have overall expectations that are the same, allowing for vertical alignment of curricula and assessment strategies grades 1-12 regardless of different schools. This contributes to consistency in learning.⁷

Assessment in H&PE has received research interest, but studies in practical assessment practices have been rare.⁵ Further research and effort must support H&PE teachers as they transition to a model of learning that is necessarily different from those they are familiar with: an authentic curriculum that engages students more thoughtfully to ensure that the learning is relevant to each student is crucial to student success and lifelong learning.⁸ To truly support student wellness and achieve the curricular goal of healthy, active living for life, teachers, the whole school, and connections outside of school must all share responsibility in fostering a health-promoting community. 

Ophea thanks Joe for sharing his voice, expertise and experience with our audience, and for supporting our mission and vision throughout his career.  

Let’s keep the conversation going! Share with us how you support the development of meaningful and inclusive H&PE learning environments by tagging @OpheaCanada on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.  

To stay up-to-date on Ophea professional learning offerings, resources, and supports sign up for Ophea’s e-newsletter, eConnection. 

Works Referenced 

1. PHE Canada (@PHECanda). 2021, November 10. Only 16% of adults & 39% of kids in Canada meet recommended physical activity levels – and the pandemic has only made things worse. Twitter. https://twitter.com/PHECanada/status/1459179678565077023 
2. Thomas, E. (2021). Physical Inactivity. Physiopedia. Retrieved 4 December 2021, from https://www.physio-pedia.com/Physical_Inactivity. 
3. Bron, J., & Veugelers, W. (2014). Why we need to involve our students in curriculum design: five arguments for student voice. Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue, 16(1), 125–139. 
4. Growing success assessment, evaluation and reporting in Ontario schools. (First ed.). (2010). Toronto, ON: Ministry of Education]. 
5. Borghouts, L., Slingerland, M., Weeldenburg, G., MacPhail, A., Mars, van der, Penney, D., … Lund, J. (2020). AIESEP Position Statement on Physical Education Assessment. In 2020. Fontys. 
6. Peel District School Board. (2017). Assess Peel Guides. Mississauga: Peel District School Board. 
7. English, & Steffy, B. E. (2001). Deep curriculum alignment: creating a level playing field for all children on high-stakes tests of educational accountability. Scarecrow Press. 
8. Jagersma, J., & Parsons, J. (2011). Empowering students as active participants in curriculum design and implementation. New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work, 8(2), 114–121.