Planning for Assessment in Health and Physical Education

Approaching the learning area of Health and Physical Education [HPE] (Ministry of Education
[MoE], 2007) for the first time from the perspective of teacher revealed to me a markedly
different understanding than I had experienced as a student. Mental Health (MoE, 2007, p.22),
a key area previously unknown to me, has been the focus of this three lesson sequence. This
focus grew out of a classroom in which students routinely disrespected and put down others to
the point where teaching and learning were seriously hindered. Taking a Social Constructivist
approach, these lessons were designed to link students ideas to experiences and enable richer
learning in the future as their interactions with each other becomes more supportive (Barker and
Buntting, 2016). Ensuring assessment enabled and supported students learning in this area was
a task central to this sequences design.
Understanding what constitutes learning, concepts, and assessment in this specific learning
area meant expanding my content knowledge beyond my initial understanding of it being just
P.E. It meant grasping that the concepts to be taught were both similar and uniquely dissimilar
to those found in other more traditional learning areas. Learning in this sequence was focussed
around the development of understandings, skills, and attitudes that enhance [students]
interactions and relationships with others (MoE, 2007, p.23). Assessment needed to be
obtained from students actual learning experiences, and this drove the experiential nature of
the lessons in which students reflected on their shared challenges (Ministry of Education [MoE],
1999a). By ensuring a range of learning contexts were provided, in this case both in and out of
classroom, it was hoped that HPEs aim of assessment that assess both individual student
progress and overall student achievement could be achieved (MoE, 1999a, p.55). These
curriculum documents for HPE, referenced here, greatly influenced the foundation of my
pedagogical content knowledge in this learning area. Supportive resources such as Creating a
positive classroom community (Ministry of Education [MoE], 1999b) and Kotahitanga (MoE,
2001) also contributed to the development of specific content knowledge that helped guide
planning and assessment for learning (Absolum, 2006). Throughout my research and
implementation of these lessons, it was clear that the development of knowledge in the HPE
learning area was to be an ongoing process throughout my career as teacher; knowledge that
would build upon itself as the applicability of varying activities to specific learning goals
becomes clear through research and experience.
Through this developing pedagogical content knowledge, I was able to begin constructing
learning intentions that made it clear as to what students were to learn, in turn guiding the
inclusion of appropriate assessment for that learning (Clarke, Timperley, & Hattie, 2003).
Learning to positively support each other as students work together to achieve a common goal
grew out of the careful selection of achievement objective 2C1, Identify and demonstrate ways
of maintaining and enhancing relationships between individuals and within groups (MoE, 2007,
p.45). This learning intention was designed to focus students attention on what they were to be
learning as opposed to the actual task they would be undertaking. Communication of this
intention to students was strengthened through language they would use themselves, as well as
discussion based around what positively supporting each other might look like in action

(Heritage, 2010). This discussion lead to an invitation for students to create their own success
criteria for their learning, a first for my lesson planning. The benefits of this small addition were
instantly recognizable throughout the lesson as students referred to what they were working
towards, the difficulties the activities presented them in achieving this, and showed a motivation
not often seen before (Clarke et al., 2003). This sentiment reflected that of Carol Dwecks (2000,
p.4) when she wrote of teaching that encouraged students to value learning over the
appearance of smartness,[and] to relish challenge and effort.
Assessment for these lessons took a formative approach that allowed for students to be
involved in understanding how well they were working towards the learning intentions
(Assessment reform group, 1999). My pedagogical approach to assessment was decided prior
to planning the instruction and focused around forms that best aligned with the specific learning
intention and achievement objective (Butler, & McMunn, 2006). Incorporating multiple
assessment methods was key in this endeavor, allowing for a complete picture of student
learning to form (Butler, & McMunn, 2006). As the learning taking place was not a clearly
definable skill, but something that could be expressed in a range of unique ways for each
student, questioning was a key form of assessment throughout these lessons. As an
assessment strategy this allowed for a clear understanding of what the students had learnt, and
as a teaching strategy it helped to encourage higher level thinking based off of their own and
others responses (Clarke et al., 2003). Questioning, along with the creation of a Working
Together Advice mind map (see lesson 1), were used to establish early on the prior knowledge
and understandings that students were bringing to this area, acting as a where to next guide in
our learning. This kind of assessment during the lesson allowed for adjustments to be made in
the moment, be it altering the task in response to student frustration (lesson 1) or explaining the
task in a new way in response to student confusion (lesson 2), helping further the students
learning experience (Popham, 2008).
Ingraining self and peer evaluation in these lessons was another form of assessment
particularly suited to the nature of this learning intention. Nicol (2008, as cited in Spiller, 2009)
believes that incorporating peer assessment into lessons can have a positive impact on
reducing the power imbalance between assessor and student. By incorporating this, I hoped
that students willingness to take on feedback would increase as it allowed them to hear their
progress in childs speak from their peers (Clarke et al., 2003, p.27). An added benefit of such
feedback is that it can help the learning of the giver just as much as the recipient, as they
internalise the learning intentions and success criteria from anothers perspective (Wiliam, 2006,
p.6). Self and peer assessment was supported and encouraged through student co-construction
of success criteria and reflective questioning, which allowed for an understanding of where the
students saw their, and the group as a whole, need for improvement. This guided the direction
of the second lesson as it revealed that more time, as well as less physically based contexts,
were needed for students learning to progress. By applying this evidence to my planning, I was
able to construct a lesson that prioritised student sharing of ideas and the development of skills
through an art based activity.

When contributing my own feedback and feedforward to students learning, I was conscious to
restrict comments to those that clearly related to our learning intentions and success criteria,
and how they might reach them more effectively (Hattie & Timperley, 2007, p.84). This
instructional scaffolding was provided in lessons by modelling behaviour and providing cues and
hints towards our Working Together Advice mind map to support their progression towards the
success criteria (Heritage, 2010). Ensuring this feedback did not become only praise or
comments about skills unrelated to the learning intentions is a goal I did not always manage as
a teacher in this sequence, something I can now notice in my teaching of other learning areas.
At other times in the lesson, particularly during the initial hook activity, feedback was
purposefully withheld in the hopes that students would experience the difficulties of a task,
internalising and processing these during our latter discussion (Hattie & Temperley, 2007).
Discussion in the second lesson lead to feedforward from both students and teacher that
centred around the need for the class to develop their ability to express and understand the
ideas and feelings of themselves and others. This lead to the additional learning intention in the
following lesson which related to the achievement objective Interpersonal skills (MoE, 2007,
p.45). Having students draw out this need through questioning invested them in their own
learning, evident by students reminding me in the following lesson that today everyone had to
focus on the new learning stuff about listening to others.
As was mentioned earlier, the learning area of HPE is one that until recently I mainly conceived
of as doing sports, and where succeeding in such an area looked like winning and having fun.
This discourse is one seen all to often in my current practicum, be it a basic avoidance of the six
key areas of learning in HPE that arent physical activity, a mentors comment that a lesson went
well because the students had fun, or the schools over emphasis on cross country.
Understanding the presence of these discourses in society, schools, teachers, students, and
myself has been a key step in working towards a pedagogical approach that limits the negative
impact such discourses can have on student learning. Specific attention in planning these
lessons was applied to the section What will students LEARN?, as well as the crafting of
learning intentions, to ensure such a representation was avoided in my teaching of HPE. At the
opposite end, I needed to acknowledge an understanding of assessment as grades against a
standard, that with which my own experience of primary school was full of. Through the
research, implementation, and reflection of these lessons, I have been able to grow the
understanding and knowledge necessary to find the middle ground between these ideas of
assessment in HPE. Constantly seeking to extend and expand my pedagogical content
knowledge will be key to becoming the teacher that uses assessment in HPE, and all other
learning areas, in a way that promotes learning in terms of individual student progress and
overall student achievement (MoE, 1999a, p.55).

References
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relationships. Auckland, N.Z: Hodder Education.
Assessment Reform Group. (1999). Assessment for learning: Beyond the black box. Cambridge
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Barker and Buntting (2016) chapter 2 in The professional practice of teaching in New Zealand
Butler, S. M., & McMunn, N. D. (2006). A teacher's guide to classroom assessment: Understanding and
using assessment to improve student learning (1st ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Clarke, S., Timperley, H., & Hattie, J. (2003). Unlocking formative assessment: Practical strategies for
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