Use of formative assessment in Physical Education teacher education in Secondary School: a case study

Abstract

TThe adoption of a competencies-based education model in university teaching brings up the debate on the overtaking of traditional assessment methods by new systems, such as the formative assessment. Under this approach, the present study is presented so as to analyse, in the light of formative assessment and teacher competences, the assessment systems in Physical Education teacher training in the Master's Degree in Teaching in Secondary, Baccalaureate, Vocational Training and Teaching of Languages, Arts and Sports in a Spanish Public University. Therefore, a mixed quantitative and qualitative complementary design case study is carried out, in which data is obtained from the Instrument for the analysis of the teaching guides’ assessment systems (IASEG) of twelve subjects and in-depth interviews with five teachers. There is a great difference between subjects in terms of using formative assessment and among teachers in terms of training in formative assessment and the implementation of it in class. In conclusion, an incipient support is observed for this type of assessment due to the benefits it brings in the teaching-learning process; however, there are obstacles such as the limitations generated by a context that isn’t used to this practice and the lack of training of some teachers.