Physical Education Interim Benchmarks Assessment at Elementary School in Portugal - teachers' expectations

Background and purpose:The Physical Education Interin Benchmarks Assessment (PEIBA) for 2nd year students (aged between 7 and 8) took place for the first time in Portugal. Its objectives were: i) To monitor the development of... [ view full abstract ]

Background and purpose:The Physical Education Interin Benchmarks Assessment (PEIBA) for 2nd year students (aged between 7 and 8) took place for the first time in Portugal. Its objectives were: i) To monitor the development of the curriculum in the different areas, providing regular information to the education system; ii) Provide detailed information about students' performance to school, teachers, parents and the students themselves; and iii) Promote a timely pedagogical intervention to overcome the difficulties identified in each student's learning. The role of teachers, it was considered pertinent to listen their expectations before the PEIBA by their students.

Methods: A total of 239  elementary school teachers, from several regions of Portugal were surveyed through an online questionnaire.

Results:The results indicate a dispersion of opinions about the importance of the  PEIBA (75.7% below level 5 and only 24.3% above this level) while at the same time seem to devalue its achievement. We identified that for a large number of teachers (55-23%) their importance is nil (level 1) and only for a small group (9-3.7%) is high (level 10). The degree of preparation of their students, there is also a dispersion of opinions, with the majority considering that students are "Good"(108-45.2%) followed by "Satisfactory"(91-38%) “Little"(28-12%), "Very Little"(6-2.5%) and only "Very Well"(6-2.5%). On the level of expected results most teachers understand that their students:"They manage to accomplish with some difficulties"(51%);"Balance between those who succeed and those who cannot"(31%);"They can always succeed"(15%);"They cannot do the majority (3%).

Conclusions and implications: In spite of a dispersion of opinions, teachers have a relatively low appreciation of the PEIBA, considering, nevertheless, that their students are positively prepared for them. Their expectations about the results of their students are positive, but they focus on difficulties and overcoming them, with a minimum number of teachers with negative expectations.