What do Greek physical education teachers know about elementary student assessment?

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate whether teachers' knowledge of student assessment was influenced by their gender and if it was related to their teaching experience (years in education). One hundred and twenty six physical education teachers (n=126) who teach in different Greek public elementary schools, participated. Their teaching experience ranged from one to 24 years (Μ=10.45, SD=5.9). Participants' knowledge of student assessment was assessed via a multiple choice questionnaire. Independent samples t-test and Spearman rank order correlation were conducted in order to explore the impact of gender on teachers' knowledge and the relation between the latter and teaching experience, respectively. Descriptive statistics showed deficiencies in teachers' knowledge. Results indicated that females presented higher knowledge scores than males, although marginally non-significant. Marginally non-significant was also the negative correlation between teaching experience and teachers' knowledge. It seems that gender and teaching experience play a role on teachers' knowledge of student assessment, as measured in the present research, in favor of the females and the teachers with less teaching experience. These findings could be taken into consideration for further research as well as for teacher training on student assessment. © 2012 University of Alicante.