Assessing Rolling Abilities in Primary School Children: Physical Education Specialists vs. Generalists

Pietro Luigi Invernizzi, Gabriele Signorini, Dario Colella, Gaetano Raiola, Andrea Bosio and Raffaele Scurati
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Pietro Luigi Invernizzi: Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20129 Milan, Italy
Gabriele Signorini: Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20129 Milan, Italy
Dario Colella: Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Foggia, 71122 Foggia, Italy
Gaetano Raiola: Department of Human, Philosophical and Education Sciences, University of Salerno, 84084 Fisciano (SA), Italy
Andrea Bosio: Human Performance Laboratory, Mapei Sport Research Centre, 21057 Olgiate Olona (VA), Italy
Raffaele Scurati: Department of Biomedical Sciences for Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, 20129 Milan, Italy

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 23, 1-19

Abstract: Teaching physical education requires competencies to conduct the classes and to assess the motor skills of practitioners. Specialists (physical education professionals) and generalists (primary school teachers) differently experienced motor tasks during their academic education. This study aimed to compare the teachers’ ability in assessing the children’s forward and backward rolls from the analysis of the reliability of an evaluation grid of rolling abilities (Information Scale for Agility on the Soil, InfoSAS), which was investigated in a first study with teachers. A second study in young children explored the responsiveness of the InfoSAS to discriminate by skill level or by training effects. When administered by specialists, the InfoSAS resulted in being reliable (forward: p = 0.087 and p = 0.908; backward: p = 0.926 and p = 0.910; intra- and inter-rater reliability, respectively) and responsive in detecting differences due to expertise (gymnasts vs. primary school children; forward: p = 0.003, backward: p = 0.016) or improvements after specific training in rolling (pre- vs. post-children’s training; forward: p = 0.005, backward: p = 0.001). The results support the conclusion that specialists exhibit higher competence than generalists, which allows proper application of the InfoSAS, possibly because of the practice of skills and reflective teaching styles in physical activity they experienced, along with their academic education in sport sciences.

Keywords: interpretation; perception; competent professional; practice; didactics by competence; proficiency barrier; reflective teaching styles; consciousness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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