ABSTRACT
The purpose of this book has been to offer a theoretical perspective and conceptual orientation to an element of physical education practice that has been increasingly recognised within the international physical education community as important. As we have argued in preceding chapters, assessment in general has widely been acknowledged as a central element of institutional education, shaping curriculum and pedagogy in powerful ways and representing a critical reference point in political, professional and public debates about educational imperatives, outcomes and policy directions. The implications of assessment at a global and national level on the general curricular offerings of schools have also had an impact on the expectations of physical education from within and beyond its curriculum community. Internally, the matters of what subject knowledge, skills and understandings should be assessed, in what ways and at what points in a student’s physical education remain widely contested. Furthermore, the factors informing these decisions within and beyond the subject have either been engaged with in a fragmented way or ignored altogether by many within the field. While there has been a notably steady increase in the research contributions to assessment in physical education in recent years (reflected in publications in academic journals in the field), we believe that a coherent conceptual framework for thinking about assessment practices, policies and research in physical education has yet to be adequately posed.
