Recent news has raised several questions related to grading and evaluation in physical and health education (PE) courses. The Physical Education and Health Network (REPS), which brings together PE players working together to meet the important needs of our profession, wishes to clarify certain elements with regard to the evaluation of learning and rating.
When we openly question the relevance of evaluation in a discipline to positively encourage the practice of physical activities, do we accurately measure the meaning and scope of this statement? This reductive way of viewing the evaluative process encourages the traditional view of evaluation focused primarily on performance. This simplistic vision takes us back more than 20 years, where the number of successful baskets was proof of the grade and the misfortune of several students. However, it is important to remember that the 2003 Learning Evaluation Policy offers a unified ministerial vision of evaluation, regardless of the sector, discipline and level of education.
It is also essential to remember that the evaluation of learning serves two distinct functions. Firstly, it aims to help students develop their skills, which promotes the regulation of their learning and makes it possible to differentiate teachers’ pedagogical approaches (Scallon, 2015). Secondly, the evaluation makes it possible to recognize the level of skills achieved in the discipline evaluated, ultimately leading to the communication of results in report cards, often expressed in the form of numerical grades (CSÉ, 2018; MÉQ, 2003; Yerly and Laveault , 2020).
Concretely, in PE, what is learning evaluation?
Therefore, evaluation is intended to be a complex process, which includes several distinct stages, in order to support and report on students’ learning and, thereby, their skills. Evaluating in PE therefore means making a professional judgment by interpreting the traces collected in different contexts of physical activities, individual and collective, in addition to the adoption of a healthy and active lifestyle.
In the digital age, sedentary children, deteriorating physical condition, health problems that appear earlier and earlier, it is time to highlight one of the rare school disciplines that allows us to develop skills. motor skills of students, to contribute considerably to their socialization as well as to being physically and healthily active throughout their lives. Collectively, shouldn’t we highlight the many benefits that result from the PE discipline, in particular through the improvement of students’ concentration, the predisposition to learning, the reduction of stress and the improvement of the quality of sleep, to name just a few?
So, although in some ways the professional judgment of PE teachers is being called into question in the public arena, if external influencers want real change regarding PE grading, it would be more appropriate to consult the experts who take based on well-conducted research and proven practices approved by stakeholders in the field. The profession would only be more valued and, above all, PE teachers would feel more supported and professionally recognized.
The challenges linked to the evaluation of learning and grading (standardized framework) are not exclusive to EPS. Thus, it is crucial to question the way in which our elected officials conceive of evaluation and communication of results (current rating), whatever the field of education. And the debate must take place not in the public square, but between stakeholders qualified to undertake the changes requested by those in the education sector for several years.