Informatics and formative evaluation process in the high school

This study comes primarily from the consideration that scholastic evaluation requires to collect and analyze a large variety of data and therefore it needs effective tools to be suitable for this purpose; secondly by noting that nowadays teachers and students frequently use some of these tools, such as personal computers. The aim of the present study is indeed to propose a method for processing the data collected during physical education lessons, usable at any school and with different purposes. 1563 male students of a high school located near Bologna, Italy, aged 14-18, participated for five years, during curricular lessons, in the following motor tests: Standing Long jump, Jump & Reach, Seat & Reach (EUROFIT, 1988), 3 kg medical ball throw, 50 m speed run, Cooper endurance (Kirkendall, 1987). Using Microsoft Excel® the collected data were recorded and stored on a spreadsheet. Later, data processing carried out cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses (mean, mode and median). Trends of the overall development of students were highlighted by calculating the scale of percentiles in different tests and compared among them. The scale of percentiles also permitted to evaluate the longitudinal trend of each student by noting his own progress in each of the tests and the five school years (Fig 1). It has been also reviewed the progress of the test during the years to observe the physical and coordinative development of the school population as a whole. The evaluation of each student was carried out by projecting the data of each test onto those of the whole population (Fig 2). Finally performance trends for different tests have been observed in a single graph to show improvement or worsening in the individual trials. Fig 1 Fig 2 Advantages of such a method, among others, are reported: a) interdisciplinary approach; b) students’ involvement during the testing phases; c) study and knowledge of the individual motor ability, compared to the classmates and the school population as a whole; d) knowledge of the opportunities provided by the use of personal computers. In conclusion this method can improve the students’ motivation to be involved into physical education and sports activities, using an objective checking of personal motor abilities. References 1. EUROFIT, 1988, Handbook for the European Test of Physical Fitness, Rome: Council of European Committee for Development of Sport. 2. Kirkendall Don R., Gruber J.J., Johnson R.E.,1987, Measurement and evaluation for Physical educators, Human Kinetics Pub., Champaign, Illinois.