Co-assessing physical education in schools: state of the art

Abstract

Worldwide research on the issues, situations, conditions, and processes that affect co-assessment in schools is scarce and has not been thoroughly explored or documented. Although there is some research on school evaluation and more participatory forms of it, such as self-assessment and co-assessment, more research is needed. The purpose of this paper was to analyze the state of the art of co-assessment in school physical education. To this end, a qualitative research with a descriptive and interpretative approach on co-assessment or peer assessment was designed. Nineteen documents published between 2005 and 2024 were found. The objectives, theoretical frameworks, methodologies, results and teaching experiences were identified. Spain was the country with the most productions on this topic. In most of the documents analyzed, the terms "co-assessment" and "peer assessment" are used, sometimes as synonyms. In addition, the importance of promoting their use, their purposes, techniques and tools are discussed, as well as some of the experiences developed. In Colombia, the assessment of physical education students has multiple interpretations and is carried out in different ways, but it tends to privilege physical condition and performance. This trend could limit and overshadow a formative vision of assessment as a systematic process of learning, improving and deepening knowledge, and learning from mistakes. Therefore, there is an urgent need to include the theme of participation and co-assessment in the initial and in-service training of teachers in the field, at all levels and educational modalities, in order to build and develop more comprehensive, contextualized, feedback and adaptive assessment practices.