scholarly journals The Influence of Relative Age Effect in the Assessment of High School Students in Physical Education in the United Kingdom

2012 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon J. Roberts ◽  
Stuart J. Fairclough

The common practice of annually age grouping children in education, likely done under the assumption of similarly aged children sharing similar abilities and learner characteristics, may actually undermine equity and fairness in student assessments. This strategy has received criticism for (dis) advantaging those older children born closer to the “cut off” date for entry into an academic year and for promoting the existence of relative age effects (RAEs). This paper explores the possibility that RAEs may be prevalent in the end-of-year attainment levels of junior high school physical education (PE) students. The PE end-of-year attainment scores were collected from 582 students in grades 7, 8 and 9 (aged 11–14 years) in the United Kingdom (UK). The results from a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated a significant main effect for month of birth (p = .001) and gender (p = .001). Follow up interviews with heads of PE (HoPE) revealed a lack of awareness of RAEs and inconsiderate assessment strategies, which deviated from the requirements of the formal curriculum. The implications of RAEs in school PE assessment and possible recommendations are discussed.

2020 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Barney ◽  
Francis Pleban ◽  
Jemal Gishe

The incorporation of music in the physical education (PE) environment during physical activity has been shown to be beneficial for participants. Karageorghis et al. (1999) created a conceptual framework focusing on asynchronous music, identifying four factors important to a given piece of music: rhythm response, musicality, cultural impact, and association. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of two conditions, with and without the incorporation of music, in the PE environment on student moods in 948 junior high school students (501 males, 447 females). The conditions were measured using the Profile of Mood States (POMS) Short Form. Significant differences were observed in the mean scores of POMS between preintervention (without music) and postintervention (with music) for total mood disturbance, tension, anger, fatigue, depression, and confusion (all p values < 0.0001), as well as significantly higher mean scores for esteem-related affect and vigor (p values < 0.0001). Results from this study, and others, provide an impetus for PE teachers and PE teacher education to incorporate music during games/activities for the purpose of improving student moods and subsequent activity levels.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 328-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne Gao ◽  
Mattia Sanna ◽  
Li-Ling Huang ◽  
Ya-Wen Chiu ◽  
Yi-Hua Chen ◽  
...  

The increasing popularity of e-cigarettes, especially among adolescents, has alarmed health advocates and government officials, dominating the tobacco control narrative in the past few years. According to the Global Youth Tobacco Survey, the percentage of Taiwanese teenagers reporting use of e-cigarettes in the past 30 days rose from 2.01% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.82% to 2.23%) in 2014 to 3.54% (95% CI = 3.30% to 3.80%) in 2017. However, during the same period, prevalence of cigarettes declined from 11.51% (95% CI = 9.84% to 13.42%) to 8.26% (95% CI = 7.80% to 8.76%) among senior high school students, and from 5.00% (95% CI = 4.36% to 5.74%) to 2.66% (95% CI = 2.38% to 2.96%) among junior high school students, with figures for both groups reaching historical lows. This trend is similar to population-level trends observed in both the United Kingdom and the United States, but only future long-term studies will be able to clarify if it is consistent or not with the fears that e-cigarette may act as a “gateway” to cigarette smoking renormalization.


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