Examination Physical Education

Policy, Practice and Possibilities

Trent D. Brown, Dawn Penney

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781317622772
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación física

In recent decades physical education has moved from the margins, redefining itself as an academic subject. An important component of this transformation has been the introduction of high-stakes examinations at key points in a student's school career and the emergence of 'examination physical education' as the dominant paradigm in many educational systems around the world.

This book is the first to explore the growing international literature on examination physical education and draw on research to extend the political, academic and professional debates around the subject to explore its limitations and possibilities. Addressing key topics such as curriculum development, assessment methods, and teacher education, it seeks to assess how our existing knowledge of examination physical education can be best translated into pedagogical practice in the classroom. Complementing other texts in the Routledge Studies in Physical Education and Youth Sport Series, it makes an original and informed contribution to current discussions of physical education.

Examination Physical Education: Policy, Practice and Possibilities is important reading for any student, researcher or teacher educator with an interest in physical education, sports pedagogy and education policy.

Part I

Introduction to examination physical education

Policy, practice and possibilities

Chapter 1

Foundations for investigating policy, practice and possibilities

Introduction

In opening this book it is timely to reflect that many readers may regard examination or senior secondary courses in physical education as a firmly established feature of the educational landscape. As we discuss further in Chapter 2, internationally, physical education courses that lead to a pre-tertiary qualification have attracted significant and increasing numbers of students. The number of textbooks produced that are explicitly linked to specific courses and the volume of textbook sales, are both testimony to the popularity of physical education courses that are associated with ever expanding sport, health and fitness industry arenas and a range of tertiary pathways. Examination and senior secondary physical education (terms that we explore below) are then, significant contexts for curriculum development in physical education and for commercial interest. In examination and senior secondary physical education pedagogical and assessment practices are invariably also under the spotlight, amidst recognition that this is a ‘high-stakes’ arena for students and indeed, schools and teachers.

This text, therefore, focusses on a phase and context of physical education that is undoubtedly important for the field and profession. Indeed, keeping abreast of the curriculum developments that have emerged and been progressed in various national and international settings during our research and writing, has been a challenge. Yet, amidst many ongoing developments in the examination and senior secondary physical education space, it is important to acknowledge that the advent and development of examination and senior secondary physical education curriculum is a relatively recent phenomenon. Perhaps we are showing our age in noting that examination and senior secondary physical education courses were not available as options in our own schooling! In the United Kingdom (UK) context, Carroll and Green (Carroll, 1998; Green, 2001) highlight that development began during the 1970–1980s, prior to a consolidation in the 1990s that resulted in the introduction of Graduate Certificates in Secondary Education (GCSE) and A level subjects. In our own context of Australia, and specifically, in the state of Victoria, the development of examination and senior secondary physical education prior to 1990 has been acknowledged as something that would have seemed ‘ludicrous’ (Fitzclarence & Tinning, 1990 p. 175) amidst beliefs of many in the education community, including the physical education profession, that physical education’s raison detre was about teaching fundamental movement skills, playing games and sports – topics not seen as suitable for a field of study for senior secondary schooling, examinations and ultimately university study. Perhaps most apparent to us is that internationally, challenging questions continue to be posed about the legitimacy of various knowledge(s) in examination and senior secondary physical education, particularly when attention turns to matters of assessment. Furthermore, while well established and undeniably popular, many such courses still carry a ‘low academic status’ tag and/or are deemed a suitable avenue for ‘less academically able’ students to pursue.

If we return to the relative infancy of courses and alongside this, refer to the body of educational literature that affirms the strength and authority that long established knowledge hierarchies have in curriculum arenas (see for example, Goodson, 1993) these observations about the ‘state of play’ in examination and senior secondary physical education are not surprising. In our view, they are, however, important points of reference for ongoing research and associated scholarship that seeks to inform and advance developments in examination and senior secondary physical education curriculum, pedagogy and assessment – and that is concerned to enhance quality and equity in relation to student learning opportunities and achievements in these so called ‘high-stakes’ arenas of physical education. While always in danger of sounding somewhat grand, these intentions underpin the research that this text brings to fruition. In the sections that follow and in Chapter 2, we address essential theoretical and conceptual foundations for our research and for subsequent chapters. First, however, we necessarily address matters of terminology – or more specifically, the varied international terminology relevant to our focus.

Particularly for UK readers, the term ‘examination physical education’ will be familiar and will also be recognised as encompassing multiple levels of study in physical education. More specifically in that context, it is a term that has long been linked with ‘GCSE’ (General Certificate of Secondary Education) and ‘A’ (Advanced) and ‘AS’ (Advanced Subsidiary) courses in the UK except Scotland, and Physical Education ‘Higher’ and ‘Advanced Higher’ courses in Scotland. The term can also be associated with the Leaving Certificate in Physical Education (LCPE) in Ireland and the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma course for Physical Education. Readers will be able to expand this list to include other formal syllabus-based studies in physical education for which there is an examination component.

In Chapter 3 we look in more detail at a selection of official curriculum documents produced in a number of international settings that fall under the banner of either ‘examination physical education’ or the terms that we are more familiar with, namely ‘senior secondary physical education’ or the shorter format, ‘senior physical education’. Both of these terms refer to pre-tertiary level physical education courses, are commonly used in Australia and in New Zealand (linked to the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) courses). Senior secondary encompasses Years 11–13 of formal schooling and sees students choosing to study physical education as a certified senior secondary subject. In many instances, it is possible to study senior secondary physical education at different levels (similar to ‘A’ and ‘AS’) and depending upon the level studied, senior secondary physical education may or may not carry credits towards a tertiary entrance score. In addition, the position and nature of an examination component within senior secondary physical education courses varies across state and national contexts and it is fair to say, remains contested.

Subsequent chapters further examine the variation and contestation. At this point, we merely wish to clarify our use of terminology. As far as possible, we vary our terminology to match that established within the specific contexts we refer to. The majority of our research relates to the ‘senior secondary’ or ‘advanced’ phase of education and level of study. In the title of the book and some aspects of our writing we have chosen to use the term ‘examination physical education’ in order to acknowledge that in some contexts (most notably the UK with the GCSE) courses exist that are not at the senior secondary or advanced level, but that follow a similar format and are similarly, optional and certified. On occasions we also identify senior secondary and advanced level physical education contexts as ‘high stakes’, a term that is typically used to reflect the significance that assessment and more specifically, final assessment and/or examinations, hold for students and their teachers. Following Hay and Penney (2013) our research has been underpinned by a socio-cultural conceptualisation of assessment that prompts us to examine assessment policy and practices in examination and senior secondary physical education in relation to surrounding policy and political contexts, and in relation to issues of equity and inclusion.

The sections below expand on the theoretical and conceptual bases for our research. A list of abbreviations also appears at the front of this text as an easy point of reference to clarify the meaning of the many abbreviations that feature through the text. To assist readers engaging with specific chapters, we use full terms in the first instance of use in any chapter.

Curriculum policy, pedagogic practice and the politics of knowledge

‘Contestation’ is a word that in our experience invariably characterises curriculum development work – and particularly, ‘high-stakes’ physical education course development. It signals that it is incredibly difficult to achieve agreement upon matters that from an external perspective, may be seen as surely not problematic – including, what skills, knowledge and understanding will be central to a physical education course at this level. Repeatedly, curriculum developments in physical education highlight that reaching agreement on curriculum content is in fact, an extremely challenging process, the result of which will be a negotiated ‘settlement’ (Luke, Woods, & Weir, 2013) upon a new official curriculum text (such as a syllabus document) that will not sit comfortably with everyone. In Chapter 3 we share further insights into these processes in senior physical education.

Building on previous work in physical education (Kirk, 1992; Evans & Davies, 1986; Evans & Davies, 2006; Penney & Evans, 1999, 2005) Can this Kirk reference be included in the same brackets? and in the broader field of education policy sociology (and particularly the work of Stephen Ball and colleagues), our research reflects the view that the politics of knowledge and the complexity of policy processes extend way beyond official curriculum texts and the government departments or curriculum authorities charged with producing them. We therefore emphasise the need for research that focusses on contemporary curriculum matters to examine the complex policy networks that development is occurring amidst and explore the factors, agencies and individuals who variously influence the flow and status of discourses pertaining to examination and senior secondary physical education. This reflects that theoretically, we adopt a network perspective and locate physical education teachers and teacher educators as policy actors (Ball, Maguire, Braun, Hoskins, & Perryman, 2011; Penney, 2013a) operating alongside and in relationships with others (including curriculum officers, examination board representatives, text book publishers, professional development providers and principals) to variously influence the policy and pedagogical directions that are pursued, and can be pursued, in any given context.

Our research has therefore aligned with contemporary theorising of policy and curriculum development that moves away from a language of implementation and talks instead, of policy ‘enactment’ (Ball et al., 2011). That process of enactment emphasises ongoing contestation of meanings and implications in relation to curriculum planning and pedagogic practices, and assessment requirements and approaches, in specific jurisdictions and any individual school. From this perspective, the politics of knowledge is not something that is either abstract or remote from teachers’ work. Rather, it is played out across curriculum policy networks and embedded in teachers’ work as much as it in official texts. Teachers’ work can thus be conceived of as inherently, ‘policy action’ (Penney, 2013a) and as involving increasingly complex processes of ‘knowledge brokering’ (Macdonald, 2011, 2015). The subtitle of this book ‘policy, practice and possibilities’ reflects that throughout our research we have sought to critically engage with the dynamic nature of policy and curriculum development and furthermore, increasingly direct attention to the opportunities for teachers to develop ‘original and creative’ (Ball, Maguire, Braun, Hoskins, & Perryman, 2012, p. 2) approaches to curriculum, pedagogy and assessment in examination and senior secondary physical education amidst enactment of new official texts (Brown & Penney, 2017). This stance also reflects that in talking about curriculum development, our ultimate interest is in physical education programmes in schools and learning opportunities for students. In our view shifting thinking about policy and curriculum processes and more specifically, adopting conceptualisations that connect with the complex and contested nature of curriculum work at a system level and in school and classroom contexts, is an essential foundation for efforts to enhance quality and equity in examination and senior secondary physical education. Before turning attention to those dual interests in quality and equity, we introduce other aspects of our theoretical approach.

The first aspect expands understanding of policy and curriculum in examination and senior secondary physical education. Following Penney’s (2013a, 2016) work in Health and Physical Education and Leahy, Burrows, McCuaig, Wright and Penney’s (2015) work focusing specifically on health education, we extend application of Connolly and Connolly’s (2013) conceptualisation of curriculum policy to examination and senior secondary physical education contexts. This conceptualisation provides three distinct foci for inquiry but at the same time, retains an emphasis of the fluid nature of curriculum policy. Across the chapters that follow, we therefore variously direct attention to each of the following dimensions outlined by Connelly and Connelly (2013) and to inter-relationships between them:

• Formal curriculum policy – directing our attention to official curriculum texts and most obviously, syllabus documents relating to senior secondary physical and examination education.
• Implicit curriculum policy – focusing on guidance and support materials associated with formal curriculum policy texts and produced by a range of agencies and organisations. Our research has highlighted the need to foreground assessment texts (including sample examination papers) and commercial textbooks in looking at implicit curriculum policy in relation to examination and senior secondary physical education. We also identify professional development courses and materials with ‘implicit curriculum policy’ and echo Connelly and Connelly (2013)’s emphasis that invariably, from teachers’ perspectives, boundaries between the requirements and recommendations associated with official curriculum and assessment texts are notably blurred. We identify the significant role that implicit curriculum policy plays in this blurring.
• Prudential curriculum policy – addressing the interpretation and enactment of formal and implicit curriculum policy in schools, in the form of examination and senior secondary physical education programmes, units, lessons and assessment tasks. Connelly and Connelly’s (2013) association of this dimension with ‘practical wisdom and practical knowledge’ (p. 59) and adaptation to individual school and classroom contexts is central to the notion of ‘pedagogic possibilities’ (Brown & Penney, 2017) that is at the fore of our research and this text. As Penney (2016) has outlined, prudential curriculum policy also brings to the fore the significance of various aspects of ‘context’ and lends itself to analysis utilising Ball et al.’s (2012) four dimensions of context: Situational (focusing on the school locale, history and demographics); Professional (focusing on culture and values); Material (relating to practical features including facilities and funding); and External (drawing attention to the influences of the broader policy context, shaping teachers’ and schools’ readings of and responses to new official texts).

Above we signaled that our research brings to the fore the fluid and contested nature of policy and curriculum development in examination and senior secondary physical education, and that we consciously adopt the language of ‘enactment’. That choice of language is made to emphasise the active (but always mediated and negotiated) role of teachers in knowledge production and reproduction in physical education. It is also designed to keep what we term the ‘pedagogic realities and possibilities’ (Brown & Penney, 2013, 2017) of examination and senior secondary physical education to the fore of our analysis and discussion. In this sense, we are always concerned with ‘prudential curriculum policy’ (Connelly and Connelly, 2013), while also highlighting the need to relate any exploration and analysis of prudential curriculum policy to developments in formal and implicit curriculum policy.

From our perspective, ‘enactment’ and Connelly and Connelly’s (2013) theorising of curriculum policy also call for research to critically examine a further set of dynamic and contested relationships – those between curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Before turning attention to those relationships, it is pertinent to expand upon another aspect of our theoretical approach to policy and curriculum; the importance of context/s. As indicated above, Ball et al.’s (2012) work assists particularly in providing a framework for systematic analysis of the various ways in which interpretation and enactment of official and implicit curriculum and assessment policy (Connelly & Connelly, 2013; Leahy et al., 2016; Penney, 2013a) is shaped by many and varied contextual influences. Throughout our analysis and discussion, we also point to the need to conceptualise the relationship between texts (official or not; and written and pedagogical) and contexts as two-way. In Chapter 2 and in several instances subsequently, we illustrate ways in historical and contemporary contexts shape possibilities and constraints for text production, but also ways in which tex...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I Introduction to examination physical education: policy, practice and possibilities
• Part II Policy and practices in examination physical education
• Part III Possibilities for examination physical education Preface to Chapters 6, 7 and 8
• Part IV Policy, practice and possibilities – future directions?
• Index