Concepts about Assessment and Physical Education during Teacher Training in Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay

Abstract

The field of educational assessment has provided fertile debates for almost a century, yet it raises important debates that allow for new theoretical insights. In this subject, the article general aim is to analyze the assessment concepts and their theoretical approaches that are taught in the discipline plans of five Physical Education teacher training courses among four Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay). Specifically, this article compares these methodologies among disciplines and discusses their interaction with the formative concepts taught in the courses in different countries. This research has a qualitative approach, based on document analysis and a comparative method. The methodology consisted of three stages of analysis: a) discipline plans; b) bibliographies used in these plans; and c) comparisons. The results show that the disciplines deliver the teaching of assessment concepts in two different manners: 1) those that privilege quantitative aspects, approaching evaluations as an act of measurement, approaching the areas of Sport and Health; and 2) those that assume qualitative characteristics and focus on formative aspects, bringing Physical Education closer to areas such as Pedagogy, Psychology and Sociology. It is concluded that these approaches reinforce its formative character insofar as they indicate the need for students to develop their own concept for evaluation; and pointed out the implications of this knowledge as inherent in professional teaching performance.