Teaching fitness testing paradoxically: what tests do and can do in PE practice

• In many countries, fitness testing is used in physical education (PE). Advocates of fitness testing in PE practice maintain that testing promotes physical activity, has long-term benefits regarding healthy lifestyles, and that it motivates students to be physically active. Fitness testing has, however, proven to be a contentious issue in PE, and other scholars question fitness tests for children in an educational context and describe them as demotivating, embarrassing, and humiliating. Despite criticism, fitness testing in school PE takes place, and we contend that using testing (or not), or indeed the way tests are used, is an educational choice teachers make with polit-ical and moral implications. The purpose of the study is thus to contribute to this educational dilemma with knowledge on the use of ‘fitness tests’ in PE practice. This is done through an exploration of a pedagogical intervention in a school in Sweden where tests were used to teach from a norm creative perspective in relation to how different bodies with different weight and form could be included. During the ped-agogical intervention, the students tried different tests, discussed if tests were just or not, and also created their own tests. In the study, we draw on ‘new materialist’ methodologies asking what tests do and can do in PE practice. In our analysis, we brought together different affective elements of what tests do. These elements highlight that many tests produced traditional PE practices with activity, measure-ments, comparisons, and enjoyment in focus. Testing also in this way produced ex-posure and embarrassment. There were also obvious silences regarding body hier-archies, which often rendered big bodies invisible. However, teaching tests para-doxically also produced opportunities for creativity in moving, and opportunities to reflect upon norms about justice and normal bodies. As Alfrey and Landi (2022) and Alfrey (2023) contend, there seems to be a potential for de-territorializing in making tests meaningful and educative through student influence and to test out possible new practices. This involves space to discuss and critically scrutinize norms regard-ing bodies, movement, and testing regimes. In this way, we observed several more opportunities for de-territorializing through norm creative events regarding body weight and form in the lessons. These were, however, seldom recognized by the teacher. This highlights the importance of not only using tests but instead teaching with the tests and that both teachers and students become aware of paradoxical moments if they are to become educational.Alfrey (2023) An expansive learning approach to transforming traditional fitness testing in health and physical education: student voice, feelings and hopes. Curriculum Studies in Health and Physical Educ-tion, 1-16Alfrey & Landi (2022) Fitness testing as a debated and contested PE-for-health practice. In Physical Education Pedagogies for Health (33-47) Routledge

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

physical education

pedagogy

teaching

learning

didaktik

Samhällsvetenskap/Humaniora

Social Sciences/Humanities

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