Use of Alternative Assessments in Physical Education

Exploring the alternative assessments techniques used by physical educators and what motivates them to use them is the thrust of this study. The review of literature provides evidence that the majority of physical education teachers use attendance, participation/effort, behavior and some traditional assessments as common methods of grading students. It is also very clear that alternative assessments are better for the students but still the majority of teachers are not using them. We know that some of the reasons for not using these assessments are lack of time, not enough knowledge about these assessments, too many students, etc, but we don't know what motivates the teachers that are using alternative assessments to use them. This is a research project based on interviews to a group of physical education teachers who use alternative assessments the majority of the time and who think are a good example to other teachers. Knowing what was their motivation to use these assessments is an essential key for college teachers to learn how to motivate future physical education teachers on the use of alternative assessments.