Fundamental Movement Skills and Their Assessment in Primary Schools from the Perspective of Teachers

• DOI: 10.1080/1091367x.2021.1874955
• Publication Date: 2021-05-11T18:47:39Z
• Authors: Lucy Eddy; Liam J.B. Hill; Mark Mon-Williams; Nick Preston; Andy Daly-Smith; Gareth Medd; Daniel D. Bingham
• Keywords: Physical Education; Primary (astronomy)

Evidence suggests that children struggle to acquire age-appropriate fundamental movement skills (FMS), despite their importance for facilitating physical activity. This has led calls routine school-based screening of children's FMS. However, there is limited research exploring schools' capacity conduct such assessments. study investigated what factors might affect the adoption and implementation FMS assessments in primary schools. School staff (n = 853) completed an online questionnaire developed using Capability, Opportunity, Motivation Behavior (COM-B) model. A majority reported knowledge pupils' ability would be beneficial (65.3%), 71.8% assess if support was provided. Barriers included: Capability – few possessed (15%); Opportunity teachers 30–60 minutes as acceptable assessing a class, substantially shorter period than current require; 57.2% stated increase workload stress. Solutions these issues are discussed COM-B theoretical framework.