Browsing by Author "Lönnroth, Sara"

According to basic education national core curriculum (2014) the purpose of basic education is to advance equality, parity and justice. Physical education and its assessment aim to advance the fulfillment of equality by considering every pupil in teaching and with equal assessment. The purpose of this educational sciences study is to describe and analyze class teachers' experiences and perceptions of execution in physical education and assessment in a mainstream physical education group where there are pupils with special needs being integrated. The starting point of this study is to examine the execution of physical education and different evaluation practices and how their impacts show on the pupils and their learning through teachers' eyes. This study is a qualitative research. The focus group of this study consists from ten class teachers that all work in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The material of this study was acquired by a questionnaire that consisted of open questions. Before the actual questionnaire was sent to the participants there was a pre inquiry which was also included in the study. The material was analyzed by using the content analysis. According to the study results almost all of the participants felt that teaching an inclusive physical education group is challenging. The teachers felt that different needs of support bring challenges to the planning and executing of teaching. Teachers felt that integration benefits the pupils with special needs despite of the challenges. Pupils making friendships and understanding differences were seen as the advantages of integration. The teachers felt that the assessment of physical education is also challenging. Assessing pupils with special needs with the same criteria's of assessment was seen as a thing that increases inequality. Especially the assessment of abilities was kept challenging. All of the teachers found trying and activity during class as more important targets of assessment than physical abilities. The teachers used mainly ongoing assessment and giving feedback as a method of assessment. This kind of assessment was seen as a thing that gives the pupil experiences of success which were seen important when it comes to improving self-esteem and inspiring towards sporty lifestyle.