Introduction

Written tests are the most common form of assessment used in schools today, but what about

in physical education? Assessments in PE normally look a little different because most PE teachers don’t

feel like a written test is something that is necessary because of how long it takes to administer.

Therefore, I wanted to see if using Plickers as an assessment tool would correlate to middle school

students being physically fit by using Fitnessgram standards.

I am a middle school PE teacher and I teach a 9 weeks course to all students in the school. I give

my Fitnessgram assessment twice each quarter, once during the beginning and again at the end. This

helps me analyze the pre and post-test and see if my students improved during the course of their time

in PE. The point in my research was to see if there was any correlation between mastering the cognitive

learning in PE and showing proficiency in psychomotor learning. The tool I am using for the cognitive is

an online program called Plickers and the psychomotor tool I am using is called Fitnessgram. I conducted

this research with my 7th grade boys PE class, which consists of 20, 12-14-year-old males.

Review of Literature

When I began researching about this topic I discovered there was not much research previously done on

it. Personally, I think that is because it is hard to compare learning between the psychomotor and

cognitive domain. At first I had thought about changing my topic but felt like it would also be interesting

to see if I could find new data. According to Kents research in Plickers and the Pedagogical Practicality

of Fast Formative Assessment, Plickers is used for formative assessment and can help engage students

with the learning process and the mastery of skills. Research employing the Plickers SRS specifically

illustrates that it can stimulate active learning, highlight student knowledge gaps, focus learner

attention, and encourage engagement with content through formative assessment (Kents 2019). The
way I take that in a simple term, is if you know how to do the skills it should mean you can do them at a

high level once you master them.

In the article by Lena Chng and Rachel Gurvitch, they talk about how Plickers is great for

students to respond anonymously to questions. Since students are only categorized by their number, as

long as no students share their numbers they will remain anonymous to everyone except the teacher

(Cheng 2018). When assessing fitness, kids having the option to remain anonymous is key because the

unfit students do not want others to make fun of them. I believe that is a huge advantage to using

Plickers rather than raising hands in an informal way.

Methodology

Every educator has their own pedagogy and mine incorporates as much movement as I possibly

can. If it were up to me, I would teach lifetime activities that students will participate in for their entire

lives as well as sports that they enjoy playing. I also do not agree with assessing students in PE because

of how long it takes. That is also the thing that deters physical educators away from giving assessments

is the amount of time they take to administer, but the enticing thing about Plickers is how fast you can

use it. I do not think that a cognitive assessment correlates to how physically fit a student is. I think that

the amount of movement a student is able to incorporate in their daily life is the only thing that will help

someone be fit.

Plickers is an online software that acts as a classroom response system. Students are assigned a

card which has a number on it and the letters A, B, C or D. The teacher has to download the Plickers app

and create an account, then uploads each student’s name along with the number on their card. This will

be how every students answer is accounted for. Once your classroom is set-up, you begin adding

questions you want the students to answer. After asking the question, students get their appropriate

card and rotate the card to where the appropriate letter is facing up. The teacher is then able to scan
the cards with the app on their phone and it sends the answers to the Plickers software where it collects

all data.

To begin the research, I administered three Fitnessgram tests which were the Pacer, push-up

and curl-up tests. The Pacer test is a cardiovascular test that assesses how much oxygen your lungs can

hold while running to the beat of a cadence. The push-up and curl-up tests are very similar, the students

must stay with the cadence which tells them to go up or down according to their test, and they perform

the exercises as long as they are doing them correctly and along with the cadence. Each student is

partnered with another in the class and this partner is in charge of telling them if they are doing

something incorrectly. I give specific instructions and demonstrations on what each exercise is supposed

to look like so all students know, so if they do it incorrectly twice in a row, their test is over.

Once I had my pre-test scores I then began coming up with my Plickers questions. Since Plickers

is a multiple choice based assessment, I had to make sure all questions could be answered that way.

Therefore, I came up with the following questions to ask over the course of the upcoming days:

1. What part of the body was used during the Pacer test?

2. What part of the body was used during the sit-up test?

3. What part of the body was used during the push-up test?

4. Our lungs job is to…

5. What exercises will help improve your push-up score?

6. What exercises will help improve your Pacer score?

7. Which image is a representation of a proper 90-degree push-up?

Analysis

In Figure 1 below, the pre-test scores are shown next to the target score. The target score is the

score all students should try to achieve based on their age according to Fitnessgram. Highlighted in pink,
shows the students who did NOT achieve the target score in each category. As you can see, the Pacer

test had the least amount of target scores achieved and the sit-up test had 100% of students meet the

score.

Figure 1

Target Target
Name Pre-Pacer Target Score Pre-Sit Up Score Pre-Push Up Score
Student 1 33 37 42 21 10 12
Student 2 15 37 80 21 9 12
Student 3 34 37 40 21 14 12
Student 4 13 37 30 21 10 12
Student 5 16 37 53 21 12 12
Student 6 34 37 80 21 12 12
Student 7 24 37 80 21 13 12
Student 8 33 37 80 21 20 12
Student 9 15 37 42 21 11 12
Student 10 21 37 80 21 20 12
Student 11 15 37 28 21 17 12
Student 12 37 37 80 21 15 12
Student 13 33 37 80 21 20 12
Student 14 17 37 51 21 7 12
Student 15 40 37 80 21 24 12
Student 16 33 37 80 21 9 12
Student 17 16 37 80 21 17 12
Student 18 16 37 80 21 10 12
Student 19 20 37 25 21 9 12
Student 20 22 37 65 21 15 12

In Figure 2, you will also see the results from Plickers questions I asked. When we finished each fitness

test I asked an informal question to the class, “What part of your body hurts after doing this exercise?”

We then talked briefly about why that part of their body hurt and I gave them a quick anatomy lesson.

The highlighted columns are the correct answers for each question. The table shows how many students

got each question right or wrong out of 20 students in the class. You can see that majority of the class

got each question correct, but it is still bothersome that there are so many who thought the answers
were different. I felt as a teacher, these questions were simple and also valid based on previous

discussions we had in class.

Figure 2

Question 1 What part of the body was used during the sit-up test?

Head Abs Arms Lungs

1 19 0 0

Question 2 What part of the body was used during the Pacer test?

Legs Abs Arms Lungs

8 1 2 9

Question 3 What part of the body was used during the push-up test?

Head Abs Arms Lungs

0 2 18 0

Question 4 Our lungs job is to…

Help Breathe Pump Blood Digest Food

14 6 0

Question 5 What exercises will help improve your push-up score?

Curls Crunches Jump Rope Planks

9 2 4 5

Question 6 What exercises will help improve your Pacer score?

Curls Crunches Jump Rope Planks

1 0 16 3

Question 7 Which image is a representation of a proper 90-degree push-up?

A B C

2 18 0
Findings

Questions 2 and 5 gave me the most clarity on how being fit and using Plickers do not relate.

Question 2 showed controversy in the right answer. I think students were confused because their legs

probably hurt once they finished, but what the students didn’t understand is running only takes place if

your lungs are healthy and you are able to breathe through physical activity. Question 5 also gave me

clarity because there was no understanding on what exercises target specific muscles of the body. Push-

ups target your arm muscles and there was only one exercise that pertains to that body part. However,

the other answers were also selected by a large number of students.

I wanted to do the research again during my 4 th quarter class and change some of the

assessments to see if it proves my findings otherwise. The changes I was going to make were to test

students individually with me assessing their form to see if that changed any of the scores. Another

change I wanted to make was to give tips to running the pacer test, like running with your hands over

your head to open your lungs and to continue running around the boundary lines instead of stopping at

each line to wait for the cadence to beep. These small things could help students to score a few

repetitions higher which would then show a greater relationship that cognitive knowledge can help with

psychomotor skills.

Although I was not able to complete my post-test and show growth over the quarter, I felt as if I

got enough information during my pre-test and Plickers assessments during the first three weeks to

draw a conclusion to my research. The numbers and statistics do not show any relationship that having

cognitive knowledge helps a student perform higher in the psychomotor domain. I think there are ways

to improve psychomotor skills with cognitive skills but I do not believe that it would be enough to raise a

student’s score to be physically fit in all three categories. If I were to do this research again, I would add

another component to assessing overall physical fitness and see if doing particular exercises has a
greater effect on the students’ scores because I do not believe that any source of technology is able to

make a student more fit unless it is helping them stay more active.
 References

Chng, L. & Gurvitch, R. (2018). Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, Using Plickers as an
Assessment Tool in Health and Physical Education Settings, 89:2, 19-25

Kent, D., & Jones, M. (2012a). The English Connection, Smarter use of smartphones: Extending the use of
QR codes in the classroom, 16(2), 24-25

Kent, D. (2019). Teaching English with Technology, "Plickers" and the Pedagogical Practicality of Fast
Formative Assessment, p 90-104

Krause, J. O'Neil, K. & Dauenhauer, B. (2017). Strategies, Plickers: A Formative Assessment Tool for K–12
and PETE Professionals, 30:3, 30-36