Use of formative assessment in Physical Education teacher education in Secondary School: a case study

The adoption of a competency-based education model in university teaching brings up the debate about the overtaking of traditional assessment methods by new systems, such as formative assessment. The aim of this study was to analyse the level of presence of formative assessment in general and specific courses of the Teacher Education for Secondary School, Vocational Training, Languages, Arts and Sports master's degree, with major in Physical Education, of a Spanish public university, and to explore professors' perceptions. To do so, a complementary mixed quantitative and qualitative design case study was carried out, where data from twelve courses were obtained through the instrument for analysis of syllabus assessment systems (IASEG) and in-depth interviews with five professors. The results revealed the use of formative assessment, with no significant differences between general and specific courses. On the other hand, diversity was detected among professors in terms of their knowledge on this type of assessment and its implementation in the courses. In conclusion, an incipient interest in this type of assessment was observed. However, a number of obstacles were noticed, such as a context that was still unfamiliar with this practice and the lack of training of some professors.