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

Lucy Eddy,Liam J.B Hill,Mark Mon-Williams,Nick Preston,Andy Daly-Smith,Gareth Medd,Daniel D Bingham

doi:10.1080/1091367x.2021.1874955

Abstract

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

Highlights

Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) is a term used to describe a group of motor behaviors which include locomotor, object manipulation and stability skills – for example, running, throwing and balancing-on-oneleg respectively (Rudd et al, 2015)
(e.g., head teachers, teaching assistants) were invited to take part in an online questionnaire. This population was selected due to a lack of P.E. specialization within primary schools in the United Kingdom (UK) (Ofsted, 2013), which means it is likely that the responsibility could be placed upon any member of teaching staff if schools were required to universally screen FMS
Questions were based on previous research which explored the feasibility of FMS assessments for use in schools (Klingberg et al, 2018a) and were mapped alongside all six sub-elements within the COM-B model and categorized in relation to the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) (Cane et al, 2012)

Summary

Introduction

Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) is a term used to describe a group of motor behaviors which include locomotor, object manipulation and stability skills – for example, running, throwing and balancing-on-oneleg respectively (Rudd et al, 2015). The COM-B model (Michie et al, 2011) and the TDF (Cane et al, 2012) in combination with the Behavior Change Wheel, provide a sound theoretical foundation which can be applied to identifying what factors may affect the adoption and implementation of universal screening in schools in a more comprehensive way. It underpins these investigations with theoretical evi dence and advises on behavior change techniques that can be used to overcome barriers that are subsequently identified. The current study used these mod els and frameworks to collect data from teachers and other educators, in order to investigate what factors might influence teachers’ capability, opportunity and motivation to implement assessments of FMS in schools, to help make inferences about barriers and facilitators of universal screening in these settings

Participants and procedure

Participants

Motivation

Discussion