Motor assessment of children at school: Pupils’ opinion about MOBAK-1

School is a privileged place for evaluating children’s physical and motor competencies. Tests are often used for educational and/or research purposes. Adults collect the data but do not verify how children experience these evaluations that can be perceived as difficult moments. Even if they are supposed to motivate pupils, they can decrease the self-perception and limit the participation. Several test batteries have been developed in order to measure motor development of young children (M-ABC, KTK, TGMD …). They are based on the assessment of performances. On the other hand, MOBAK-1 has been developed in order to verify if some motor competencies are mastered or not. To our knowledge, no study tried to determine how the pupils passing these tests feel about their experience. This study focused on that original topic.
Seven primary school PE teachers administrated the MOBAK-1 tests to their classes (149 1st and 2d grades – 6-8 year-old). After the tests, pupils fulfilled an adapted questionnaire based on pictograms designed to facilitate pupils’ understanding.
The most important finding is that 80.5% of the pupils answered that they loved doing the tests. Only 3 pupils expressed a negative opinion. As pointed out by the correlation between the real achievement mean scores and the perceived competence mean score for each test (r= 0.90), pupil’s self-assessment seemed appropriate. The correlation between the perceived competence and appraisal of the tests is lower (r=0.59). The gamelike status of some tests would be more determinant for their appraisal by the pupils than their level of achievement: balancing is definitely the most appreciated test (35.6% of the pupils selected it). In the same way, even if the achievement level is not high, throwing is relatively well appreciated. Trying to touch a target with a ball is funny. On the other hand, jumping and bouncing were ‘less’ appreciated.