Curriculum, pedagogy and assessment: three message systems of schooling and dimensions of quality physical education

Abstract

This paper identifies ‘quality’ as an internationally relevant concept to be problematised in contemporary debates about physical education (PE). Drawing on the conceptualisation of curriculum by B. Bernstein in 1977, pedagogy and assessment as three inter-related message systems of schooling, the paper presents and explores curriculum, pedagogy and assessment as three fundamental dimensions of ‘quality PE’. Discussion addresses what quality in each dimension may mean in PE, and demand in practice. Contemporary initiatives in Australia and New Zealand provide a reference point for exploring the prospective application of quality conceptualised in terms of the three inter-related dimensions. Attention is drawn to frameworks in mainstream education that may be utilised in endeavours to critically review current practices, and inform developments directed towards achieving quality in PE. It is argued that achieving quality in PE requires that quality is pursued and demonstrated within and across curriculum, pedagogy and assessment, and that meanings of quality always need to be contextualised in cultural, social and institutional terms.

Keywords:

• Quality physical education
• Curriculum
• Pedagogy
• Assessment
• Productive pedagogies

Acknowledgements

This paper has been developed from a paper entitled ‘Quality Physical Education and School Sport: An International Perspective’ presented by Dawn Penney at the Sports Colleges Conference, 1–2 February 2007, Telford, UK.

Notes

1. Health and Well-being is replacing the nomenclature of Health and Physical Education in an ongoing revision to the school curriculum in Tasmania.

2. Terminology varies across Australia in relation to the name of the learning area. For example, Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) is the terminology in New South Wales. HPE is used in this paper as a term inclusive of variants.

3. The new curriculum document includes statements about the learning area (HPE) as a whole, and ‘subject’ statements for Physical education, Health, and Home Economics.

4. The term curriculum developers acknowledges the work of individuals in government agencies, education systems and in schools, all of which are sites within which curriculum is actively shaped.