6 Ways to Make Fitness Testing Matter Focus on the student, not the score. Fitness testing has always been an important part of fitness education within a physical education curriculum. Students may not consider fitness testing the most exciting part of PE, but it holds a lot of value in teaching them about living a healthy and active lifestyle. Here are some ways to transform fitness testing into a positive learning experience, while keeping your students at the center.
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Frame it as a tool, not a judgment. Fitness testing is one part of fitness education. Help students understand that it’s a tool to learn about their own fitness levels and support their fitness journey. Emphasize what happens after the test and how you’ll use results to help them set personal goals and measure progress toward those goals throughout the year. This is about them — their scores are their scores, and any progress forward is good. To set meaningful goals, you need to know where to start.
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Give students a heads up.
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Offer choices.
Students need advance notice when fitness tests are going to happen (no pop quizzes!), but don’t just let them know two weeks in advance. Spend time reviewing protocols and allow students to practice the tests so they’re comfortable and can perform at their best.
Allowing students to have choices helps them feel ownership over their learning and belonging in class. This applies to fitness testing too. Let your students select ways to assess health-related components of fitness. For example, this might be a mile walk/run or the beep test for cardiovascular endurance. When possible, offer criterion-referenced fitness test options. If you can’t offer different test types, give students choice over when and which component they assess. Having a fitness testing week where all tests are available daily lets students pick their day and component. This takes more planning but pays off in positive experiences for your students.
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