Assessment and Teaching within Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences

Within school education, there is a lot of emphasis on exams at the end of the year, some essays or coursework, but primarily you took a lot of exams. Within A-Levels and college education, there may have been a bit more of a mix; with some exams, some coursework and some essays. As you get into University education, there is a wide range of assessments that you’d take and there are a few reasons for this.

Appropriateness of an assessment

Sometimes an exam is the most appropriate way to assess if you know certain information i.e. can you recall correct information when asked without the ability to research an answer. This can be a useful assessment tool as, in real life, you may need to just know some correct information on the spot.

However, there are times when an exam isn’t the most appropriate form of assessment. Also in real-life, we find out information if we don’t know it straight away and we also need to be able to communicate that information effectively. An exam doesn’t allow or assess those other key aspects.

So you’ll likely experience a range of assessments; some exams, laboratory reports, essays, oral presentations, infographic presentations, practical assessments, viva’s (this is like a Q&A situation), portfolio’s of work, video blogs and group assignments etc.

Teaching practices

We mentioned earlier that there is more emphasis on independent learning within University education. We give you the tools, resources and starting points to aid your learning, but there is a greater emphasis on you to explore more, read more and ultimately understand more outside of that. So teaching practices also follow that principle. We provide tools and resources within our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and we teach in various formats such as with lectures (live or recorded), small-group seminars and practical sessions. In those seminar and practical sessions in particular, we are also developing key skills that you’d need as practitioners such as communication techniques.

Within seminars, we’d want to encourage discussion; between yourselves as students/peers, and with us as teaching staff. The ability to communicate effectively, respectfully and confidently are important skills for the future so we help foster that through teaching styles and appropriate assessment choices such as viva’s, group work and presentations.

Within practical sessions, we’d want to encourage hands-on skills; the ability to know what to do practically in those environments. This includes both the actual hands-on element, but also the ability to communicate during practical sessions. This is an integral part of any future career that involves hands-on working; this is more obvious in roles such as Sports Rehabilitation or Physiotherapy where the job is hands-on with clients, but also relevant for all other roles; Sports and Exercise Scientists needing to know how to perform certain tests and instruct clients correctly or Sports Coaches needing to know how to manage and communicate to players during a coaching sessions.