A rating scale for evaluating quality of performance of creative movement

Includes bibliographical references.One of the many reasons for the slow acceptance of movement education In the sohool curriculum has been the lack of a method of evaluation. By its very nature, creative movement Is not as amenable to testing as many of the other physical activities. This is because each Individual's movement is his or her own creation. Yet, identification of quality factors that make one's movement pleasing or effective Is possible. It was the purpose of the study to (a) examine the literature in the field of movement education and identify factors for evaluating quality of movement, (b) to prepare movement themes and tasks, (c) to specify selected tasks to be combined by the students into a sequence for evaluation of their performance, and (d) to develop a composite rating scale that can be used as a reliable means to evaluate quality of performance of movement. A rating scale was developed through the study of literature in the field of movement education and refined through consultation with experts in the field. To increase the accuracy of the estimates, the rating scale was worked out for each identifiable factor in the sequence. Twenty-one women students enrolled in the service classes in the Physical Education Department at Northern Illinois University were used as subjects. Three instructors of the same department acted as judges. The rating scale was refined after a formal testing and after consultation with the judges. A movement sequence prepared on specified tasks was done twice by each subject. The means, the standard deviations and the product moment correlation between the three judges' ratings and between each judge's rating and the total of two ratings were computed. The data was processed and analyzed for securing the reliability coefficients of the first and second ratings by judge 1, 2, and 3. The reliabilities were .61, .60 and .65, respectively, all significant well beyond the .01 level. The mean of the first total rating by the three judges correlated .78 with the mean of the second total rating. The zero-order coefficient of correlation technique was employed to study the relationship between the various factors and the ratings by the three judges. The correlation coefficients were computed for ratings for each factor as well as for total ratings. All the factors correlated positively with the total ratings ranging from .57 to .76 in the first rating and .57 to .73 in the second, all significant well beyond the .05 level. The magnitude of the correlation coefficients suggested that the measures were reliable. The need for the use of such rating scales for evaluation in an education program of the type under consideration was also noted. The results indicate that the rating scale is valid and reliable and the use of the same for evaluation of performances at different levels will help to improve the movement education program in its various aspects.M.S. Ed. (Master of Education