Physical activity is of vital importance for the development of pre-school children. The aim of our study was to assess motor skills by an obstacle course, which is usually used as a teaching technique to develop motor skills. After setting the basic theoretical framework we present examples of the use of obstacle courses to measure different types of motor skills listed among the learning objectives in the Slovene kindertarten curricula. The study included 41 pre-school children. An obstacle course and the motor activities were designed to serve as measurement procedures to assess selected motor skills. Children were asked to perform the same type of activities in the obstacle course and outside of it. The activities were assessed by three raters. In the obstacle course, children were first performing the tasks freely, without being aware of the measurement. Later, they were made aware of measurement and asked to perform the same tasks separately on each post of the obstacle course. Each activity was performed three times. The analysis of results addressed two objectives: to assess statistical reliability of measurement procedures and to compare the results, obtained in free obstacle course activities with those of separate measurement on each post. We confirmed our hypothesis that the results obtained in the two types of measurement do not vary. Having obtained comparable results, we conclude that by using an obstacle course, measurement and assessment could be made more friendly and less stressful for the children.
|
