A Study of Observational Viewpoints in Ball-Bouncing Movements : Quantitative and Qualitative Evaluation of Motor Skills

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to clarify and systematize viewpoints in observing and evaluating ball-bouncing movements (BBM) by elementary school children. Using hand apparatus such as a ball is very interesting to children, though difficult at the initial stage. Teachers are faced with situations where children use different varieties of BBM. Observational viewpoints need establishing in order to identify movement features so that assessment criteria can be developed. We approached this task by videotaping a group of third grade elementary school children engaged in BBM for 20 seconds and analyzing it using two methods: "impression observation" and "comparison observation". The following results were obtained: 1) Among the 21 viewpoints we established, some of the prominent ones were "stability and balance", "hand-ball contact time" and "ending and stretching of knees" in the impression observation, and "the height of a bounce" and "opening and shutting of legs" in the comparison observation. 2) "The height of a bounce" and "hand-ball contact time" were found to heavily influence teachers' observation and evaluation of BBM. 3) These tendencies demonstrated that the impression observation evaluates general movement and the comparison observation evaluates partial movement. Furthermore, we suggested an observation model based on these systematized viewpoints.