Instructional design/Psychomotor behaviors/Strategies in Psychomotor Assessment

Introduction

This lesson will focus on strategies for assessment of psychomotor skills.

The Psychomotor Domain is skill based and refers to the learning of physical skills. Physical skills are the ability move, act, or manually manipulate the body to perform a physical movement. There are three instructional levels; imitation, practice, and habit that were defined in Introduction to the Psychomotor Behaviors article.

Assessment of the psychomotor domain requires an instructor to grade the activity without the use of a paper and pencil test. Psychomotor skills need to be performed and observed to determine mastery of the skill.

Learning Objectives for this lesson:

• Learners will be able to give examples of objectives that fall into the psychomotor domain
• Learners will be able to construct a checklist for evaluating psychomotor objectives

You will be asked to complete two Learning Activities associated with this lesson.

Begin with the Objectives

As with any learning activity, assessment begins with the learning objectives. Objectives in the psychomotor domain are created under the same criteria as objectives in the other domains. Creation of learning objectives are beyond the scope of this article.

Examples of Objectives in the Psychomotor Domain

Assessment of any of these example objectives can be accomplished through observation by the evaluator/instructor.

Sports:

• Student will demonstrate effective technique when performing 50 bicycle crunches within 2 minutes.

Life Skills:

• Student will prepare the proper amount of dry spaghetti pasta for 4 adults using the correct process resulting in properly prepared pasta.

Oftentimes objectives from the psychomotor domain contain certain key words like those listed in the table below.

Learning Activity 1

Print out the Psychomotor Objectives WorkSheet and place a check mark next to those objectives listed that are examples of objectives that fall into the psychomotor domain.

Self-Check

When you have completed the Psychomotor Objectives Worksheet compare your answers to the Psychomotor Objectives Answer Sheet.

Creating Assessment Checklists for the Psychomotor Domain

Using one of our example objectives from the previous section:

• Student will demonstrate effective technique when performing 50 bicycle crunches within 2 minutes.

Using the Assessment Checklist template we will contruct a checklist that will help the instructor assess the mastery of the student in meeting the objective.

The first step is to determine the learning outcome, which has already been identified above Student will demonstrate effective technique when performing 50 bicycle crunches within 2 minutes. Now we are assuming that the evaluator or instructor is already an expert in performing bicycle crunches. However, here we will assume first that a description of the proper technique is necessary. It is also a good idea to include it in your checklist for the student so they understand the required expectation.

Description: Each individual must lie on their back and put their hands behind their head. Next they raise their legs so their thighs are perpendicular to the floor and their lower legs are parallel to the floor. The individual will curl up and bring their left elbow toward their right side while drawing their right knee in to meet it. It is like the individual is riding a bike; alternate sides, continuing the motion back and forth. The individual should not flap their elbow across their body; they actually rotate their shoulder across and squeeze their abs.

We also need to decribe the criteria that the student is being assessed.

Directions: Each individual must perform 50 bicycle crunches demonstrating effective technique. Each individual must complete the bicycle crunches within 2 minutes without pausing

Now we determine the scale and the criteria for that scale.

A common scale is outlined.

Scale

• 4 (excellent) – Performs the bicycle crunches flawlessly. Does not need to check. position, does not pause. Completes 50 bicycle crunches without pausing within the 2 minutes.
• 3 – Performs the bicycle crunches but is somewhat unsteady. Completes the bicycle crunches within 2 minutes.
• 2 – Performs the bicycle crunches but is somewhat unsteady. May pause one or more times. Takes more than 2 minutes to complete the bicycle crunches.
• 1 – the bicycle crunches but is very unsteady, may pause one or more times, and/or takes more than 2 minutes.
• 0 – Cannot complete a bicycle crunch correctly

The last item for the checklist outlines the conditions for assessment.

Conditions of Assessment

• Assessment occurs only during the bicycle crunch phase.
• The individual indicates when the assessment should begin.
• The assessment ends as soon as the individual reaches 50 bicycle crunch count, 2 minutes has elapsed, or the individual tells the evaluator they want to stop.

To see the complete Assessment Checklist for this objective see the Bicycle Crunches article.

Learning Activity 2

Using the objective below and the Assessment Checklist template create an assessment checklist for that objective.

Student will prepare the proper amount of dry spaghetti pasta for 4 adults using the correct process resulting in properly prepared pasta.

Remember the steps to creating the checklist.

Self Check

To check your checklist click on the corresponding link below.

• Pasta

References

Bloom’s Taxonomy – Learning Domains retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html on April 1, 2007

Romiszowski, A (1999) The Development of Physical Skills: Instruction in the Psychomotor Domain, Chapter 19, Instructional Design Theories and Models: A New Paradigm of Instructional Theory, Volume II, C. M. Reigeluth, Mahwah, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Mager,R (1997) Preparing Instructional Objectives: A Critical Tool in the Development of Effective Instruction, Center for Effective Performance