DIAGNOSTIC EVALUATION AS A LEARNING PROCESS FOR BASIC ACROBATICS SKILLS

Abstract

The evaluation proposed as a learning situation, allows us to know the evolution of students and make judgments about their teaching and learning process. In this line, the initial evaluation acquires a primordial role so that the teacher can optimize the teaching and thus be able to face the challenge of promoting suitable educational environments. In the context of physical education and, especially in the field of gymnastic skills, we find learning situations where not only the motor action itself influences, but also the evolution in the teaching-learning processes can be determined and influenced by the differences in the initial levels of motor competence, by specific previous experiences and by the emotional states of the students. In this sense, the role of the teacher and how it addresses the first meetings of learning evaluation is crucial to optimize teaching and deal not only with the technical aspects of the motor gesture but also with the emotional reactions that can trigger the initial evaluation. Thus, the emotions perceived by students in an educational gymnastic context can be considered a determining component; Moreover, how students experience and face the first technical assessments can revert directly to their subsequent learning and generate in them, a greater or lesser assimilation of knowledge depending on how the educational environment is involved. The initial evaluation of gymnastic skills, therefore, is necessary to be able to assign each student and the group-class a starting point in their process and be able to adapt it to their needs. The aim of this study is to analyze and assess how students of the first degree of Physical Activity and Sports Science deal with the initial assessment of basic acrobatics, in order to identify the type of emotion perceived in the acrobatics evaluated and the causes that trigger them. This study is developed in a descriptive context and with a qualitative approach. The tool for the collection of information has been an open survey for the identification of emotions. For the processing and counting of the different categories the AQUAD 7 computer program has been used. The main findings show that the students identify in the initial evaluation, satisfactory emotions such as interest and enthusiasm in the cartwheel, the forward roll and the handstand. Being able to successfully overcome the proposed tests of execution mainly and the future expectations of acrobatic learning, generated in this first evaluative meeting are causes these positive perceptions. Likewise, the students also point out negative emotions such as anger and insecurity, in the technical test of backward roll and in the execution of a jump in extension with 360o rotation. These sensations are generated, by being unable to perform the execution of these acrobatics and by the uncertainty that supposes the students face them. The identification not only of the initial technical level of specific motor skills but also of the knowledge of the emotions that students experience in the development and initial assessment of stunts can be very useful for teachers to create learning environments appropriate to the class group. Regarding the students, the recognition of positive emotions in the first contact with basic acrobatics can motivate them towards their learning, and the identification of less satisfactory sensations will pose challenges in order to overcome limitations and insecurities about these abilities.