Children's enjoyment of a motor skill test in physical education

In 2016, a novel motor skill test, the Athletic Skills Track (AST), was developed to
assess motor skill competence of children in the PE setting. The main purpose of this
study was to examine children’s enjoyment when being tested with the AST in a regular
PE lesson. The study was conducted among 239 children, aged 4-to-12-years-old. All
children completed the AST, where after they rated their enjoyment using a
Smileyometer. One week later, 131 children completed another motor skill test, the
Körperkoordinationtest für Kinder (KTK), where after they were asked to rank their
enjoyment with the AST, the KTK, measurements of body height and weight, and a
periodical cognitive test, using a Funsorter. The majority (98%) of the children rated
their enjoyment of the AST as good to brilliant. 76% of the children ranked the AST as
the most enjoyable in relation to the other three tests. No significant differences were
found in enjoyment of the AST between boys and girls, nor between children with
different motor competence levels. Most the children enjoyed performing the AST in a
regular PE lesson. Future studies should examine the effect of feedback and repeated
testing on children's enjoyment.