Research Summary: Assessing student dance performance in physical education teacher education: a student–expert comparison of analytic rubric scoring and adaptive comparative judgment

A research study published in Frontiers in Education investigated assessment methodologies for student dance performance within physical education teacher education (PETE), comparing traditional analytic rubric scoring against Adaptive Comparative Judgment (ACJ). The study evaluated how 17 pre-service teachers assessed 46 video-recorded performances relative to an expert benchmark of five PETE lecturers to determine scoring reliability, precision, and methodological convergence.

Why it matters

This research addresses the ongoing challenge of achieving reliable, objective measurement in disciplines that blend technical execution with aesthetic qualities. Determining the efficacy of comparative judgment versus rubric scoring provides educational leaders with pathways to improve grading validity and reduce evaluation variance. The findings inform institutional approaches to assessing complex competencies across higher education and professional training.

Key insights

• Dance assessment in physical education teacher education requires integrating both technical and aesthetic performance criteria.
• Analytic rubrics articulate performance dimensions explicitly, while Adaptive Comparative Judgment relies on holistic pairwise comparisons to establish relative scales.
• The investigation benchmarked 17 pre-service teachers against five expert PETE lecturers across 46 video-recorded performances.
• The study evaluated rubric reliability, ACJ precision, and the convergence between analytic and comparative assessment methods.

Source

Frontiers in Education — https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2026.1988290