Group Dynamics: the external assessment (SACE Stage 2 Physical Education)
“Assessment Type 3: Group Dynamics (30 percent, external). Undertake at least one role within a group and analyse and evaluate the impact you had on the participation and/or performance of other group members.”
The external assessment in SACE Stage 2 Physical Education is Group Dynamics, worth 30 percent. There is no written exam and no external research investigation. You prepare for and take part in a sport or physical activity with a group, take on at least one role (such as fitness, technical, tactical or motivational coach), collect evidence, and then analyse and evaluate the impact you had on other group members' participation and/or performance, in up to 12 minutes (oral or multimodal) or 2000 words.
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What this dot point is asking
The SACE Stage 2 Physical Education subject outline sets three assessment types: Diagnostics (30 percent, school assessed), the Self-improvement Portfolio (40 percent, school assessed) and Group Dynamics (30 percent, external). This page covers Group Dynamics.
What Group Dynamics is
The subject outline describes the purpose of this assessment type as extending the focus beyond the individual, to investigate the impact that group members, individually and collectively, have on the participation and performance of others. You:
- prepare for and participate in a selected sport or physical activity, working collaboratively with one or more other people in a group;
- undertake at least one role within the group;
- collect evidence before and throughout the activity; and
- complete an analysis and evaluation of the impact you, as an individual, had on the participation and/or performance of other group members.
It is externally assessed, so your evidence is marked by the SACE Board rather than by your teacher.
The external assessment in SACE Stage 2 Physical Education. Students work in a group in a sport or physical activity, take on at least one role, and analyse and evaluate the impact they had on the participation and/or performance of other group members.
The four roles
The subject outline lists four roles. You take on one or more.
| Role | What you do (from the subject outline) |
|---|---|
| Fitness coach | Collect and use data to develop individual plans for group members, applying exercise physiology concepts. |
| Technical coach | Collect and use data to develop and refine sport-specific movement patterns for individual group members, applying exercise physiology, skill acquisition and/or biomechanical principles. |
| Tactical coach | Collect and use data to develop and implement sport-specific tactics, and apply transferable tactics from other sports, using skill acquisition and socio-cultural concepts. |
| Motivational coach | Collect and use data to develop and implement sport psychology concepts to improve group or individual performance. |
Pick a role where you can collect clear before-and-during evidence about other people. A motivational coach, for example, might use perception-of-effort ratings or attendance data, not just impressions.
What your analysis and evaluation must include
The subject outline says the analysis and evaluation should:
- Outline the context in a brief introduction that identifies the role(s) you undertook and your aims for improving the performance and/or participation of others.
- Evaluate the process of improving group members' performance and/or participation, including analysis and evaluation of evidence collected before and throughout the activity, reflection on and evaluation of the improvement of others, evaluation of the effectiveness of your strategies, and evidence of the collaborative skills you applied.
- Demonstrate contextual application of knowledge and understanding relevant to your role(s).
It is assessed against the design criteria A1 (contextual application of knowledge and understanding), A2 (application of collaborative skills), A4 (use of subject-specific terminology), AE1 (analysis and evaluation of evidence), AE2 (reflection on and evaluation of improvement) and AE3 (evaluation of implemented strategies).
Maximum 12 minutes for an oral or multimodal presentation, or a maximum of 2000 words. The outline gives examples of formats such as a blog or vlog, a multimedia presentation, a screencast or a reflective journal.
A practical plan
- Agree a role and aims early. Write one or two measurable aims about other people's participation or performance.
- Collect a baseline. Use valid, reliable measures that match the aim (fitness tests, shot counts, GPAI-style game observation, perception-of-effort ratings, attendance).
- Implement and adjust. Apply strategies, collect evidence at intervals, and record the changes you made in response.
- Analyse and evaluate. Quantify changes, explain them with subject concepts, and judge how much of the change your contribution caused.
- Show collaboration. Record how you communicated, built shared understanding and responded to feedback.
Tactical coach in a netball team
A student acts as tactical coach for their club's centre-court players. The aim is to improve the team's centre-pass conversion. Baseline video of two matches shows that 9 of 20 centre passes led to a goal. The student introduces a set centre-pass play borrowed from a basketball inbound pattern (a transferable tactic) and runs it at training over four weeks, adjusting the timing of leads after player feedback. Video of two later matches shows 14 of 20 centre passes converted. The evaluation compares 45 percent with 70 percent, explains the change through skill acquisition (practised decision-making cues) and socio-cultural factors (players' buy-in), and acknowledges limitations: different opposition strength and a small sample of matches.
Do not write a general essay about group dynamics theory, and do not focus only on your own performance. The task asks about your impact on other group members, supported by evidence you collected. Also avoid claiming credit for every change: weigh other explanations (opposition, other training, familiarity with tests) as part of your evaluation.
Assessment-style questions
Questions on this dot point, each with a worked answer, written by ExamExplained. Physical Education has no written exam, so use them to check your understanding before your assessment tasks.
PracticeYou took the fitness coach role for three teammates. Their 2.4 km time-trial results were: Player A 11:40 before and 11:05 after a six-week program; Player B 10:55 before and 10:45 after; Player C 12:30 before and 11:35 after. Analyse the evidence and evaluate the impact of your role.Show worked answer →
- Analyse the data
- Convert to seconds and calculate each change. Player A improved by 35 s (700 s to 665 s, about 5.0 percent). Player B improved by 10 s (655 s to 645 s, about 1.5 percent). Player C improved by 55 s (750 s to 695 s, about 7.3 percent). All three improved, but by very different amounts.
- Explain the pattern with concepts
- The least fit player (C) gained the most, which is consistent with the principle that untrained athletes show larger early aerobic adaptations. Player B was already the fittest, so a program that did not increase overload enough for B would produce a small gain.
- Evaluate your role
- Judge whether your individual plans caused the change: were the tests run under the same conditions, did attendance differ, and could familiarity with the test or other training explain part of it? A strong evaluation proposes a specific modification, for example a higher-intensity interval block for Player B.
- Show collaboration
- Refer to how you communicated plans and adjusted them after feedback, because the collaborative skills you applied are part of what this task assesses.
PracticeExplain how validity and reliability are achieved when collecting evidence about other group members' performance, using an example.Show worked answer →
- Define the terms
- Validity is whether the evidence measures what you claim it measures. Reliability is whether the measurement would give consistent results if repeated.
- Achieve validity
- Choose a measure that matches the aim. If your aim as technical coach is a more consistent netball shooting action, count successful shots from a fixed distance and code video for the release, rather than using a general fitness test.
- Achieve reliability
- Standardise the test: same distance, same number of attempts, same time of session, same person recording. Repeat baseline tests where possible.
- Link to the task
- Evidence that is valid and reliable lets you make a defensible judgement about your impact on others, which is what the analysis and evaluation criteria reward.
Practise this
Sources & how we know this
- Stage 2 Physical Education Subject Outline — SACE Board of South Australia
- Stage 2 Physical Education: external assessment — SACE Board