Inter-rater reliability of the FMS² assessment tool among generalist primary-school teachers

The aim of this study was to examine the inter-rater reliability of the FMS² assessment tool as generalist primary school teachers assess children's movement competence.

A cross-sectional study design was implemented, involving primary school children and their teachers.

The study involved 246 children aged 10-13 years from three primary schools in County Dublin, Ireland. Teachers (n = 10) utilised the FMS² tool to assess the children's locomotor, object manipulation, and stability skills. Intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated using a two-way mixed-effects model with absolute agreement to assess the degree of scoring consistency across raters.

Results for overall movement competence demonstrated good inter-rater reliability, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.701, indicating that teachers could reliably assess children's movement skills using this tool. Inter-rater reliability within the FMS² varied across different skill categories. Locomotor skills exhibited poor to good inter-rater reliability, with intraclass correlation coefficient values ranging from 0.356 to 0.863. Object manipulation skills demonstrated poor to good inter-rater reliability, with intraclass correlation coefficient values from 0.352 to 0.841. Stability skills showed poor to good inter-rater reliability, with intraclass correlation coefficient values from 0.380 to 0.772.

Whilst generalist teachers achieved acceptable inter-rater reliability using the FMS² tool overall, reliability varied across skills - particularly for object manipulation. These findings support the tool's potential for school-based use but highlight the need for targeted training and refinement of certain criteria to ensure consistent scoring. This has important implications for integrating movement assessments into primary physical education.