The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of giving students specific assessment criteria in the first part of a badminton unit on the response rates of students with various skill levels. This study also investigated whether setting and stating specific assessment criteria in the beginning of an activity unit increased student achievement and learning throughout the course of instruction. Participants of this study consisted of a purposeful sample of 12 female physical education students from an Indiana high school participating in a badminton unit. Data was collected during a 10-day badminton unit on two more-skilled, two average-skilled, and two less-skilled students in each of two classes. One of these classes received specific assessment criteria in the first part of the badminton unit, while the other class received the specific assessment criteria at the end of the same badminton unit. The participants' response rates for each forehand, backhand, overhand, and serve badminton hit attempted were coded as correct successful, incorrect successful, correct unsuccessful, or incorrect unsuccessful. Participant data was graphed, including a 3-day baseline, and compared between the control group and experimental group.Research findings revealed that participants in the experimental group, who received specific assessment criteria in the first part of the badminton unit, had a higher quality of response rates throughout the unit than participants of similar skill level in the control group, who did not receive the specific assessment criteria unit the end of the same unit. The results of this study suggest that student response rates increase throughout a unit when specific assessment criteria is given at the beginning of the unit for students of more-, average-, and less-skill levels. This study concludes that physical educators may increase student achievement and learning throughout an instructional unit by setting and stating specific assessment criteria at the beginning of an instructional unit. Increased student response rates mean greater time spent on task and improved skill development. / School of Physical Education

The study was designed to determine the relationship between the psychological constructs of "fear of failure (FOF)" and "fear of success (FOS)" and motor performance in badminton. Forty-three males and fifty-one females in beginning badminton classes were administered the FOF and FOS scales, followed by three independent skills tests and a round-robin singles tournament. Conclusions were that FOF and FOS are two separate performance motives; FOF appears to be the dominant motive for females; both FOF and FOS are related to motor performance in face-to-face competition, while only FOS is related to performance in isolated skills.

Recent literature reveals that sex differences in performance actually might be reflections of sex differences in perceptions about the sex-appropriateness and the masculinity and femininity of certain activities. Therefore, this study was designed to determine the effects of perceived sex-appropriateness of a task upon performance of selected sport skills.