Abstract:

Assessment anxiety is a natural emotion that can alert and alter students to a possible stressful or threatening situation, such as failing certain tests or exams during training periods. In this sense, academic performance can be altered according to the levels of anxiety experienced, hindering learning or progress during the teaching process, especially in the most intense ranges of this emotion. In addition, it is necessary to consider the different manifestations of anxiety that have been studied: cognitive, motor and/or physiological. Negative cognitive reactions, caused by anxiety in the face of assessment activities, are identified with thoughts related to lack of ability, competence, or feeling inferior to peers. In addition, in the case of motor-related manifestations, we can find students whose verbal motor behaviour is altered, for example, the presence of trembling in the voice, stuttering, a certain motor restlessness or even the sensation of being paralysed. In terms of physiological expressions before exams, students may present symptoms such as: difficulty breathing or a feeling of suffocation, accelerated heart rate, sweating or cold and clammy hands, dry mouth, or dizziness, among others. Under these premises, the aim of this descriptive study was to identify the different manifestations provoked by the initial assessment of the technical execution of basic acrobatics; as well as to analyse the possible gender differences in terms of the presence of levels and manifestations of anxiety in students of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences. In order to collect the data, a questionnaire of self-assessment of anxiety before exams was applied during the moments prior to the initial assessment. For the processing and analysis of the data, the IBM SPSS 26.0 software for Windows was used, in which descriptive statistics were employed. The most relevant results indicated that the university students' expressions of anxiety before the initial assessment are in the normal range. The highest categories were found for cognitive manifestations and motor disturbances were the least dominant. However, when analysing the anxiety responses to the initial assessment according to gender, it was found that women had higher values in all three types of anxiety expressions. In this case, the presence of manifestations of cognitive anxiety was the most representative, exceeding the levels considered normal. Knowing and identifying these manifestations of anxiety could guide teachers in the design and promotion of specific strategies according to the predominant type of manifestation and the gender involved, in order to prepare students for the various assessment activities. Therefore, in this case where the diagnostic assessment of acrobatics has provoked higher expressions of cognitive anxiety, it would be necessary to consider actions to encourage students' motivation towards this type of activity and to prepare them by providing them, for example, with relaxation and breathing techniques. These strategies could also be useful at different assessment moments during the students' training periods.

Keywords:

Higher education, evaluation activities, technical test, physical education, acrobatic skills.