Designing and Determining the Validity and Reliability of a Dart Throwing Observation Form: A 10th Grade Dart Module for Physical Education

Standard academic progress tests in physical education play an important role when it comes to assessing students’ progress, pinpointing their strengths and weaknesses and categorizing them. The present research has aimed to design and examine the reliability and validity of an observation form for the process of throwing darts. The testees participating in the research were darts players (male and female) in two skill levels -- beginner's and skilled. Skills in darts can, based on biomechanical analysis, be divided into two main categories: basic techniques and the steps for dart throwing. The important points of each group and the components comprising the process of throwing darts were written in the form of appropriate items. The face validity and content validity of the first draft of the observation form (involving 29 items) were examined by 29 distinguished darts coaches and trainers. After the content validity ratio was calculated for each item and the designated criteria were taken into consideration, questions 16 and 20 were omitted, and the final draft of the observation form for dart throwing skill thus consisted of 27 items. The construct validity of the observation form showed, based on discriminant validity, significant statistical difference between darts players at beginner's level and skilled ones. Male participants performed better than female participants regardless of their level of skill. Test-retest was used with a week's interval in order to determine reliability over time, which was shown to be 0.99, and the objectivity was calculated as 98.0 by means of Pearson's correlation coefficient. Therefore, the observation form devised for dart throwing has acceptable reliability and validity and can be used by trainers and researchers in the field of dart throwing.