ProfessorLisa Barnett

Lisa is a Professor in Physical Activity and Health at the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition at Deakin University. Her passion is enhancing population physical activity. To be active we need physical skills (e.g. motor skills), but also psychological (e.g. motivation), social (e.g. collaboration) and cognitve skills (e.g. understanding game rules). These skills are collectively termed 'physical literacy'. Her internationally leading work focuses on developing ways to measure and improve physical literacy via partnerships with industry and researchers from multiple countries. She is the number one researcher in the world in motor skills (Expertscape). Lisa has spent much of her career developing novel measurement instruments for children. She developed the pictorial scale for Perceived Movement Skill Competence in 2016, for children to report on their own motor skill level - used in 35 countries. In 2019, she co-led the development of the Australian Physical Literacy Definition and Framework for the Australian Sports Commission. Then in 2021, she led development of an innovative pictorial tool to measure children’s physical literacy for the Australian Sports Commission, now requested by researchers from 23 countries across 18 language groups.   

Research Groups
Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition