Pedagogical Models in Physical Education

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Session 5

• Pedagogical Models in Physical Education

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TEACHING GAMES FOR UNDERSTANDING The work of Rod
Thorpe and Dave Bunker Loughborough University UK
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TGFU - THE BEGINNING

• In the early 80s, Rod Thorpe and Dave Bunker had
  begun to think about how games could be taught
  differently
• Primarily, this was fuelled by the failure to
  retain children in games and their early
  exclusion.
• A result of this was to develop an approach to
  games that develops the understanding of the
  game, specifically
• Its structure
• Some rules
• Its meaning
• Its point
• Roles of the players
• The type of game that it is

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THE BASIS OF TGFU

• Games can be enjoyed by all in spite of ability
• Skills seldom emerge from drills that are
  repetitive
• Isolated practice does not transfer to game
• Games Sense is lost, or indeed not ever
  developed!

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TYPES OF GAMES

• Invasion games
• Purposes
• to invade and control territory
• Retain possession
• To create scoring opportunities
• Get behind defences
• Striking and fielding games
• Purposes
• Strike a ball into space
• To run a given distance to score
• To defend a space with the bat

• Divided Court games
• Purpose
• Score on oppositions side of court
• strike ball(or similar within space but away from
  opponent
• Rebound games
• Purpose
• Hit ball against a wall such that it does not
  return to opponent
• Control an area where ball is likely to travel
  most (the T in squash
• Move opponent around

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TGFU - THE MODEL

• The model starts and finishes with the game
• It is about decision making within contexts
• It starts with game appreciation
• It looks at both what to do and how to do it
• It does not deny skill development
• Is there evidence from pedagogy research about
  TGFU as an effective method of instruction?
• Very little
• Some from the USA which fails to take into
  account the broader ends of understanding
  approaches
• Some from USA which is very positive
• Some from the UK which is supportive
• Study in Australia by David Kirk and Ross Brooker
  which is still active but which shows promise
• However in 2001, the first international TGFU
  conference was held in New Hampshire - an
  overwhelming vote of confidence in TGFU
  effectiveness.

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TGFU - WHERE TO FOR YOU?

• Be bold and experiment
• Use the game to teach the game
• Differentiate expectations for learners
• Condition games creatively to develop requisite
  skills
• Be prepared to change games and activities to
  suit differing contexts
• Be patient. Learners will not develop an
  understanding overnight.
• They will learn the essence of games and develop
  games sense
• What precedents are there?
• Australian Rugby Union
• English Football Association
• Queensland Cricket

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MOSSTONS TEACHING SPECTRUM

• From Command to Discovery

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WHAT IS THE SPECTRUM?

• In the mid 1960s Musska Mosston came up with the
  idea of what he called a unified theory of
  teaching.
• He called this the Spectrum of Teaching Styles.
  Its basic premise was that it went from Command
  to Discovery.
• Over the last 35 years, the spectrum has
  continued to evolve.
• Mosston felt that teaching physical education
  could be conducted in a number of different ways
  using a variety of styles.
• The styles he claimed were contingent upon
• The purposes of the lesson
• The lines of communication
• Proposed channels of development
• Mosston was keen to point out that at no time did
  he want to suggest that one style was necessarily
  better than another

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WHAT IS THE SPECTRUM?

• The Non-Discovery Styles
• Command Style (A)
• Practice Style (B)
• Reciprocal Style (C)
• Self Check Style (D)
• Inclusion Style (E)
• These styles are largely teacher centred
• Most decisions about content, timing etc are with
  teacher
• These forms of teaching/coaching will be most
  familiar to you

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THE SETS OF DECISIONS

• The pre-impact set
• Decisions made before the lesson
• Involves (most importantly) choice of content and
  organisational structure
• The impact set
• Decisions made during the lesson e.g. pace,
  timing start and finish times
• The post-impact set
• Feedback and other evaluative procedures..
  Possibly reflection

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ACROSS THE DISCOVERY THRESHOLD

• The Discovery Styles
• Guided Discovery (Style F)
• Divergent (Style G)
• Style F (Guided Discovery) is based on the notion
  of convergence - that the right answer can be
  found by asking questions that yield the right
  answer
• Questions needs to be pitched at the right level
  so that each correct answer is one more step
  towards the solution
• This style is more about the learning of a
  concept which might be transferable e.g. fielding
  a ground ball and say goal-keeping in soccer
• It is the first move across the Discovery
  Threshold, though the teacher still has all the
  answers
• It requires the teacher to modify conventional
  behaviour
• Urge to give the answer needs to be tempered
• The skill is in asking the questions appropriately

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ACROSS THE DISCOVERY THRESHOLD

• Style G The Divergent Style is, according to
  Mosston this style is the natural extension to
  Style F- Guided Discovery
• This style is consistent with the contemporary
  work in the teaching of games
• Rod Thorpes ideas on games sense and games
  for understanding
• Allan Launders ideas on Play Practice
• Mosstons claim here is
• The divergent style (style G) occupies a unique
  place on the Spectrum. For the first time the
  learner is engaged in discovering and producing
  options within the subject matter. This style
  involves the learner in the human capacity for
  diversity it invites the learner to go beyond
  the known. (Mosston and Ashworth, 1986, p. 190)

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ACROSS THE DISCOVERY THRESHOLD

• Whilst Mosston says that the fields of physical
  education, dance and sport are rich in
  opportunities to come up with solutions to
  movement problems, we seldom see examples of it
  in practice
• Reasons
• Power and control
• efficiency argument
• Perceived discipline problems
• Professional risk
• Why do it? Generally, the variety of human
  movement is regarded as infinite hence one
  assumes the human is capable of adaptation to
  stimulus
• Recent work in skill acquisition seems to confirm
  this
• Skill emerges from the interaction of
  constraints
• Supported by Schmidts idea of variability
• Recent work in constructivism also adds support
• In other words, humans construct responses

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THE KEY TO DIVERGENCE

• The teacher makes decisions about activity area
  (consistent with work program/syllabus etc)
• Learner makes decisions about specifics
• The solutions of the learner become the subject
  matter
• The teacher manipulates the constraints
• This pedagogical approach is not new and it
  underpins much of the work in educational
  gymnastics, movement education, and more recently
  games
• Now though we have a more robust model and
  research data to support the value of child
  centred pedagogy in physical activity

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SPORT EDUCATION

• Learning through Sport

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Reasons for Sport Education

• Formalises sport as the subject matter of
  physical education
• Objectives for work in physical education can
  be easily defined and determined
• Logical development as basically already exists
• Reinstates the importance of sport which some
  scholars has been lost because of progressive
  ideology in physical education (Seidentop)
• Provides a developmental path for the work of
  physical education
• Creates a framework for inter (and intra)-school
  competition generally regarded as healthy

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But what is Sport Education?

• There is general confusion here as the
  terminology is not clear
• For some it is simply the most appropriate label
  for what is done in what is generally referred to
  as PE
• Hence it is naturalised and normalised
  (Foucault, 1980)
• In some curricula it is a much closer description
  of what goes on (in other words) the subject
  content matter an example is the NCPE (UK)
• Others take a different view that it is
  education through sport the work of Ken
  Alexander, Andrew Taggart and the team at Edith
  Cowan University in Perth
• highly developed program involving many schools
  in a broad cross-curricular project with sport as
  the main vehicle.
• much broader role description within sport
• broader range of learning outcomes

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Problems with Sport Education?

• May still lead to exclusivity particularly if the
  model is simply regarded as natural
• May result in lots of duplication given the
  exponential growth of community sport
• Sport may not provide good foundational early
  motor skill acquisition
• The learning available may be limited
• It may not address motor problems that can be
  overcome by a broader range of motor experiences
• There is little evidence that it really leads to
  lifelong habits of physical activity involvement
• It may actively work against this though in an
  unintended way

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AUSSIE SPORT - An example of Primary Sport
Education

• Visits are infrequent
• Seen as time off for the classroom teacher
• generally little follow up
• usually lots of brightly coloured equipment
• staff members are usually trained in physical
  education or coaching
• programs often based around an award system
• games and equipment often modified to
  appropriate levels but not always in appropriate
  ways

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OVER TO YOU

• Think about your Sport Education experience last
  week. Was it a worthwhile exercise?
• What are the pros and cons about using Sport
  education as a primary PE teacher? In groups of
  3-4 discuss and list these.
• Report back to the group.