Active & Healthy Magazine

Volume 22 Issue 2/3 of the Magazine is ready to read online......

Editorial Note

Welcome to the 2015 special edition of the Active & Healthy Magazine. This is the second in what is becoming an annual publication of the magazine which focuses on a theme or topic of interest to physical and health educators. The aim of these special editions is to provide a comprehensive review of the latest thinking, practices and approaches in an area of interest in the Health and Physical Education learning area.

For this edition we have assembled an energetic editorial team in the area of game-based learning and teaching in Health and Physical Education. Dr Shane Pill (Flinders University), Dr Amanda Mooney (Deakin University), and Rick Baldock (ACHPER (SA)) have taught, written and presented extensively over a number of years about this topic and and have assembled a team of writers from around the globe to bring you up to date with this pedagogical approach. Some of the articles have been developed by teams of writers that have plundered the playing, teaching and coaching expertise of leading exponents of their game or sport while other articles have been developed by educators who work in schools, universities and clubs across the world.

I trust that this edition of the Active & Healthy Magazine provides a translation of research, latest thinking and practices to inform and support your work and refresh your practice.

Rick Baldock

Editor in Chief

rick.baldock@gmail.com

Game-based learning and using Visible Thinking Routines - asking meaningful questions

This article by Mel Hamada from Yokohama International School in Japan includes a mix of factual, debatable and conceptual questions to engage our learners in the work that they are doing.

The use of game-centred approaches like Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) and Game Sense, and the use of Visible Thinking Routines offers a model that extends our students thinking and create spaces to communicate effectively and collaborate in teams to solve real problems, all of which are important tools for our students as they move into the workplace and into the global community.

Using Game Sense in teaching and learning in Senior Physical Education

The Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA) syllabus in Physical Education describes physical activity as the medium for learning, developing the work of Arnold (1979) learning in, about and through physical activity. The nature of the general objectives of the syllabus means that teaching and learning in this subject is well suited to the Game Sense approach.

This article by Glenn Amezdroz from ACHPER QLD discusses how Game Sense has been used to facilitate teaching and learning in Senior Physical Education in Queensland.

A constraints-led approach for PE teachers

The Game Sense coaching approach emphasises the modification of game elements or the development of modified games to achieve learning outcomes.

In this article, Ian Renshaw, Brendan Moy and Michael Cook from Queensland University of Technology introduce the constraints-led approach to learning and demonstrate how the theory can underpin the design of games lessons ensuring that teachers give themselves the best chance of satisfying the skill acquisition and psychological needs of every child in PE.

Are current skill acquisition learning theories adequately reflected in our practical assessment of Year 12 PE students?

Kain Noack of Saint Ignatius' College in South Australia questions how effectively contemporary skill acquisition theory is being put in to practice within the practical component of the SACE Stage 2 Physical Education course.

This article questions the possible need to change specific assessment terminology in an effort to better direct practitioners to use contemporary cognitive learning theories in an effort to guide them, not only in their assessment of students, but also within the delivery of practical lessons.

Enhancing practitioners observation and analysis skills in a game-centred approach

Despite the development of a wide body of literature suggesting the efficacy of game-centred approaches to teaching and learning, one potential difficulty in transitioning to this approach is the practitioner's ability to read the practice games and be able to make the necessary adjustments (analysis).

This article by Stephen Harvey and David Robertson from West Virginia University in the US offers practical examples of how practitioners can develop their observation and analysis skills to more effectively teach through and in the game.

'What else can I do?' Radical suggestions to help physical education teachers successfully implement a game-based approach to teach games

Kendall Jarrett from Deakin University in Victoria offers seven suggestions in this article to help teachers in their attempts to implement (and persist with continued implementation) of game-based approaches (GBA) to teach games.

Discussion also supports the need for PE teachers to not shy away from developing pedagogical content knowledge and investing in use of new and unfamiliar pedagogical approaches, in order to give their new relationship with GBA implementation every opportunity to succeed.

Back to the future: Developing batting talent through Game Sense

The proliferation of coaching academies and concern with how coaching that is too highly structured leads to the loss of creativity has encouraged consideration of what game-based coaching has to offer to offset this problem.

In this article, former Australian cricketer Greg Chappell and Richard Light from the University of Canterbury (NZ), consider the valuable learning that emerges from participation in 'knock up', backyard, informal games and how that might inform formal batting coaching in cricket.

An application of non-linear learning in Netball: Game Sense coaching

Terry Magias, Shane Pill, Sam Elliott (Flinders University) and Erin Bell (Adelaide Thunderbirds) explain the application of constraints-led skill learning theory to the analysis of performance in Netball when using a Game Sense approach.

The article describes the progressive development of the inter-related dimensions of tactical decision making and technical models of movement in skilled performance.

How Tennis Hot Shots is making sense of Game Sense

Tennis Australia has embraced many of the key conceptual elements associated with the Game Sense approach which has significantly enhanced the successful implementation of a number of Tennis Australia's recent educational initiatives. These include: ANZ Tennis Hot Shots and the associated Tennis in Primary and Secondary Schools programs.

This article by Mitchell Hewitt from Tennis Australia outlines these associations and provides practical examples of their application.

Overcoming the technical bias in basketball

Basketball requires a multitude of athletic, emotional, psychological, tactical, and technical skills, but coaches tend to reduce the game's fundamentals to the prominent technical skills, such as dribbling, passing, and shooting. This technical bias ignores the importance of the constraints that determine the execution of these skills in games.

In this article, Brian McCormick argues that to develop players with greater basketball intelligence, we need a broader appreciation of the game's fundamentals, and a more concentrated effort to teach the game without decoupling the perception and the action.

Employing Game Sense method of instruction within the structure of representative learning design in order to facilitate intelligent game playing by young field hockey players

A coach/teacher's best chance of achieving a positive transfer from what is done in practice to what happens in the game is through adopting a representative learning design (RLD) in practice. A RLD is achieved when the perceptual and action couplings the players experience in the game are replicated in the practice environment.

Dennis Slade of Massey University in New Zealand writes why a RLD of this nature has the potential to transform both the novice and experienced into intelligent players.

Transferring skills from practice to the match in rugby through Game Sense

In this article, Eddie Jones reflects upon how he learned to play rugby through informal knock up games as a child and as a young man, and the pivotal role that the Game Sense approach adopted by his physical education teacher played in shaping his views on coaching.

After a successful coaching career that included being Head Coach of the ACT Brumbies and Head Coach of the Australian national team, the Wallabies, Eddie is now Head Coach of Japan Rugby where he is meeting challenges in developing good decision making by drawing on the Game Sense approach.

Game Sense training: Developing Australian football players

Australian football is based on players solving problems and making decisions all over the ground. It is therefore appropriate that training be based on increasing the players' understanding of the game to help their decision making.

Shane Pill (Flinders University) and Heath Younie (Adelaide Football Club) explain how a Game Sense style of training providing tactical situations that are repetitive within games assists players to improve their decision making ability through experience and learning from their good and poor decisions.

Game Sense still makes good sense

Every coach or teacher wants their players to enjoy their chosen sport and become intelligent performers with a lifelong appreciation of sport. This is true from a grass roots community level to the elite professional stage.

This article by John Evans from the University of Sydney encourages teachers and coaches to consider game-centred approaches such as Game Sense as it provides opportunities for deep learning, motivation and fun, specificity and cognitive demand.

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