Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Steven Stolz
La Trobe University, Australia
Shane Pill
Flinders University, Australia
Abstract
Over 30 years ago the original teaching games for understanding (TGfU) proposition was published
in a special edition of the Bulletin of Physical Education (Bunker and Thorpe, 1982). In that time
TGfU has attracted significant attention from a theoretical and pedagogical perspective as an
improved approach to games and sport teaching in physical education (PE). It has been particularly
championed as a superior alternative to what Kirk (2010) and Metzler (2011) described as a
traditional method. Recently, however, one of the TGfU authors suggested that the TGfU premise
needs to be revisited in order to explore and rethink its relevance so that pedagogy in PE again
becomes a central and practical issue for PE (Almond, 2010), as it has not been as well accepted by
PE teachers as it has by academics. In order to review and revisit TGfU and consider its relevance
to games and sport teaching in PE this paper outlines two areas of the TGfU proposition: (1) the
basis for the conceptualisation of TGfU; (2) advocacy of TGfU as nuanced versions. The empiricalscientific research surrounding TGfU and student learning in PE contexts is reviewed and analysed.
This comprehensive review has not been undertaken before. The data-driven research will facilitate a consideration as to how TGfU practically assists the physical educator improve games and
sport teaching. The review of the research literature highlighted the inconclusive nature of the
TGfU proposition and brought to attention the disparity between researcher as theory generator
and teacher practitioner as theory applier. If TGfU is to have improved relevance for teachers of PE
more of an emphasis needs to be placed on the normative characteristics of pedagogy that drive
this practice within curricula.
Corresponding author:
Steven Stolz, Faculty of Education, La Trobe University, PO Box 199 Bendigo 3552, Victoria, Australia.
Email: S.Stolz@latrobe.edu.au
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Keywords
Teaching games for understanding (TGfU), teaching, physical education (PE), research
Introduction
This paper aims to revisit Bunker and Thorpes (1982) teaching of games for understanding (TGfU)
approach in physical education (PE). Since its inception as a model, the TGfU approach has been the
subject of significant attention from theoretical, research, advocacy and practical perspectives. The
review of the literature highlights how the TGfU model has been the catalyst for a global movement
involving games teaching that has spawned a diverse array of derivations around the world. Although
Bunker and Thorpe intended to challenge the status quo of what has now become known as a
traditional (Hoffman, 1971; Kirk, 2010; Metzler, 2011) approach to teaching games and sport in
PE, a closer look at the literature will show competing discourses vying for dominance in the PE
games literature (see for example, Metzler, 2011). For instance, recent research would suggest that
curriculum and pedagogical elements associated with Game Sense (den Duyn, 1996, 1997), which is
an Australian version of TGfU, are not considered by teachers as unique to a TGfU framework, or of
themselves defining of a TGfU approach because they are simply good pedagogical practice for sport
related game teaching (Pill, 2011a). This is a theme picked up by Hopper et al. (2009), who noted that
TGfU was not initially presented as a new innovation, rather an organisation and application of pedagogy that had not previously been made coherent.
For the purposes of this paper we will be concerned with the critical discussion of two issues: first,
we provide a brief historical overview of the conceptual approach commonly known as TGfU in
order to highlight how this model has spawned major iterations that may appear to be different, but
on closer inspection are defined by subtle rather than distinctive differences, some of which clarify
aspects of the original TGfU proposition; and second, in order to verify these claims we adopt a
similar methodology to Wallhead and OSullivan (2005) in which a total of 76 publications pertaining to the TGfU model were collected and segregated into two categories: theoretical (n 40)
and data-based empirical-scientific studies (n 36). The review of the non-empirical-scientific literature demonstrated the global dissemination and nuanced interpretations of TGfU since its original
description in the themed edition of the Bulletin of Physical Education in 1982. The contradictory
nature of the empirical-scientific literature, especially the attempt to capture TGfU as good pedagogical practice, is revealed in the empirical-scientific literature summarised later in Table 2. The
empirical-scientific data is inconclusive as to whether TGfU enhances games teaching and learning.
This is unlike the theoretical literature, which advocates and explains TGfU as an improvement upon
traditional (Kirk, 2010; Metzler, 2011) and in many cases still normative technical (Kirk, 2010) and
linear (Chow, et al., 2007) pedagogical practice. The assumptions of the theoretical literature about
TGfU pedagogy and comparisons with a traditional PE method (Metzler, 2011) will be explained in
the literature review following this introduction. It is anticipated that this paper will generate further
discussion and research surrounding games and sport pedagogy and learning in PE, which the results
of this research reveal are far from resolved.
Literature review
TGfU: a brief historical overview
A paradigm shift from the drill as the dominant approach to sport-related games teaching began
in the 1960s that influenced the later pedagogical elements of TGfU. Wade (1967) proposed a
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- Goal (Football)
Line (Rugby)
- Opposed (Lawn Bowls)
Unopposed (Golf)
- Net (Volleyball)
Shared (Squash)
- Fan (Softball)
Oval (Cricket)
Target Games
Court Games
Field
small-sided games framework for the combined purpose of teaching technical and tactical attack
and defence skills of football (soccer). The small-sided games framework Wade proposed involved
the minimum possible number of players for a competitive small-sided game. Small-sided modified games became a central feature of the TGfU model. Also in the late 1960s, Mosston (1968)
described the Spectrum of Teaching Styles. The Spectrum of Teaching Styles instructional strategies guided PE teachers towards the purposeful choice of pedagogical action to meet specific
teaching objectives (Mosston, 1981). The guided discovery style explained by Mosston is not
unlike the TGfU emphasis on teacher questioning to both prompt examination of a target game
concept and focus game understanding.
Mauldon and Redfern (1969) suggested that physical educators should not call a person educated
who has simply mastered a skill and presented a new approach for games teaching. Mauldon and
Redferns new approach (1969) contained three elements: (1) game categories to group games of
similar nature so that teaching for conceptual and skill transfer between similar games could occur; (2)
game analysis by players so that players were prompted to develop game appreciation and understanding; and (3) structured situations for player experimentation and problem solving. They proposed
that all games contained one or more of three elements: (1) sending an object away; (2) gaining
possession of an object; and (3) travelling with an object. These elements were used to group games
into three categories: (a) net games; b) batting games; and (c) running games. The purpose of the game
classification was to assist the process of game analysis for player development of game appreciation,
and to assist teaching for skill and knowledge transfer between games. These features are also present
as emphasised pedagogical themes in the description of TGfU (Bunker and Thorpe, 1982).
Game classification was later refined to four categories and eight sub-categories by Ellis (1983)
(Table 1).
Despite these developments in games and sport teaching, games teaching in secondary PE
continued to be structured as sport-as-techniques in highly structured lessons (Kirk, 2010). The
decontextualised nature of learning skills as motor patterns isolated from the movementinformation coupling of the game meant that students experiences of sport were not authentic (Savelsbergh et al., 2003). Some suggested that a large percentage of students completed the
compulsory years of schooling and participation in PE achieving very little success, and knowing
very little about games and sport (Bunker and Thorpe 1982, Siedentop 1994).
39
learnt before highly structured technique teaching was proposed (Bunker and Thorpe, 1982). It
emerged as a counter to the perceived shortcomings for student learning inherent in the highly
structured sport-as-techniques (Kirk, 2010) traditional PE method (Metzler, 2011) in secondary
PE. The model now known as TGfU continued the evolution of the small-sided games approach
(Werner et al., 1996) while outlining a sequential cycle of teaching based on the premise that game
understanding and decision making was not dependent on the prior development of sport specific
movement techniques.
Just as Mauldon and Redferns (1969) approach challenged the curriculum and pedagogical
practice of PE, TGfU challenged traditional PE method of progression as an additive process by
proposing that children could learn to play modified versions of games ahead of mastering the
mature skills (Kirk, 2010: 85). The six-step TGfU cycle of teaching assumed that students learn
best if they understand what to do before they understand how to do it (Griffin et al., 2005: 215). As
already indicated, the TGfU model combined features of earlier departures from the PE method.
However, it was the clear articulation of guiding pedagogical principles (Bunker and Thorpe,
1982) and theoretical support from the perspective of cognitive educational psychology (Pigott,
1982) that was perhaps significant to the models subsequent academic acceptance.
The distinctiveness of the TGfU model is sometimes suggested as belonging with its guiding
pedagogical principles (Thorpe et al., 1984). These are as follows (Thorpe et al., 1986: 164167):
1. Sampling: The use of modified games and sport as a way to experience adult versions of
games;
2. Exaggeration: Changing game structures, such as rules, equipment and play space, to promote,
exaggerate, control or eliminate certain game behaviours to enable teaching through the game;
3. Representation: Small-sided modified games structured to suit the age and/or experience of
the players; and
4. Questioning: Prompting student thinking and problem solving by questions so that knowledge of what to do, when to do it and why to do it develops and leads to the question of how
to perform movement in the context of play.
However, these pedagogical elements were already advocated as advances in games teaching.
What TGfU approach accomplished was the organisation of the pedagogy into a coherent proposition (Thorpe et al., 1986).
Since Bunker and Thorpes (1982) original description and explanation of the TGfU approach
and further elaboration (Bunker and Thorpe, 1983; Thorpe et al., 1986), it has been advocated as
nuanced interpretations. This growth reflected similar concerns to overcome problems of: (1)
isolated (from the game) direct teaching of skill drills and defining of skills as techniques; (2)
perceptions that student motivation in games teaching is low; and (3) the absence of relevance of
PE to the achievement of educational outcomes (Lopez et al., 2009). The next section of the paper
briefly summarises the advocacy of TGfU occurring through the major interpretations of TGfU
occurring in the PE literature.
40
Game Form
(Representation, Exaggeration)
Tactical Awareness
Skill Execution
What to do?
How to do it?
introduced a structured progression through levels of sport skill learning to provide a complete
package for teaching (Mitchell et al., 2006: 5) for middle and secondary school PE that was missing from the TGfU literature. The benefit of such an approach for teachers was that they did not
have to be as reliant on developing sport-specific domain knowledge across a broad range of different sports. Questions to guide the development of game understanding and skill practices during
lessons were focussed through an overarching tactical problem.
As Figure 1 illustrates, the Tactical Games approach did not change the tactical-before-technical
linear teaching cycle of the original TGfU proposition. However, a substantial addition to the pedagogy of TGfU was the description of an assessment tool that accounted for on-the-ball and off-theball game play, known as the Games Performance Assessment Instrument (GPAI). The GPAI
enabled codification of tactical decision making, off-the-ball movement to read and respond, and
on-the-ball reaction and then recovery to a position for further game involvement (Hopper, 2003).
Seven components of game performance were defined in the GPAI to provide flexibility and adaptability of the instrument across TGfU game categories (Mitchell et al., 2006).
Game Sense. The term Game Sense was used by Thorpe and West in 1969 as a description of
game intelligence and as a games teaching performance measure. However, Game Sense is more
commonly recognised as emerging from the field of sport coaching in Australia. In 1993,
Charlesworth described Game Sense as the objective of player development at the elite sport
level. He described Designer Games (Charlesworth, 1993, 1994) as the structure to achieve the
combining of specific technical, tactical and fitness training in a game practice that simulates
game conditions to develop player game sense. The idea of Game Sense developed into a sport
teaching approach during a series of visits by Rod Thorpe to Australia in the mid 1990s to work
with the Australian Sports Commission (Thorpe, 2012). A player-centred model (Schembri,
2005) to develop the tactical and technical foundations of sport through a game-centred training
structure was described (den Duyn, 1996, 1997; Thorpe, 1997). Thorpe (2006) has described the
Game Sense model as incorporating more than the original TGfU model (Kidman, 2005: 233),
and so the Game Sense model may be justifiably seen as a further refinement of TGfU for sport
skill teaching.
The central focus of the Game Sense approach is the development of thinking players (den
Duyn, 1997). This objective for sport teaching is pursued via the coupling of movement technique to game context as skilled performance; or, as den Duyn (1997) described, Technique
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Technique
Game Context
Skill
Game Categories
Invasion
Court
Field
Territory
1. Game
2. Game Appreciation
1. Learner
3. Tactical Awareness
6. Performance
4. Making Appropriate
Decisions
What to do?
5. Skill Execution
How to do it?
Game Context Skill (Figure 2). The original Game Sense description did not elaborate the
teaching of game appreciation and understanding before a focus on the refinement of skill
execution, but discussed the development of technical and tactical game components as being
taught together. This was a fine distinction but a departure from the six-step TGfU tacticalbefore-technical cycle of learning where game appreciation occurs before technique development (Figure 3).
Similar to the TGfU (and Tactical Games) model, small-sided games and the use of questioning
to develop tactical game understanding were central to the pedagogy of a Game Sense approach.
Also similar to the Tactical Games model, a thematic curriculum for the teaching of sport skill
foundations based on the TGfU game categories emerged, elaborated via the Game Sense Cards
(Australian Sports Commission, 1999a) and then the Active After Schools Playing for Life kit
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(Australian Sports Commission, 2005). The Game Sense cards were similar to the Playsport minigames instructional cards designed by Rod Thorpe (Thorpe, 2006).
Similar to TGfUs initial articulation, Game Sense did not initially distinguish between smallsided games for fundamental sport skill learning and small-sided game play for more complex tactical and technical skill learning. It was later refined into a three-stage curriculum model aligned to
the continuum of achievement evident in Australian Health and PE curriculum frameworks, and
the general direction of Cote et al.s (2003) developmental model of sport participation as Play
with Purpose (Pill, 2007).
Play Practice. Game Sense also forms part of the Play Practice approach (Launder, 2001). The Play
Practice approach, however, explains Game Sense as one of several elements required for successful game involvement. Similar to Charlesworths (1993, 1994) description of Designer Games,
Play Practice positions Game Sense as a sport-teaching/coaching objective. Like Designer Games,
Play Practices could be seen as activities that sit within a Game Sense approach, alongside skill
drills and other instructional strategies, used to teach individual and group situational skills and
decision making in time-outs between small-sided game play and match simulation via Designer
Games.
The Play Practice pedagogy of shaping the play to suit the experience of players, focussing the play
on learning sport skills, and enhancing play by directing attention to any elements of play requiring
improvement (Launder, 2001) are conceptually similar to the TGfU pedagogy of teaching through the
game and directing learning by sampling, exaggerating and representation of game structures. Like
TGfU, Tactical Games and Game Sense models, Play Practice pedagogy encouraged teachers to adopt
a broad range of instructional strategies to achieve task objectives; however, there is no obvious
emphasis on the development of thinking players by guided discovery using questioning as a central
pedagogical tool as there is in the TGfU, Game Sense and Tactical Games models.
Invasion games competency model. In the invasion games competency model (IGCM) players
progress through a sequential series of basic game forms (modified games) growing in complexity
as they master the objectives of each game form. A game situation is the starting point for lessons,
and the introductory game is designed to relate the tactical and technical elements of the situation
to the players. Similar to other versions of TGfU, when using the IGCM teachers are encouraged to
monitor the play for tactical problems and intervene to stop the game where appropriate to question
players, thereby encouraging players to think about the aim of the game. Once players recognise
the need for new skills or skill refinement, practice occurs (Tallir et al., 2004, 2005).
Tactical decision learning model. The tactical decision learning model (T-DLM) focusses on student
exploration of the various possibilities of game play and on the construction of adequate movement
responses in small-sided invasion games (Grehaigne et al., 2005a). After experiencing the game,
teams propose action plans (game plans) which are then tried out in play and progressively refined
as players develop more sophisticated understanding of the relationship between the action plan
and the game rules (Grehaigne and Godbout, 1995). Once stabilisation of game understanding
appears to have taken place, the teacher increases the complexity of the game, and eventually introduces another team sport to initiate generalisation of game understanding across sports (Grehaigne
et al., 2005b). Similar to the Tactical Games approach emphasis on data collection, observational
assessment and the collection of qualitative and quantitative feedback are central to the T-DLM.
This data collection may occur through the tracking of player movement using descriptive drawing
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and statistical measures such as the Team Sport Assessment Instrument. This instrument contains
assessment criteria to account for players specific behaviours during game play (Grehaigne and
Godbout 1997, 1998; Grehaigne et al.2005a).
TGfU is also familiar in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Macau, Japan and Korea (Liu, 2010), and
in Singapore it is known as the Games Concept Approach (Light and Tan, 2006).
44
Data source
Findings
TGfU
Butler, 1996
Teachers are
interviewed about
attractions and
drawbacks of the
tactical approach
(continued)
Positive outcomes
Quantitative data provided by
- More teacher questions at a higher cognitive level
Cheffers adaption of Flanders
- The focus of the lesson changed from executing
Interaction Analysis System,
skills to understanding tactics
Individual Ration Gestalt, Teachers
- The teachers focus changed from a concern with
Performance Criteria
control to student learning
Questionnaire, and an analysis of
Concerns
teacher questioning (coding of
- Students need to learn skills before they can play a
video of teaching).
game
Qualitative data provided by
- Strategies need to be learnt under the guidance of
individual participant interviews
the teacher
- The execution of skills is more easily evaluated than
the concepts of TGfU
- The technical model offers greater control over
students
- The teachers role is to transmit knowledge
- TGfU is only suitable for older students, or the
emotionally mature and highly motivated
- Cognitive focus comes at the expense of the
physical
Turner, 1996 Examining the validity of 24 Year 6 and 24 Year 7 HenryFriedel Field Hocket Test pre
No significant differences in skill development
between TGfU and technique groups on the skill test
test and post test, 30-item multiple
students assigned to
the TGfU approach
choice knowledge test, and a
four teaching groups
by comparing it with
TGfU improved significantly more than technique
coding of game decisions (control,
group for declarative knowledge
of 12 students
the technique
decision making, execution) during
undertook a field
approach
TGfU group improved significantly more than
game play and participant
hockey unit
technique group in control and decision making in
interviews
game play
The interview data indicated game-related activities
provided the most enjoyment
TGfU
Focus
Author/s
Study
45
Data source
TGfU
TGfU
Focus
Author/s
Study
Table 2 (continued)
(continued)
Findings
46
Turner and
Martinek,
1999
Alison and
Thorpe,
1997
TGfU
TGfU
Author/s
Study
Table 2 (continued)
Comparison of TGfU
with a technique
approach and a
control group
Compare effectiveness
of skill and TGfU
approaches
Data source
Focus
(continued)
Findings
47
TGfU
Data source
Kirk et al.,
2000
TGfU
Focus
Author/s
Study
Table 2 (continued)
(continued)
Findings
48
Data source
Findings
TGfU
TGfU
TGfU
(continued)
Harvey, 2003 Examine whether TGfU 16 participants aged 16 Players performance in a modified
Student game performance and game involvement
were reported as improved. It was suggested that the
game situation was quantitatively
18 involved in a
could be utilised to
TGfU approach has the potential to improve
analysed from video before, during
soccer development
improve specific
involvement and performance in team sport by
and after the intervention
squad
aspects of game
increasing decision making capacities in order to
involvement and
execute more effective skills and less ineffective
performance in
soccer
Cruz, 2004
Investigate teachers and 5 secondary PE teachers Post-team handball unit teaching
Teachers held positive views on the TGfU approach
and their students
interviews and end-of-unit student
students perceptions
Students indicated they had learnt more about
questionnaire
tactics and rules of the game
towards the
implementation of
TGfU
Four college students
Qualitative analysis of transcribed
Henninger
Examine novice
Novices bring domain-specific knowledge into PE
enrolled in an
talk-aloud and written protocol
classes and sport settings but have difficulty using that
et al.,
volleyball players
elective volleyball
responses
knowledge to generate tactical plans to use in game
2006
domain-specific
class
play
knowledge and how
it is used to make
Teachers and coaches must create learning envirtactical decisions
onments that allow students/athletes to develop their
tactical decision making within game play contexts
144 Year 6 PE students Quantitative analysis of self-reported
Harvey et al., Assess changes in
There are positive associations between students
self-reported perception of their involvement in PE
(four classes)
questionnaires assessing the affec2009
student perceptions
classes utilising TGfU
tive domain
of involvement in a
unit of soccer using
Significant increases in learning and effort
the TGfU approach
TGfU can effectively engage students regardless of
skill level
TGfU
Focus
Author/s
Study
Table 2 (continued)
49
Data source
TGfU
TGfU
34 soccer players from a Quantitative analysis of a preHarvey et al., Assess a practiceobservation and baseline assesshigh school soccer
2010
referenced approach
ment followed by an 8-week
programme
for TGfU evaluation,
intervention phase with three
test game perforassessments using video capture of
mance using the
game performance
GPAI, assess how
align of practice contributed to game
performance
Intrinsic motivation inventory was
Jones et al., Examine the impact of 194 Year 9 students
administered pre and post
from three schools
2010
TGfU vs. a
intervention
were assigned to one
Traditional skillsof the treatment
based approach on
conditions
intrinsic motivation
Investigate the effects a 52 secondary students Student focus group interviews, pre
Gray and
and the two teachers
and post-intervention game video
tactical teaching
Sproule,
analysis, student questionnaire
approach had on
2011
game knowledge,
game playing
performance and
pupil perception of
decision-making
ability
TGfU
Focus
Author/s
Study
Table 2 (continued)
(continued)
Findings
50
Balakrishnan
et al.,
2011
Jones and
Farrow,
1999
Game Sense
Broek et al.,
2011
TGfU
TGfU
Author/s
Study
Table 2 (continued)
Participants and setting
Data source
Focus
(continued)
Findings
51
Data source
Findings
Game Sense
Game Sense
Brooker
et al.,
2000
Implementing Game
Sense as a new
approach to games
teaching
(continued)
Game Sense
Focus
Author/s
Study
Table 2 (continued)
52
Pill, 2011a
Mitchell
et al.,
1995
Berkowitz,
1996
Tactical Games
approach
Tactical Games
approach
Chen and
Light,
2006
Game Sense
Game Sense
Author/s
Study
Table 2 (continued)
64 teachers
Teacher engagement
with TGfU Game
Sense in Australia
Data source
Focus
(continued)
Findings
53
Data source
Tactical Games
approach
Tactical Games
approach
Tactical Games
Approach
Mitchell and
Oslin,
1999
Pre and post intervention video tapTo address the question 21 students randomly
selected from Year 9
ping of badminton singles play.
of whether tactical
Badminton instruction was folunderstanding
lowed by pickle ball instruction.
transfers across
Decision making during game play
games in the net
was assessed using a GPAI
games category
Tactic vs. skill teaching 182 beginning university Quantitative analysis. AAHPERD
Harrison
(1969) volleyball skill test, coding
instruction
volleyball students in
et al.,
video of game trials, self-efficacy
six classes divided
2004
scales, knowledge test.
into high, medium
and low-skilled ability
groups
Quantitative analysis of pre and post
Martin, 2004 To determine whether 36 randomly selected
Year 6 students
assessment of decision making
tactical
from video of ultimate frisbee
understanding
game play using GPAI. Two
transfers across
structured questionnaires
games in the invasion
provided to 10 randomly selected
games category
students during the team handball
unit, and all students were
videotaped in team handball game
play.
Investigate the effects of 218 students aged 10 Pre and post intervention measures
Wallhead
of student enjoyment and per16 from 11 schools
a TGA on students
and
ceived effort, competence and
(13 classes)
motivational
Deglan,
learning were obtained
response
2004
Tactical Games
approach
Focus
Author/s
Study
Table 2 (continued)
(continued)
The pedagogy of the TGA seemed to foster nonthreatening level of challenge to students such that
the students enjoyed the experience of mastering the
tactical dimensions of the game and are motivated to
engage within games-based activities
Findings
54
Data source
Bohler, 2009 Investigating the Tactical Two middle school Year Qualitative analysis of structured
student pre and post unit
Games model
6 PE teachers and
interviews, descriptive field notes,
their combined
video and audio taped
classes undertaking a
performances, student think aloud
volleyball unit
reports during games, and a
situational knowledge quiz
Tactical Games
approach
Examine the effects of Four students from each The dependent variable supporting
movement was coded from
of three middle
technique-focussed
observation of video of
school PE classes
and tactic-focussed
instructional and match games
were observed. Two
instructional condiclasses with a
tions on the learning
tactical-focussed
of a tactic
intervention and a
third class acting as
the control
Qualitative analysis of pre and post
Determine the levels of Six selected students
tests of tactical skill and cognitive
from a Year 4 class,
tactical motor and
understanding, end-of-lesson free
two students within
cognitive learning
writes, students interviews and
each skill level high,
researcher journal
middle, low
Townsend
et al.,
2009
Lee and
Ward,
2009
Tactical Games
approach
Focus
Tactical Games
approach
Author/s
Study
Table 2 (continued)
(continued)
Findings
55
Fry et al.,
2010
Alarcon
et al.,
2009
Tallir et al.,
2003
Games
Competency
Approach
Tactical
Decision
Making
Invasion Games
Competency
Model
Transfer of learning
from play practices
to game play in
soccer
Holt et al.,
2006
Data source
Play Practice
Focus
Author/s
Study
Table 2 (continued)
Findings
56
focus on this area of research as it is a separate line of inquiry to the perspective of the practitioner
pursued in this paper.
The historical overview earlier in this paper engaged with the first categories of papers. The
discussion to follow will include an analysis of this history of TGfU and substantially engage with the
results of the third type of publication, the data driven research. It is always difficult to determine
when to stop searching and how many articles to include in a review (Wallhead and OSullivan,
2005). Two parameters defined the boundaries of the search and subsequently the analysis and substantive discussion later in this paper: Firstly, the issue of how many publications to consider for the
review. The peer-reviewed data-based articles were limited to teacher and sport coaches enactment
of TGfU pedagogy and students experiences of this enactment. Non-empirical articles that did not
introduce new questions or directions for TGfU were not included in the review. Secondly, the
review did not consider research of pre-service teachers experiences of learning to teach using a
TGfU approach as it was felt that although related, this is a separate area of inquiry to the one pursued
in this paper.
Data driven research. Table 2 summarises the empirical-scientific research as it applies to TGfU and
its variations for the teaching of games and sport. It shows a variety of research practices are
engaged in the exploration of the assertions for TGfU pedagogy and student learning outcomes.
The information contained in Table 2 will be considered in the discussion.
57
58
structure (Thorpe, 2006). However, as with other nuanced interpretations of TGfU, the challenge
remains to demonstrate the efficacy of Game Sense as sport games pedagogy (Table 2).
Dynamic systems theory constraints-led practice contains similar propositions to Game Sense.
It has been identified as non-linear pedagogy to distinguish it from an information-processing
model of skill learning and linear progressive part pedagogy. The idea of a non-linear pedagogy
has been linked to TGfU, providing the theoretical skill acquisition muscle missing in TGfU theoretical literature (Chow et al., 2007; Davids et al., 2005; Renshaw et al., 2010). However, as Figure 3 illustrates, TGfU is cyclical in nature; however, it remains linear in that it is represented as a
progressive 1-to-6 six-step cycle. Similarly, the Tactical Games approach is represented as a cycle,
simplifying the six-step TGfU cycle (Figure 3) to a 1-to-3 three-step cycle (Mitchell et al., 2006)
(Figure 1). Bunker and Thorpe (1986) even stressed that the sequential aspects of the TGfU model
are critical (1986: 10). This is unlike the definition of Game Sense (Figure 2), which links knowing
what to do with the ability to put that knowledge into action as skilled performance, and therefore
appears more synonymous with the iterative nature of the dynamics of non-linear pedagogy.
The data reviewed in Table 2 illustrate that the concepts of game literacy (Mandigo and Holt,
2004) and game intelligence (McCormick, 2009; Wein 2001) are useful to explain the aims of a
TGfU approach and to further define Game Sense. Some of these key characteristic descriptors in
Game Sense and game intelligence claim to develop student game performance are as follows:
59
earlier, games frameworks with similar pedagogical intentions to TGfU had been espoused but did
not capture attention and subsequent interest in the way that TGfU did (Findlay, 1982; Mauldon
and Redfern. 1969). If there is uniqueness to TGfU it may be one of emphasis and the associated
discourse, which reframes games and sport teaching from a behaviourist teacher-centred framework defined by a focus on direct teaching to a constructivist learner-centre framework defined
by the foregrounding of cognition in the development of playing competency (Light and Fawns,
2003). However, as Rink (2010: 38) suggested, TGfU doesnt have a monopoly on constructivism. TGfUs reframing of motor skill-to-game teaching (or sport-as-techniques) (Kirk,
2010) through closed-to-open progressive part pedagogy to game-appreciation-to-motor skill
teaching appears to be the pedagogical distinctiveness of the original TGfU proposition.
From a pedagogical perspective, the distinctiveness of TGfU and many of its nuanced interpretations may only substantially lie in this flipped classroom. The term flipped is used to give
effect to the essential difference between a traditional PE method (Metzler, 2011) and TGfU
approach. Where the traditional PE method progressed by drill and emphasis on direct teaching to a
game, a TGfU approach starts with the game as its organisational and instructional centre (Metzler,
2011). A TGfU lesson progresses from the game to other instructional strategies to further develop
aspects of play, and then these enhancements are anticipated in the next engagement with game
play. TGfU iterations can then be understood as a shift in praxis from traditional linear motor
learning theories to an understanding that reflects complexity and systems theory (Davids et al.,
2005, Renshaw et al., 2010).
60
One thing that seems to be consistent in each study is the differences surrounding what learning is
being measured. The range of instruments used in each study, from pre and post skill tests, observations
of game play, decision-making capacity (and so on) emphasise that individual performance in game
situations is a central feature in their notions of learning that each research is trying to capture.
It is important to note that it is difficult to synthesis all of the studies summarised in Table 2
because of the variation in design. The change in research emphasis over time from tactical vs.
technical teaching to practitioner referenced research is also telling. The difficulty of synthesis of
early TGfU research suggested was noted by Rink et al. (1996a). This research early in the life of
TGfU concluded that research investigating the merits of TGfU and other similar approaches to
teaching games and sport in PE was prone to ambiguity because the variables analysed were multiple and not standardised, leading to contradictory results that were unreliable. More telling was
Rink et al.,s (1996b) controversial claim that it was possible for students to pick up tactics without
direct instruction or teaching within the traditional or skill-based approach, which contradicts the
TGfU idea that skills can be acquired through indirect (Hopper and Kruisselbrink, 2001; Mcfadyen
and Bailey, 2002; Rink, 2010) teaching methods. Since Rinks claims, Game Sense (1997), Play
Practice (2001) and the Tactical Game Approach (1997) emerged as well articulated variations of
the pedagogical intention to teach games or sport for understanding. However, as the data summarised in Table 2 indicate, the challenge of meta-analysis of TGfU research remains due to the
methodological variation in TGfU research.
Rink controversially claimed that there does not seem to be any affective advantage to any of the
approaches when effective teachers are used (Rink et al., 1996b: 493). Also telling is the claim made
by Rink (2001) that most of the research surrounding teaching and learning in PE seems to be framed
around establishing direct links between what a teacher does and question begging assumptions
about how students learn. Hence why Rink (2010: 40 ff) cautions us that simplistic and linear
models cannot capture and explain complex, situational and sometimes chaotic nature of movement settings due to the influence of constraints on student performance that include all physical,
environmental and task characteristics. Certainly the second and third constraints are arguably the
most important to PE practitioners due to the direct control they can exercise over these. Much of the
initial data driven research (see for example Table 2) uses different study designs in order to determine which task constraints can empower learning, such as comparing tactical and/or technique
approaches against control groups. There was some evidence that students from a tactical teaching
focus group had enhanced game understanding compared with control and skill focussed groups, but
as the data in Table 2 showed the results are not consistent across all studies.
The alleged failure of the traditional and/or the need for the TGfU approach may arguably have
more to do with the poor quality of games and sport teaching employed in PE (Alexander and
Luckman, 2001; Locke, 1992; Siedentop, 1994) and school PE that is irrelevant or boring for
adolescents (Ennis, 1999; McKenzie et al., 1994; Rikard and Banville, 2006; Smith and Parr, 2007;
Tinning and Fitzclarence, 1992). Decisions about which approach to adopt are possibly more likely
to be philosophical (Green, 1998, 2000, 2002; McMorris, 1998) and not a choice based on empiricalscientific evidence, especially where that is inconclusive and the method narrative confused by competing nuanced interpretations of essentially the same curriculum and pedagogical emphasis.
The data driven TGfU research (Table 2) indicates that teachers struggle with TGfU pedagogical intentions and the pedagogical content knowledge required of a TGfU approach. The limits of
teachers conceptual understanding of sport constrains teachers enactment of TGfU and confidence
with the approach (Brooker et al., 2000), and for most of the teachers involved in the research, the
TGfU variation used was new or unfamiliar to them. A TGfU approach requires considerable
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pedagogical skill . . . and teaching with this method is more of a challenge (Turner, 2005:73). PE
teachers are generally more experienced with a sport-as-techniques (Kirk, 2010) approach, and
after three decades of TGfU research the TGfU movement (Butler and Griffin, 2010: 4) can only
claim that teachers value certain aspects of the public theories defined in the textbooks and formal
teacher preparation curricula and develop unique interpretations of the models representative of
their students needs, their personal beliefs about sport and games, and their teaching contexts
(Butler and Griffin, 2010: 9). The problem as we see it has more to do with the notion that good
pedagogical practice in PE may seem like the kind of activities that may be the product of
empirical-scientific generalisations to which much of this research aspires; however, much of this
work is simply unable to capture the constantly changing nuances of real-life teaching engagement. We do not deny that practitioners may have something to learn from empirical-scientific or
pedagogical research, but the question as we see it is has more to do with determining whether this
type of research does, or ever could, present us with a picture of pedagogy in PE which is complete
such that there could no longer be any meaningful question outside this picture. The question posed
is not asked out of hostility towards empirical-scientific research. Far from it; in fact, it is the nature
of pedagogy itself which forces us to ask this question.
If teachers and researchers can take little of pedagogical value from the scientific-empirical
research (Table 2) the general advice would seem to suggest a flexible approach to teaching in games
and sport in PE, which could vary from TGfU and other approaches as long as the approach adopted is
conducive to achieving the nominated learning objective, rather than a single overriding approach or
style (Capel, 2000). Indeed, Bunker and Thorpe (1982) did not rule in or out a style or instructional
strategy in achieving the objective of game competency. The overriding ideal of practice being game
centred directs teacher objectives to teach for understanding and student engagement, as the game
first intention works with student motivation in PE: that is, to play (Bunker and Thorpe, 1982). The
historical literature review demonstrated that TGfU instinctively makes sense as simply good pedagogy (Hopper et al., 2009) to many academics. However, if TGfU is to be pedestaled as a preferred
pedagogy for performance, participation and enjoyment (Light, 2013) then re-articulation of the
cycle of learning (Figure 1) to be non-linear, reflective of dynamic constraints-led practice, and a more
meaningful representation of what it means to understand games and sport is necessary. To this end,
PE pedagogues and sport skill acquisition researchers should be working more closely together to find
the common ground in ideas and their expression.
62
There is much more to playing games and sports than learning a motor skill in isolation (Chow
et al., 2007; Davids et al., 2005; Renshaw et al., 2010). The idea that one must learn and master a
skill first in simple environments before playing a game in some type of linear fashion is problematic because it decontextualises the skill into something that, for the learner, may have no
connection with sporting or game environments, and in essence teaches these movements outside
of any real meaning. A TGfU approach is more purposefully directed toward educating the learner
within the context in which the technique is performed, whereas the traditional approach is more
interested in the performance or execution of technique.
The research findings summarised in Table 2 illustrate that it is problematic to make definitive
statements about the efficacy of a TGfU approach because the rhetorical generalisations of the type
found in the literature in the earlier historical overview of TGfU can be of little or no use to practitioners. They simply have no relevance to the natural setting of each practitioner (Brooker et al.,
2000). This point has been made quite strongly by Elliott (1989), who argued that pedagogical and
teacher expertise is context specific, and so the generalities of educational research which ignore
contextual features thereby have little or no use to practitioners. This was further reinforced by
Nuthall (2004), who argued that reducing the teachinglearning process to generalisations leaves
little to no relevance to the professional knowledge of the practitioner. For instance, what may work
in one class or with one particular student does not mean that it will necessarily equate to it working
in other contexts, different curriculum content, different kinds of students and so on.
In the context of games teaching in PE, it is not too hard to see how views of learning may be
misconstrued in terms of an acquisition of a skill or based on some behavioural analysis of a
movement event. The problem as we see it is that pedagogy is often linked to a basically scientific
conception of learning and thereby presumed available to empirical-scientific testing of the effectiveness of models of pedagogical practice. One of the core issues with this is that such research strives to
be universal for all practitioners, and in doing so gives rise to abstraction or generalisation that can
have little or no application to the reality of what goes on within classroom practice. Hence why a
shift from a scientific-technical perception of research in action as technical vs. tactical in the 1990s
begins to be repositioned to practitioner referenced research in the 2000s, in what Brooker et al.,
(2000) described as research occurring in the naturalistic setting of the PE teaching context.
63
Competing descriptions of TGfU within the PE literature and its applications are problematic to the
physical educator within the school environment because teacher practitioners do not necessarily see
or want to see the same boundaries between pedagogical models as researchers do as theory generators. Subsequently, if TGfU is to have any relevance for teacher practitioners of PE, more emphasis
needs to be placed on the normative characteristics of pedagogy that drives this practice of teaching for
understanding within curricula. Future research should continue a practice-referenced approach (Kirk,
2005), but extend past the end of single units of work to include longitudinal data collection aimed at
the objective of achieving student understanding, or perhaps the objective as game sense.
The literature review and discussion leads to four conclusions. First, there is an implied division
between researcher as theory generator and teacher practitioner as theory applier. Second, competing
descriptions of TGfU in PE literature complicate understanding of the approach and its practical
implementation. Third, the application of TGfU and its nuanced versions, such as the Tactical Games
approach (Mitchell et al., 2006), are problematic to the teacher practitioner within school contexts
because theory guides the means in which to achieve the ends. Unless there is a clear explanation of the
nature of the ends themselves there is no theory applier, no organiser to regulate the pedagogical practice.
Fourth, perhaps this is where the original description of Game Sense as observable game intelligence
leads the TGfU discourse for an answer to the nature of the end purpose, or objective of teaching for
understanding Game Sense (Charlesworth, 1993; den Duyn, 1997; Thorpe and West, 1969).
The argument that the scientific conception of learning that is available to empirical-scientific
testing of the effectiveness of various pedagogical methods is problematic and ill conceived, and
seems to originate in the notion that since PE activities are overt then they are also measurable (Metzler, 1986), has also been tested in this paper. The shift from empirical-scientific research to
practitioner-referenced research is in tune with what Bishop (1992) described as the pedagogue tradition concerned with exploring classroom practicalities, the curriculum and teachers responses to
the curriculum as it naturally occurs. This is because good educational practice evades conventional
empirical-scientific research and cannot capture the complex nature of teacher deliberations in a
codified way. For instance, there are some true educational generalisations in pedagogy, such as
never face the board when talking to the class; however, these do not need statistical support to
confirm or disprove such a statement. The research paradigm difficulty has more to do with the normative characteristics of education and teaching practice and the incompatible nature of the
empirical-scientific approach which attempts to make causal connections and predictions. Consequently, some educational questions are simply irresolvable by empirical-scientific means, may not
be normatively resolvable and are a matter for philosophical argument (Carr, 2001).
The empirical-scientific research as it applies to TGfU and its variations for the teaching of games and
sport reviewed for this paper indicated that the central tenet of TGfU teaching for understanding
remains unresolved. Investigating the development and demonstration of performance of understanding
as the active use of knowledge (Perkins, 1992) is suggested. The implications and student outcomes of a
PE, sport and games curriculum that is thought demanding, taking students beyond what they already
know by building up performances of understanding through generative knowledge (Perkins, 1992,
1993a, 1993b), should be a future pedagogical research agenda so that pedagogy in PE again becomes
a central practical issue of a sport and games teaching in PE for understanding. This is suggested to bridge
the disparity between researcher as theory generator and teacher practitioner as theory applier.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions to improve
this paper.
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Author biographies
Steven Stolz is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at La Trobe University, Australia.
Shane Pill is a Senior Lecturer in Physical Education Studies at Flinders University, Australia.
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