Responses of study abroad students in Australia to experience-based pedagogy in sport studies
- Authors: Light, Richard , Georgakis, Steve
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Vol. , no. (2008), p.
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- Description: This paper contributes to research on the scholarship of teaching in the physical education/sport studies fields by examining the responses of study abroad students from overseas studying in Australia to a unit of study in sport studies that placed the interpretation of experience as the centre of the learning process. It draws on research conducted at an Australian university over an 18-month period and involving 170 participants. The study focused on the ways in which student motivations, inclinations, expectations and prior experience interacted with experiences of living in Australia and the experience-based nature of the unit of study shaped their responses and perceptions of learning.
Complex learning theory-Its epistemology and its assumptions about learning: Implications for physical education
- Authors: Light, Richard
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Teaching in Physical Education Vol. 27, no. 1 (2008), p. 21-38
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- Description: Davis and Sumara (2003) argue that differences between commonsense assumptions about learning and those upon which constructivism rests present a significant challenge for the fostering of constructivist approaches to teaching in schools. Indeed, as Rink (2001) suggests, initiating any change process for teaching method needs to involve some understanding of the theories supporting it. Although there has been considerable discussion about constructivism in the physical education literature over the past decade, there has been less attention paid to the assumptions about learning and knowledge that underpin it. This article makes a contribution toward redressing this oversight in the literature by examining the epistemology and assumptions about learning that constructivist theories of learning rest upon. Drawing on the work of Davis and Sumara (2003), I suggest that the term "complex" learning theories may offer a more useful description of the sometimes confusing range of constructivist approaches. I provide examples of, and suggestions for, the application of constructivism in practice and within which the body forms a prominent theme.
The contribution of the New South Wales Primary Schools Sports Association towards developing talent in Australian 12 year old swimmers
- Authors: Light, Richard
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Asia-Pacific Journal of Health, Sport and Physical Education Vol. 3, no. 1 (2012), p. 77-89
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- Description: This article reports on a case study that inquired into the influence of the New South Wales Primary Schools Sports Association competitive swimming structure on the development of talented 12-year old female swimmers. The study focused on ten 12-year old girls in the New South Wales team that contested the 2009 national swimming championships with results considered within the framework of Cote´’s Development Model of Sport Participation.
- Description: This article reports on a case study that inquired into the influence of the New South Wales Primary Schools Sports Association competitive swimming structure on the development of talented12-year old female swimmers. The study focused on ten 12-year old girls in the New South Wales team that contested the 2009 national swimming championships with results considered within the framework of Cote´’s Development Model of Sport Participation.
Dispositions of elite-level Australian rugby coaches towards game sense : Characteristics of their coaching habitus
- Authors: Light, Richard , Evans, John
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Sport, Education and Society Vol. 18, no. 3 (2013), p. 407-423
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- Description: Bourdieu's analytic concept of habitus has provided a valuable means of theorising coach development but is yet to be operationalised in empirical research. This article redresses this oversight by drawing on a larger study that inquired into how the 'coaching habitus' of elite-level Australian and New Zealand rugby coaches structured their interpretation and use of the Game Sense approach to coaching to illustrate how habitus can be operationalised. It focuses on the identification of characteristics of the individual coaching habitus of four elite-level Australian rugby coaches and how they shape their interpretation and use of Game Sense. Drawing on suggestions made by Lau, we identify the characteristics of four individual 'coaching habitus' by examining their views on: (1) the characteristics of good coaches; (2) characteristics of great rugby players and how to develop them; and (3) their dispositions towards innovation in coaching. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.
- Description: 2003011104
O Game sense como pedagogia para treinar o depsorto juvenile
- Authors: Light, Richard
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Educacao Pelo Desport E Associativismo : Uma ligacao necessaria p.
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Opening up learning theory to social theory in research on sport and physical education through a focus on practice
- Authors: Light, Richard
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy Vol. 16, no. 4 (2011), p. 369-382
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- Description: Background: Research on pedagogy in physical education and sport has increasingly been informed by contemporary learning theory with the socio-cultural perspective being prominent. Over a similar period research on the social dimensions of physical education and youth sport has drawn on a range of social theory yet there has been little systematic integration of them. Purpose: This article identifies the ways in which learning theory can be opened up to some social theory in research on learning and pedagogy in physical education and sport. It provides a specific example of how this can be achieved through integrating the conceptual tools of Bourdieu with those of Lave and Wenger for research on learning in physical education and youth sport. Findings: This article identifies a complementary relationship between the socio-cultural learning theory of Lave and Wenger and the social theory of Bourdieu. It suggests that integrating Bourdieu's work with that of Lave and Wenger provides for a stronger focus on the body and corporeal learning in and through sport and physical education. © 2011 Copyright Association for Physical Education.
Game sense: Pedagogy for performance, participation and enjoyment
- Authors: Light, Richard
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Book
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- Description: Game Sense is an exciting and innovative approach to coaching and physical education that places the game at the heart of the session. It encourages the player to develop skills in a realistic context, to become more tactically aware, to make better decisions and to have more fun. Game Sense is a comprehensive, research-informed introduction to the Game Sense approach that defines and explores key concepts and essential pedagogical theory, and that offers an extensive series of practical examples and plans for using Game Sense in real teaching and coaching situations
Why children join and stay in sports clubs : Case studies in Australian, French and German swimming clubs
- Authors: Light, Richard , Harvey, Stephen , Memmert, Daniel
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Sport, Education and Society Vol. 18, no. 4 (2013), p. 550-566
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- Description: This article builds upon research on youth sport clubs conducted from a socio-cultural perspective by reporting on a study that inquired into the reasons why children aged 9-12 joined swimming clubs in France, Germany and Australia. Comprising three case studies it employed a mixed method approach with results considered within the framework of Côté and colleagues' Development Model of Sport Participation (DMSP). It identifies the importance of parents, the social dimensions of experience in the clubs and of appropriate competition in attracting the children to the clubs and keeping them there. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.
- Description: 2003011094
Learning to swim by closing that gap between mind and body
- Authors: Light, Richard
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Creating swimming lessons that value embodied understanding through movement p. 143-150
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Constructivism and pedagogy for coaching in swimming
- Authors: Light, Richard , Lemonie, Yannick
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal Patrone Par l"Association De Recherche Sur l'Intervention en Sport Vol. 26, no. (2012), p. 34-52
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How can game sense pedagogy be used to develop technique in athletics?
- Authors: Light, Richard
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Creating athletics lessons that value embodied understanding through movement p. 144-152
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Improving 'at-action' decision-making in team sports through a holistic coaching approach
- Authors: Light, Richard , Harvey, Stephen , Mouchet, Alain
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Sport, Education and Society Vol. 19, no. 3 (April 2014 2014), p. 258-275
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- Description: This article draws on Game Sense pedagogy and complex learning theory (CLT) to make suggestions for improving decision-making ability in team sports by adopting a holistic approach to coaching with a focus on decision-making 'at-action'. It emphasizes the complexity of decision-making and the need to focus on the game as a whole entity, where players, individually and collectively, attempt to manage disorder in the face of an opposition. It rejects the complicated, mechanistic approach to learning and cognitivist views that dominate the literature on decision-making in team sports that see it as being a linear process of conscious thinking limited to the individual mind. It offers an alternative, holistic view grounded in a practical example of how this might be achieved in coaching rugby union football and theorized within a CLT framework.
Positive pedagogy for physical education and sport : Game Sense as an example
- Authors: Light, Richard
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Contemporary developments in games teaching Chapter 2 p. 29-42
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- Description: Student-centred, inquiry-based approaches to teaching games are effective for improving game playing ability, increasing student motivation and providing positive affective experiences of learning (see, for example, Kirk 2005; Mitchell, Oslin and Griffin 1995; Pope 2005). Consistent with social contructivist theories of learning (see, for example, Fosnot 1996; Gréhaigne, Richard and Griffin 2005; Wallian and Chang 2007), the central role that dialogue, reflection and purposeful social interaction play in facilitating learning in these approaches can promote deep understanding (Light, Curry and Mooney in press) and make learning meaningful. Through these experiences students/players/athletes not only learn the content of the lesson or practice session but also learn how to learn and develop a positive inclination towards learning. The modes of learning employed in Game Sense and other game-based approaches (GBA) can generate positive intellectual and affective experiences of learning that foster an enjoyment of learning, confidence in the learners' ability and inclination to learn as they develop into independent learners: not just in sport and physical education but also in most areas of life.
Introduction : Ethics in youth sport : Policy and pedagogical applications
- Authors: Light, Richard , Harvey, Stephen
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Ethics in youth sport : Policy and pedagogical applications Introduction p. 1-8
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- Description: Sport as we know it today finds its origins in nineteenth-century schools of the middle classes of England, where it was explicitly articulated as a medium for the socio-moral development of the future leaders of society (Mangan 1982). Despite massive social and economic changes since then, the idea of using sport as a means of developing 'character' and other positive social learning, such as learning to work in a team, has formed an enduring justification for the provision of sport for young people in schools and in sports clubs, in both western and non-western settings (see, for example, Sherington 1983; Light 2000). Despite a more recent and popular view of sport as a useful means of combating lifestyle diseases such as obesity (see, for example, Gard and Wright 2009), and growing awareness of how children's and youth sport can be corrupted by the influence of elite-level professional sport, assumptions about positive socio-moral learning occuring for young people through playing sport have proven to be remarkable resilient (see, for example, Holt 2009).
Mushin : learning in technique-intensive sports as a process of uniting mind and body through complex learning theory
- Authors: Light, Richard , Kentel, Jeanne
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy Vol. 20, no. 4 (2015), p. 381-396
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- Description: Background: Interest in the use of learning theory to inform sport and physical-education pedagogy over the past decade beyond games and team sports has been limited. Purpose: Following on from recent interest within the literature in Eastern philosophic traditions, this article draws on the Japanese concept of mushin and complex learning theory (CLT) to propose a CLT-informed pedagogy for coaching the 'technique-intensive' sports of track running and swimming. Method: This article grounds theoretical discussion about learning in specific examples of practice to establish a dialectic relationship between theory and practice. The suggestions we make draw on first hand teaching/coaching experiences and CLT as a broad theoretical framework within which we draw on Eastern concepts of learning expressed in the Japanese concept of mushin as a state in which mind and body are united. Conclusion: The pedagogy we suggest challenges a dualistic view of theory and teaching and the mind/body binary that has long dominated physical education teaching and sport coaching. It offers a means of recognizing and accounting for the body in learning and of offering positive pedagogy for teaching technique-intensive sports. © 2013 Association for Physical Education.
Sport in the lives of young Australians
- Authors: Light, Richard
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Book
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- Description: What does sport mean to young people in Australia? How does it affect their social, personal, moral and physical growth and development? What is the relationship between elite level 'media-sport' and the range of informal games children play for fun and friendship? Can children learn how to play fairly, when televised sport shows them that hurting opponents and 'bending the rules' are not only acceptable but celebrated as part of the game? Sport in the lives of young Australians offers an informative look into the practice of sport, the nature of children's and young people's experiences of it, and the significance of this for their development. Drawing on original close-focus studies conducted in schools and sports clubs in Australia, it provides valuable insight into youth sport from the perspective of the children and young people engaged in it. Recent advocacy for physical education and sport has highlighted their benefits in the fight against lifestyle diseases, but the research presented in this book reminds us not to lose sight of the other ways in which they contribute to the development of young people. The book also examines new approaches to teaching and coaching and the possibilities they offer for improving children's experiences of sport and physical education. For anyone involved in youth sport - from coaches, teachers and parents, to researchers and policy-makers - this book will provide invaluable understanding of the place and meaning of sport in the lives of young Australians
Conclusion : Ethics in youth sport : Policy and pedagogical applications
- Authors: Light, Richard , Harvey, Stephen
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Ethics in youth sport : Policy and pedagogical applications Conclusions p. 203-210
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- Description: The chapters in this volume are written on a range of topics related to the ethical practice of youth sport from different perspectives, and by authors from different cultural settings, but there are some clear common themes that emerge from them. They all suggest that sport has great potential as a medium for fostering children's positive social, moral and ethical development, but confirm previous warnings that this development is not automatically achieved by mere engagement in sport (Siedentop et al. 2004). Many chapters in this book remind us of the countless recurrences of negative issues in youth sport, such as cheating, negative coaching, physical, sexual and emotional abuse, and player/spectator violence. These practices present a constant threat to the ethical practice of youth sport and we must acknowledge that, in part, these may be attributable to an adult-centric verison of youth sport with an overemphasis on winning, particularly by over-zealous adults such as coaches and parents.
Game Sense pedagogy in youth sport : An applied ethics perspective
- Authors: Light, Richard
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Ethics in youth sport : Policy and pedagogical applications Chapter 6 p. 92-106
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- Description: Research and writing in the physical education field over the last decade has seen a rapid growth of interest in pedagogy in games teaching, and particularly in Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) and its variants. There is also an emerging and long overdue interest in pedagogy within the sport-coaching field focused on athlete-centred coaching approaches (Kidman 2005; Jones 2006; Kirk 2010; Light and Evans 2010). These approaches have much to offer for improving game-playing ability and making sport more enjoyable and satisfying for children and young people. There is, however, a range of learning arising from the use of these approaches that is often unintended and less tangible, yet likely to be more significant in the educational and life journeys of young people (see, for example, Kretchmar 2005; Light 2008).
Advances in rugby coaching : An holistic approach
- Authors: Light, Richard , Evans, John , Harvey, Stephen , Hassanin, Remy
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Book
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- Description: Contemporary sports coaching studies have moved beyond simple biophysical approaches to more complex understandings of coaching as a set of social relationships and processes. This is the first book to examine what that means in the context of one major international sport, rugby union. Drawing on cutting-edge empirical research in the five most powerful rugby-playing nations, as well as developments in pedagogical and social theory, the book argues for an holistic approach to coaching, coach development and player and team performance, helping to close the gap between coaching theory and applied practice. With player-centered approaches to coaching, such as Game Sense and Teaching Games for Understanding, at the heart of the book, it covers key contemporary topics in coach education such as: Long term coach development Experience and culture in coaching practice Positive coaching for youth rugby Improving decision-making ability Collaborative action research in rugby coaching Informed by work with elite-level rugby coaches, and examining coaching practice in both the full and sevens versions of the game, this book encourages the reader to think critically about their own coaching practice and to consider innovative new approaches to player and coach development. It is essential reading for all students of sports coaching with an interest in rugby, and for any coach, manager or administrator looking to develop better programmes in coach education
Contemporary developments in games teaching
- Authors: Light, Richard , Quay, John , Harvey, Stephen , Mooney, Amanda
- Date: 2014
- Type: Text , Book
- Relation: Routledge studies in physical education and youth sport
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- Description: The teaching of games is a central component of any physical education or youth sport programme. 'Contemporary developments in games teaching' brings together leading international researchers and practitioners in physical education and sports coaching to examine new approaches in games teaching and team sport coaching that are player/student centred and inquiry based.