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.
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
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.
Visual data collection methods for research on the affective dimensions of children's personal experiences of PE
- Authors: Georgakis, Steve , Light, Richard
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Asia-Pacific Journal of Health, Sport and Physical Education Vol. 56, no. 3-4 (2009), p. 23-27
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- Description: The rapid growth of research on Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) over the past decade has paid little attention to research methodology. This paper redresses this lack of attention to research methods and reports on a study conducted on children's personal experiences of Game Sense. The study focuses on the use of year six students' drawings as the primary source of data. Using this data we examine the affective dimensions of learning in a unit of work on cricket that was taught using a Game Sense approach. The children's drawings were used as a meaning making activity and then later used in a research interview where they provided the stimulus for children to discuss their attitudes and feelings toward their cricket experience. By adopting an interpretive approach the study gained insight into students' experiences and reports specifically on the impact Game Sense pedagogy had on the students with the least positive attitudes toward sport. Both the methodological innovation of the study and the positive impact upon the affective dimension of learning are discussed.
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.