Description:
For individuals interested in contemporary physical education and sports coaching practices, the well-known saying, 'may you live in interesting times' (sometimes referred to as the Chinese curse) will hold some resonance. As debate occurs about the very nature of what constitutes physical education and sports coaching, and 'which' knowledge should be privileged through pedagogical encounters, we do live in interesting times characterised by profound social and cultural changes (Wright, Macdonald and Burrows 2004). For some, these changes have produced professional working lives that are extremely fast-paced and time-poor. With many commercial enterprises claiming to offer 'innovative' and 'cutting-edge' practical solutions and 'quick fixes' for highly complex problems, as professionals we are now required to become critical consumer of what others have termed the global information explosion (Wright et. al. 2004). In relation to physical education and coaching we believe that in order to be effective critical consumers, 'context' matters and as such, we need local, nuanced examples of how various teaching coaching approaches are applied to consider their relevance for the issues we face in our own practice.
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
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).
Description:
Bourdieu's concept of habitus has increasing been used in research in the sports coaching field and offers a useful concept for understanding how experience comes to shape coaching practice. In this article, we begin by outlining the use of habitus in the sports coaching literature and provide a brief description of it and its relationship with his other other key concepts: practice and field. We then examine the potential use of habitus in research on coach development, in which we argue for its importance for research on coach development. We close by exploring its its use as a methodological tool and how it can be operationalised and used in conjunction with other constructionist concepts.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Description:
The influence of professional, adult sport on youth sport is now a global concern. Children are involved in high-stakes competitive sport at national and international levels at an increasingly young age. In addition, the use of sport as a medium for positive youth development by governments and within the community has fuelled ambitious targets for young people's participation in sport at all levels. In this important study of ethical issues in and around youth sport, leading international experts argue for the development of strong ethical codes for the conduct of youth sport, and for effective policy and pedagogical applications to ensure that the positive benefits of sport are optimized and the negative aspects diminished.
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.
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
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).
Description:
Over the past decade Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) has enjoyed a sustained revival of interst from researchers and practitioners across the globe that is strong enough to be described as a 'movement' (see, for example, Light 2005). Along with other game-based approaches (GBA) it has come to form one of the more prominent areas of research interest in physical education with a well-attended series of international conferences on TGfU established from2001, and with the most recent one held in TGfU's 'birthplace' at Loughborough University in the UK in July 2002. Research consistently confirms the effectiveness of this approach to teaching in terms of developing better games players, generating positive affective experiences of learning and promoting a range of positive social, moral and personal learning (see, for example, Butler and Griffin 2010; Holt, Ward and Wallhead 2007; Light 2013 and Chapter 6 by Jarrett and Harvey). Despite these positive developments, the uptake of TGfU and other game-based approaches (GBA) by physical education teachers across the globe remains limited. Even in Singapore, where a variation of TGfU, the games concept approach (GCA), was mandated by the Ministry of Education, a sustained body of research conducted over the past decade suggests that it is yet to make a significant impact upon practice (see Chapter 3 by Fry and McNeill).
Description:
In addition to playing an important role in combating lifestyle diseases such as obesity, participation in youth sport provides opportunities to develop skills and competencies in sport and in life-long social, moral, and personal development (Light, 2008; Georgakis & Russell, 2011). In countries that have well-developed clubs, youth sports systems such as those in Australia, the UK, Canada, Germany, and Portugal attract children and young people to sports and keep them participating. It presents a challenge for government bodies with youths (particularly females) beginning to drop out of sports at the age of 13. Patterns of sport participation are different between boys and girls with the rate of female participation significantly lower than their male peers. While attention has been paid to dropout and burnout (Fraser-Thomas, Côté, & Deakin, 2008), less attention has been paid to the reasons why girls continue involvement in sport. This study redresses this oversight in the literature by evoking the trajectories of young female athletes in sport from their first steps in sport up to their present situation as adult, competitive players. The study focuses on the experiences of six female athletes aged between 20 and 22 who participate in basketball, volleyball, and judo.
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.
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.