Developing Game Sense in Physical Education and Sport

By Ray Breed
Lecturer of Exercise and Sport Science at Swinburne University, Melbourne, Australia

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ray-breed-6498b149/
Twitter: @PE_coaching

Teachers have been using tactical game-based teaching approaches in Physical Education for years, including variations of models such as Teaching Games for Understanding and Game Sense. In 2020, myself and a colleague (Michael Spittle) wrote a textbook specifically designed for primary and secondary PE teachers. This blog will provide an overview of the game sense approach that we provide in the book. Our game sense model emphasises and integrates tactical, technical and strategic skills within game contexts. Learners are challenged with problems to solve within small-sided, designer games and guided by open-ended questions. It is often thought that technical skills are not practiced within tactical approaches, but they are in fact learned concurrently with the development of tactical skills and understanding of the game.
The game sense model (in Breed & Spittle, 2021) is both a content/curriculum and instructional (pedagogical) framework, based upon common motor control, skill acquisition and pedagogical theories. Some of these include:

Figure 1: the game sense model based on motor learning theories.

The content of the model is organised by using a thematic approach containing small-sided designer games, classified in to 3 categories: invasion, striking and fielding, and net and wall games. There are many advantages of using such a thematic small-sided game approach, such as improving skill transfer, understanding of games and the context of skill, student enjoyment and more efficient use of curriculum time. Therefore, the game sense model focuses on the development of 3 broad outcomes:

• Tactical: emphasis of game understanding and development of tactics and strategies
• Technical: recognition and practice of movements within the context of games
• Affective (personal and social): working and communicating together in small groups to design strategies and solve problems.

Whilst the pedagogy of game sense can seem complicated, the process of presenting the games can be simplified in to 3 steps: (1) Develop and establish clear outcomes of the game (e.g., when to pass the ball, how to pass the ball); (2) Questioning to guide learning and help students explore movement solutions (e.g., when should you pass the ball?); and, (3) Modification of a task-constraint (e.g., rule, area, object) and replay the game to challenge the learners to discover tactical and technical movement solutions. 

Figure 2: The game sense model: a content and pedagogical approach.

An example of the game sense pedagogy in an invasion game could be to begin with a simple game of 2 versus 1 ‘keeping off’. We could start with: (1) learning outcome focus on developing skills of (a) “when to pass” and (b) “how to pass”. (2) To emphasise the first outcome, we could then question ‘when should you pass the ball?’ to encourage exploration of movement solutions. Students should eventually come up with a solution, such as holding the ball until they ‘draw’ the defender (to allow them more time). (3) We could then modify a constraint to allow dribbling of the ball to challenge the learners to discover movement solutions based on the task-constraint modification. Finally, the figure below demonstrates the pedagogical process for presenting each small-sided game within the game sense model.

Figure 3: The game sense pedagogy for teaching small-sided games.

Reference:
Breed, R. & Spittle, M. (2021). Developing game sense in physical education and sport. Human Kinetics: Champaign, IL.

The book mentioned in this blog is a practical resource written by teachers for teachers. It is written in a clear sequence of: theoretical framework of the model; designing thematic tactical units; the pedagogy of teaching tactical games; descriptions of small-sided designer games for invasion, striking/fielding and net/wall games; two unit plans for each game category; and, a chapter on assessment. https://www.human-kinetics.co.uk/9781492594147/developing-game-sense-in-physical-education-and-sport/