The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a pilot intervention using a gamecentered approach for improvement of physical activity (PA) and physical education (PE) outcomes simultaneously, and if this had an impact on enjoyment of PE. A group-randomized controlled trial with a 7-week wait-list control group was conducted in one primary school in the Hunter Region, NSW, Australia. Participants (n ¼ 107 students; mean age ¼ 10.7 years, SD 0.87) were randomized by class group into the Professional Learning for Understanding Games Education (PLUNGE) pilot intervention (n ¼ 52 students) or the control (n ¼ 55) conditions. PLUNGE involved 6 Â 60 min PE lessons based on game-centered curriculum delivered via an in-class teacher mentoring program. Students were assessed at baseline and 7-week follow-up for fundamental movement skills (FMS) of throw and catch, game play abilities of decision making, support and skill performance; in-class PA; and enjoyment of PA. Linear mixed models revealed significant group-by-time intervention effects (p < 0.05) for throw (effect size: d ¼ 0.9) and catch (d ¼ 0.4) FMS, decision making (d ¼ 0.7) and support (d ¼ 0.9) during game play, and in-class PA (d ¼ 1.6). No significant intervention effects (p > 0.05) were observed for skills outcome during game play (d ¼ À0.2) or student enjoyment (d ¼ 0.1). Game-centered pedagogy delivered via a teacher professional learning program was efficacious in simultaneously improving students' FMS skills, in-class PA and their decision making and support skills in game play.

This article explores how ideas from complexity and ecological thinking have the potential to act as a conceptual lens to help us better understand, design and support teachers' long term professional learning. Using primary physical education (PPE) as a curriculum context, the challenges of contemporary professional learning, particularly within this PPE context are explored. From an ecological starting point, key ideas from complexity thinking are then introduced that have the potential to inform our view of professional learning. Teacher professional learning is considered as a process which is recursive and non-linear and two themes as the key to the future are proposed and discussed: the need to recognise and appreciate the 'initial conditions' of each teacher and the need to have a long-term focus on five professional learning drivers i.e. self-organise and interact; reflect and inquire; identify and negotiate boundaries; consolidate, challenge and create, and make connections. As this recursive process unfolds, we stress how teachers should be supported to elaborate and deepen their knowledge, skills and relationships through a mixture of experiences that consolidate, challenge and support creativity.

This article draws on and develops the outcomes of previous research which concluded that school subject departments provide the setting for influential professional development and that experienced teachers strongly influence their newly qualified colleagues. The findings of two subsequent research projects, which used this as a starting point, are examined through a figurational sociological perspective. The first project examines influences on professional development over five years with two participants and the second project, conducted with new teachers, takes the analysis a stage further to explore power relationships within new teachers' 'figurations'. The article asks whether it is inevitable that new recruits to the teaching profession are the victims of an unequal balance of power or whether they are able to exert professional influence over their colleagues. The research findings suggest that physical education (PE) subject communities in schools are strong and provide a context in which new teachers must often find ways to be accepted before they can influence practice. One of the outcomes of such a process is that new teachers perpetuate rather than challenge and improve current practice. If PE is to be progressive, experienced teachers must be aware of the strong influence they exert over new teachers, particularly during training and induction.

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Primary physical education (PPE) is increasingly being recognised for the role it can potentially play in setting a foundation for lifelong engagement in physical activity.However, the majority of the literature continues to focus on the negative features of the subject within the primary context. Whilst acknowledging the existence of these barriers, this paper sets out to take a proactive approach by presenting a conceptual framework for PPE that seeks to support a renewed and positive vision for the future. Based on ideas from complexity thinking, the framework represents a move beyond the more positivist and linear approaches that have long been reported to dominate practices in PPE and recognises learners as active agents engaged in a learning process that is collaborative, non-linear and uncertain.While acknowledging the contested nature of the complexity field, the paper explores how key principles, including self-organisation, emergence, similarity, diversity, connectedness, nestedness, ambiguous bounding, recursive elaboration and edge of chaos, offer a lens that views PPE as a complex system. With the children's learning positioned as the focus of PPE in the educational setting, the paper discusses how complexity principles interweave with the ecological components to help us better understand and more creatively engage with the complex nature of PPE developments. Specifically, these components are identified as PPE learning experiences and their associated pedagogy, teachers and their PPE professional learning and key environmental factors that include the physical environment and key stakeholders who influence developments across the different levels of the education system. The paper concludes by suggesting that this complexity-informed PPE framework represents an open invitation for the all those involved in PPE to engage in a collective process of exploration and negotiation to positively influence developments in PPE.