Can physical education and physical activity outcomes be developed simultaneously using a game-centered approach?

Abstract

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.

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“…However, the investigation showed that students were more likely to attain the 50% MVPA level in game-focused instruction than skillfocused instruction. This mirrors previous findings that invasion game-type lessons yielded higher amounts of MVPA for students (Fairclough & Stratton, 2005 and studies that have argued that GCAs such as the TGM are more likely to create a context for higher MVPA levels when compared to direct instruction games lessons where the emphasis is predominantly technical skill instruction (i.e., Harvey et al, 2015;Miller et al, 2016;Smith et al, 2015). For the middle school students, in the second part of game play MVPA was significantly higher than both the first part of game play, and skill practice.…”

“…However, research shows that many physical educators fail to meet this recommendation with their students (Hollis, Williams, Sutherland et al, 2015). However, some recent research suggests that the lack of evidence demonstrating teachers can meet this recommendation may be about the model of teaching that is being utilized by the physical educator (i.e., Harvey et al, 2016a;Miller et al, 2016;Smith et al, 2015;Van Acker et al, 2010). For example, Smith et al, (2015) showed that a physical education teacher who utilized the Tactical Games Model could reach meet this 50% MVPA recommendation when compared to a teacher who used a more traditional, direct instruction approach to teaching games.…”

Fundamental Movement Skills: An Important Focus

“…Others also emphasize that teachers who exhibit a deep understanding of game-centered pedagogy are capable of balancing the teaching of skills/tactics in a game play context (Dudley & Baxter, 2009;Dudley & Baxter, 2013). Simultaneous development of FMS and tactical skill has been demonstrated using such an approach (Miller, Christensen, Eather, Gray, et al, 2015;. This implies that teachers and researchers need to (and can) move from seeing 'skills teaching' and 'tactical instruction' as distinct elements of PE to a position where the interrelationship existing between skills and tactics is paramount (Dudley & Baxter, 2009).…”

Implementing Sport, Physical Activity and Physical Education in New South Wales, Australia, primary schools

“…The implementation of game centred teaching ,through teacher professional development, in a NSW regional primary school demonstrated improvements in skill, physical activity, decision making and perception (Miller et al, 2015).…”