Εφαρμογή διαδικτυακής πλατφόρμας για την εξ αποστάσεως επιμόρφωση εκπαιδευτικών Φυσικής Αγωγής στο διδακτικό μοντέλο Teaching Games for Understanding

Abstract

The protean working conditions of today's Physical Education (PE) teachers, coupled with the discussion around the beneficial effects of game-centered practices on student development, create the need for finding flexible solutions for PE practitioners' professional training. In this respect, the aim of this paper is to present the structure of an online platform application that will be used during the 2017-2018 school year as a distance learning environment for introducing PE teachers to the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) model. TGfU is a student-centered teaching model that uses game-play as a means of deliberate and coherent learning of PE and sport concepts and skills. In the present case, the structure and technical characteristics of the application are presented and their usefulness is explained in relation to the pedagogical structure of the model. In addition, a practical example is used as a pilot case-study point of reference, first for demonstrating the need for the transfer of TGfU into PE practice and second for justifying the contribution of the proposed platform to this direction. The results of this pilot effort reveal the need to promote distance learning techniques for PE teachers, ones that focus on their selfdevelopment and professional skill improvement.