Week 7 - TGfU & Game Sense

Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) or Game Sense, is an approach that teaches students to gather an understanding of the tactics and strategies of the game before focusing on skill performance ultimately emphasising game performance over skill performance (Hopper & Kruisselbrink 2001).

The instructional model prioritises the cognitive domain, followed by the psychomotor and then affective domains (Gurvitch & Metzler 2010 p.33). This is due to the notion of students learning best through contextually-authentic tasks within this approach (Gurvitch & Metzler 2010 p.33).

Students with a diverse range of abilities are able to receive an advantage in this approach as they have greater access to games (Hopper & Kruisselbrink 2001). Students who aren't always more physically inclined or capable generally may lack engagement or struggle with skills based learning, however by targeting the cognitive domain students are not being 'tested' on their physical abilities but their ability to recognise game play and performance. In my personal opinion, this becomes a highly inclusive approach as students that are involved in extra-curricular or external sports will still be able to demonstrate their athleticism but those who are generally left behind in 'sport' will be able to identify their capacity to perform strategically.

References

Gurvitch, R. and Metzler, M., 2010. Theory into practice: Keeping the purpose in mind: The implementation of instructional models in physical education settings.Strategies,23(3), pp.32-35.

Hopper, T. and Kruisselbrink, D., 2001. Teaching games for understanding: What does it look like and how does it influence student skill acquisition and game performance.Journal of Teaching Physical Education,12, pp.2-29.

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