Teaching Sport and Physical Education for understanding
Thursday 11 December to Sunday 14 December 2003
Invited Speakers
Joy
I. Butler
Plymouth State University, USA
TGfU Pet-agogy: Old Dogs, New Tricks and Puppy School
How do we encourage teachers to adopt TGfU, so that it becomes part of mainstream practice in physical education and community-based sports programs worldwide? Why do some teachers adopt a TGfU instructional model in their repertoire and others stick to a technique-based approach? What happens to students in PETE programs when they attempt to take innovative ideas out into the field? Can old dogs learn new tricks? Can puppies do things differently from the (old dogs‚ out in the school system? Ryan and Cooper delineated five stages typical of the teaching career: 1) fantasy, 2) euphoria, 3) survival, 4) apprenticeship and 5) rediscovering the dream. This presentation explores the journeys of both beginning and experienced teachers, and suggests some ways in which TGfU can become part of their exploration. Moving from the comfort zone into unfamiliar areas can be a challenge, but paradoxically, the very discomfort caused by a disconnect between avowed principle and actual practice, educational philosophy and teaching methodology, can be a wonderful incentive. The essential ingredient for change is a core belief in innovation rather than previous practice or experience. It is passion that drives us to rediscover the dream, to become the best we can be as educators, and dare to hope for the same for our students. Teacher responses to TGfU have great implications for curriculum design and suggest the need for an integrated approach, which provides structured, careful support for teachers through the process of change. This presentation will suggest some ways to promote and integrate TGfU into the repertoire of experienced teachers, and to give students the opportunity to explore the approach without being snapped at! These include the establishment of a world wide TGfU task force, an emphasis on action research and student exposure to constructivist learning theory through majors‚ clubs.
Joy I. Butler
is an associate professor in the Health, Physical Education and Recreation
Department at Plymouth State University (PSC). Her primary area of instruction
is in the Teacher Certification Option courses. Dr. Butler bases her approach
to teaching physical education on constructivist learning theory, and
her research includes teacher change, pre-service training, learning effectiveness
and TGFU model. Her publications and presentations reflect this focus.
She has published with The Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport and
in The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, Times Mirror
Higher Ed Group and Pearson Education.
Dr Butler chaired a planning committee that created, organized, and facilitated
the first world conference for Teaching Games for Understanding advocates
at Waterville Valley 1-4th August 2001. Practitioners, researchers and
students gathered from 18 countries, and 22 US states.
Linda
Griffin
University of Massachusetts/Amherst
Amherst, MA, USA
Two Decades of Teaching
Games for Understanding: Working Toward Legitimacy
Time and acceptance are criterion often used to measure the legitimacy and worth of an idea. Two decades have passed since the first publications that introduced Teaching Games for Understanding (TGFU) as a means to conceptualize games teaching and learning by Bunker and Thorpe in 1982 and by Thorpe, Bunker and Almond in 1986 in the Bulletin of Physical Education. For over two decades various professionals have advocated for TGFU as a sound idea, which is built on assumptions about games education. I would argue that two decades is a significant enough time to give some legitimacy to TGFU. In this keynote I will outline why I believe that there is cause for celebration for TGFU as an innovation to games learning. Second, I will argue that TGFU can only become a legitimate model for game learning through well-designed research and development work.
Linda is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at The University of Massachusetts, USA. She has published widely on tactical games approach for sport-related games teaching and learning, authentic assessment, children's conceptions and conceptional change of students sport and physical activity knowledge, and the factors that influence classroom ecologies. She is a co-author of the textbook Teaching Sport Concepts and Skills: A Tactical Games Approach and is also a co-author of a forthcoming textbook Sport Foundations for Elementary Physical Education: A Tactical Games Approach.
Rod
Thorpe
Loughborough University
Does Teaching Games for Understanding Meet your Needs?
Any approach to teaching needs to be evaluated against both the scientific evidence available at the time and the outcomes required by the teacher. The way the author and others were taught to teach games did not meet either. This keynote will explain why the author feels that 'TGfU' should be subjected to the same scrutiny.
Rod Thorpe is the Director of Sports Development at Loughborough University. Rod qualified as a Physical Education teacher at the then Loughborough College of Education in 1964. After four years of teaching Physical Education with Biology, Rod returned to Loughborough in 1968 to train teachers, and coached both rugby and tennis (the latter for 27 years). Subsequently Rod studied for a Research Master's degree in Human Biology at Loughborough University in 1975. His interest in psychology developed during his initial training but became more focused as a result of his experiences in teaching and coaching.
During his time at Loughborough, Rod has been part of a team developing Sports Technology - the Application of Sport Science to Sport, as well as innovative courses in Physical Education; Leadership and Coaching Studies, Reflecting on Teaching and Coaching. External work has included consultancies with a variety of sport agencies on Sports Leadership, Coach Education (co-ordinating one of the first National Coaching Foundation Centres); developing Top Sport programmes for children, and Games Teaching innovations (not least Teaching Games for Understanding and games sense) both nationally and internationally.
Currently Rod is co-ordinating
the £40m sports facility development programme and commensurate service
provision, in part, and as the Loughborough part, of the English Institute
of Sport initiative.
All this said Rod still perceives himself as a PE teacher/coach at heart.
Awards
Winston Churchill Fellow 1992 International Olympic Committee Biennial
Award 1997 - services to sport. UK Coaching Hall of Fame (one of the first
two for Coach Development) 2002 Linda Griffin to follow.
Jean-Francis
Grehaigne
IUFM de Franche-Comté
Didactics of Team Sports: Tactical-decision Learning Model
An authentic ethology of student behaviour in team sports must be established in connection with reference settings and based on valid assessment tools. Nevertheless, the interpretation of observed behaviours will lay more on the nature of the tactics used than on the correction of technical errors. From this perspective, Jean-Francis Grehaigne will first consider historical aspects concerning the development of what we shall call the "Tactical-Decision Learning Model" with reference to the team-sport teaching-learning system. Then, the author will submit an attempt at modelling players' activity in invasion team games. To conclude, some aspects of the research on formative and summative assessment in team. Sports at school will also be discussed.
Jean-Francis Gréhaigne, Ph.D. is professor of physical activity and sport sciences at the University Institute for Teacher Education of Franche-Comté at Besançon in France. After completing a thesis entitled "Soccer in movement: Towards a systemic analysis of game play", Dr. Gréhaigne's primary interest now lies on modeling of team sports in relation to the teaching-learning process in physical education.
Alan is now well known for his recent publication Play Practice and has a background as a physical education teachers and an elite level coach. He graduated from Loughborough College in 1957and worked as Head of PE at Wymondham Secondary School and at Dr. Challoners Grammar School in the UK. He is co author of the Five Star award scheme for track and field during that period. Alan completed MA at Western Kentucky University (USA) in 1968 and took up a position as Physical Education teacher at the University Elementary Laboratory School, combining this role with that of Track and Field coach. In 1970 he began teaching University methods classes in elementary PE but continued coaching athletes to international level. In 1973 he moved to Adelaide Teachers College/Adelaide College of Advanced Education/UNISA to take responsibility for the curriculum and teaching studies strand of the PETE program and continued coaching track and field to Olympic level. He was team coach 1984, Head coach of the National Junior Program 1984 -90, national event coach for the Shot Put 1974 -80, National event coach for the Pole vault 1980 - 90. Alan is a highly experienced coach who holds Level Three, or equivalent, coaching qualifications in Track and Field, Soccer and Cricket, Level Two or equivalent in Table Tennis and Basketball and Level One in tennis, volleyball and swimming. Alan has been invited as the keynote speaker on pole vaulting at a conference organised by the American Pole Vault Coaches' Association in Rio during January 2004.
Les is Manager, Sport Education Victoria, based at the Victorian Institute of Sport and has worked in coach education for over twenty years. He presents regularly on Game Sense at state and national level coaching conferences and at the annual Victorian ACHPER Conference. He holds a Soccer Level 3 NCAS and has been State Director of Coaching for Soccer for 8 years. Les is a Course reviewer for the Australian Sports Commission's Coaching and Officiating Unit and assisted in the development of the Australian Sports Commissions Level 1 Coaching Principles Presenters Kit. He is also involved in the application of Game Sense to teaching learners with special needs and assisted in the development of a Disability Education Module for coaches utilising a Game Sense approach Les is currently developing a network of presenters to assist in the delivery of a range of sport education throughout Victoria that includes officials, coaches and administrators.