Games for understanding

Constraints started to unveil when in a player-centered approach coaching environment players went through the making appropriate decisions phase and were given the opportunity to take ownership of their learning, reflect and make choices in the search of making appropriate decisions.

These players were taken by others as leaders. Actually, leading was not the case, as these players were the ones who, most of the times, had a harder time thinking broadly about choices. What are coaches doing when there is a lack of quality in performance in practice? Points identified as reasons for the constraints include:.

Coming from the players;. The coaching approaches to what the players have been exposed to in their beginning years can also have a significant impact in how players relate to the freedom of creating and problem-solving of a player-centered approach. The environment where the players learned or did not learn during their life history can have a significant impact on how they relate to the freedom and responsibilities that a player-centered approach affords.

Coming from the coaches;. The environment where coaches come from and from which they learned their coaching ideas during their lives can have a significant impact on how they relate to the freedom and responsibilities that a player-centered approach affords to players and may have difficulties accepting to share performance building responsibilities with players, even though this action can be valuable to the development of the human being and the player all together. Which coaches would not want players in her or his team who can build success often?

But for these opportunities to happen coaches have to share responsibilities and not be the owner of the truth all the time.

Therefore, it is important that they learn how to learn and how to assess, create possibilities, and change the game for their competitive benefit. Choices will always come from the actor not the director, the actor might choose to follow the director but will always come from within the one who acts, the one who performs.

Every movement choice or tactical choice starts in the mind of the actor player. The pedagogical tools cited before were practice content and options of what was thought to be able to make the players become effective in problem-solving. Players Taking More or Some Ownership. The taking ownership of their performance and thinking tactically, the pursuing a different game, the game changes, all of these came when:.

It became clear the observation of some positive outcomes. The outcomes generated in the process of allowing and creating situations for sports players to participate in the detection of game needs skills or tactics in the process of creating solutions for different game situations as they go through the TGfU model first developed by Bunker and Thorpe Bunker D.

Tools that have helped them to adapt and succeed in the new player-centered approach environment which was designed to promote thinking, creating, and problem-solving within the self and among teammates. Female players years old Male and female coaches Coaches and players from beginner middle school and high school levels to the collegiate competitive level NCAA Division I.

Because of my profession as a coach, I have had the chance to be an inside observer in a teaching and coaching environment among players and coaches. This opportunity has allowed me to relate to and observe players and coaches in;. Volleyball camps for beginners and players in development.

These camps involved instructional sessions and competition sessions. Proficient players in practices, in match preparation, in competition, and in match assessment in the NCAA Division I. Data collection. Data was collected during practices and matches administration by being an actual coach or an observer.

Players; written match assessment when given the chance voice their opinions. To provide this opportunity for players to create and take ownership of their performance the following pedagogical tools were used: Game-like exercises with adaptations to develop on and off the ball skills.

Competitive games with rules adaptations created to develop tactical learning within the competition. The game environment and possibilities created by the rules would give the players reasons to make tactical choices, therefore learning offensive and defensive possibilities while developing their skills on and off the ball.

Within this approach giving the players chance to find solutions for difficulties or problems by creating and making their own choices. Constraints of Practice Administration within a TGfU Approach The pedagogical tools cited before did not seem to be enough to create effective intentional creative and decision-making players within the practice or match environments.

Student groups change daily, and they are selected by the teacher. Teachers referee during games or matches. The methodology emphasizes the acquisition and mastery of previous technical gestures.

Later, technical gestures are applied to tactical situations. No reflection on the game as a learning tool is used. Trial and error are used as elements of increasing complexity. Responsibility of the students in the understanding and development of each game is of great importance, yet this is not implemented throughout the teaching process.

Real game situations are proposed from the beginning based on the original regulation of disciplines. Major corrections are made to technical tasks before matches. Every sport has its specific technical elements.

The dependent variables of the research coincided with the two factors extracted in the quantitative part. These factors included motivation towards PE and achievement perception in PE. The independent variable was the methodological approach used by the PE teacher. In the ANOVA, interest in the sport was used as a dependent variable, while academic results, grade and extracurricular sport were considered independent variables.

These variables were in line with the objectives of the study and techniques used in data analyses. Qualitative data was structured to match the dependent variables. In this respect, we used the same qualitative variables as study factors derived from questionnaires: 1 student motivation toward physical education, and 2 achievement of students in physical education.

This would enable further research and contrast the perception of students and teachers on these variables, thus justifying their internal validity. It was composed of 24 items that measured two dimensions: 1- task climate 12 items; i. It was valued on a Likert scale from 0 strongly disagree to 10 strongly agree. The Cronbach Alpha reliability parameter was controlled to measure the reliability of factor analysis and this value was found to be.

Omega reliability was. The 2x2 achievement goals in physical education scale Moreno et al. It was composed of 12 items that measured four different aspects: 1- performance-approach 3 items; i. Cronbach Alpha reliability parameter was controlled and this value was found to be. A factorial analysis of principal components was performed in order to check the adequacy of the questionnaires to the sample used.

The exploratory factor analysis revealed a solution of two factors with self-worth superior than one. Both factors explained the variance, once corrected and rotated matrix components normalized Varimax. The initial self-worth for the first factor corresponded to In order to evaluate the goodness of fit, a confirmatory factor analysis of the main components was carried out.

This test showed a value of Chi-square of In this index, values less than. In addition, a value of 0. Similarly, each item was individually validated and for this purpose, the regression coefficient was used. The value of T associated with each estimation was used as a contribution measure.

This value is the quotient between the estimate parameter without standardizing and the standard error regression ratio. Values greater than 2. The confirmatory factorial analysis revealed two final factors for the study:. Explanations, corrections, and responsibility of tasks were considered i. Qualitative information extraction was performed through a semi-structured interview of the two teachers participating in the research.

As the nature of the interview was semi-structured, researchers were able to add new questions based on the answers to turn the interview into a conversation Patton, This open format allowed us to explore new areas and produce richer data. According to the variables of the study, participants were asked about six aspects after finishing the three sports units Table 1. These two categories were generated based on the triangulation process and saturation of information obtained in the interviews with two teachers.

The theme of the interview questions was designed from these categories, allowing for a more powerful interplay of information. In addition, this interview was configured from the information from the two questionnaires and the two factors studied in the quantitative part. This linearity and consistency between data collection instruments of quantitative and qualitative parts ensured the reliability of mixed methods.

A pre- and post-test were used. Furthermore, teacher interviews were applied at the end based on common categories. This processing of data would provide greater understanding of results obtained. It also favoured the transformation of educational processes. It is necessary to clarify that we analyzed observations by levels, making sure that there was no constant variance problems which altered the assumption of normality.

The ANOVA was used to analyze how variables such as academic results, grade and out-of-school sport practice influenced sport motivation in each group studied. The obtained data was analyzed using the SPSS Accordingly, the data showed a normal distribution in both groups. There is a direct linearity between quantitative and qualitative analysis. The researcher adopted a semi-structured interview for teachers participating in the research. Extracted data was analyzed through analysis of content Libarkin and Kurdziel, and comparison between data.

The analysis of content focused on searches for patterns in text, encoding extracts with cross patterns Saldana, The objective was to use the information obtained to give greater comprehensibility.

The two categories are clearly shown in the results section with the support of several examples of text extracts. Open encoding with emerging categories was carried out.

The use of axial coding for categories and selective coding led to the development of an interpretive model. After importing the two interviews to the program, the categories were generated based on their subject matter.

Text was assigned to each category, which subsequently promoted its codification through saturation of information. This process was carried out consistently, ensuring specificity and reliability. The fact that the variables were the same in the quantitative and qualitative part eliminated the possibility that they overlapped research. It is worth noting the opinions of the teachers participating in the experiment. The two teachers taught the two groups in the three units, and therefore had knowledge of the behavior and motivation of the students.

Every text extract was identified with one of the defined categories, which favoured saturation of information. The interviews were audio-recorded in order to later transcribe all the information and import it to the software. The two interviews were reviewed in depth by researchers, creating the categories of analysis based on their direct relationship with both quantitative factors. Initially, five general categories emerged. Each investigator assigned specifically extracted texts to each of the categories, which were subsequently reviewed by other researches.

This process of triangulation of the data allowed us to obtain the most reliable information, especially when there a previous quantitative part. Once encoded, the data crossed between them, selecting more saturated text extracts, which were representative of the methodology used by the PE teacher.

It can be observed how pre-test values reached similar averages in two factors from each group, and in all cases exceeding the value of 7. In group A, post-test values increased in both factors, showing significant improvements in PE motivation. The effect size of the obtained. There is a significant difference in the post-test between both groups in factor 1, which was motivation, being higher in the group which received the TGfU methodology.

This variable was used as a dependent variable. In addition, a post-hoc analysis was carried out indicating in which group that difference was found.

The first variable includes academic results, according to the number of failed subjects in the first term; 1- no failed subjects, 2- between two and three failed subjects, 3- more than three failed subjects. The second one is the grade categorized as: 1- first grade, 2- second grade, 3- third grade, 4- fourth grade. The last one refers to extracurricular sport practice; 1- nothing, 2- between one and three hours per week, 3- more than three hours a week Table 3. Summary of Anovas Bonferroni for independent variables analysed in the post-test transcripts, grade and after-school sports.

In group B, differences were found in the extra-curricular sport practice variable, showing a greater interest in sport of students who practiced more than three hours a week out of school. The grade did not influence significantly the interest in sport in any group.

All information extracted from interviews produced some main categories:. However, during the term the students made their own rules and proposed alternatives to activities […]. However, the control group teacher did not give too much importance to the methodology.

The skills and strategies used in the PlaySport activities are applicable to several different sports. For example, if a child understands the basic concept behind keeping possession of an object in an territory game e. In PlaySport, activities have been grouped into specific categories which represent games and sports which are similar in structure and include aspects of certain sports.

For example:. To promote lifelong healthy, active living for all, it is important not to limit children and youth to game and sport activities. Many children and youth prefer activities that do not involve team play, and these can provide plenty of opportunities for fun through the development of fitness and movement skills related to control of body rhythm, movement aesthetics, creativity, sequencing, composition and stability.

With this in mind, PlaySport also includes Individual Pursuit activities. These are games in which children work individually with their own equipment, or in some cases interact with others, monitoring their own behaviour, movements and physical expenditure.