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Our Game Sense Model

This is an excerpt from Developing Game Sense in Physical Education and Sport by Ray Breed & Michael Spittle.

This book is a complete resource for teachers and coaches of games and team sports. The book is structured and organised sequentially to provide an overview and theoretical framework of skill, skill development and game sense, and thus presents games within themes to promote a greater understanding for the learner. It also consists of all-new, original thematic unit and session plans and assessment ideas. The book is designed to be a practical guide or resource for prospective and current teachers and coaches of all sports and activities who are looking to further their knowledge and skills.

We have developed the game sense model in this book by working with teachers and coaches in physical education and sport for over 25 years to meet the changing needs and requirements of learners and programs. Our version of a game sense model has been modified over time and adjusted to meet the changing needs and requirements of learners and programs. We believe the approach provided in this book will assist teachers and coaches in integrating game sense into their sessions and curriculum.

Our Game Sense Model

The game sense model we outline is content (curriculum) and a pedagogy (instructional method) for teachers and coaches in physical education and sport and emphasises the development of tactical skills, technical skills and strategic skills within game contexts. Other than skill development, we demonstrate how using the game sense model can develop the personal, social and relationship skills of learners. In this book we provide the content—generic small-sided, outcome-based game forms in thematic categories, progressing from simple to more complex games, and then sequence it into a curriculum (unit plans) for teachers and coaches to implement. We also describe the pedagogy of how to implement the model—establishing specific learning outcomes, then using questioning and task constraint manipulation in games to create a discovery approach for learners to develop functional movement solutions.

The model is an update of Breed and Spittle (2011), Developing Game Sense Through Tactical Learning: A Resource for Teachers and Coaches, with an improved structure and updated materials, particularly in relation to curriculum, assessment and physical literacy. For teachers, the chapter on curriculum models outlines how the game sense model and activities can be used to fit within a curriculum. The chapter on assessment is also crucial for teachers because one of the issues for game sense models has been assessing student progress quickly and effectively in relation to curriculum frameworks. The book also presents extensive resources for planning game activities and units in physical education. Coaches within a variety of sports can use the book to develop their coaching repertoire to include game sense activities rather than falling back on traditional skill-drill instructional approaches.

More Excerpts From Developing Game Sense in Physical Education and Sport

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