INVENTING GAMES AND PHYSICAL LITERACY: AN INVITATION TO PLAY - Sarah Taylor - Graduate Student Joy Butler - Associate Professor Dept of Curriculum ...

INVENTING GAMES AND PHYSICAL
LITERACY: AN INVITATION TO PLAY

     Sarah Taylor – Graduate Student
      Joy Butler – Associate Professor
     Dept of Curriculum and Pedagogy
       University of British Columbia

OUTLINE

   This work is a part of a larger study supported and
    funded by Social Science and Humanities Research
    Council (SSHRC) entitled: “Situated Ethics through
    inventing games: teacher perspectives and student
    learning.”

   Purpose: To explore the connection between Physical
    Literacy and Inventing Games (IG) through play

   1st: Description of current study

   2nd: Connections between Physical Literacy and the
    study

   3rd: Findings thus far

SITUATED ETHICS IN INVENTING GAMES
RESEARCH FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS

 Researchers: Joy Butler (PI), Tim Hopper, Brent Davis and Sarah
           Taylor
 Teachers:     Darryl Beck, Anja Berning, Erin McGinley,
              Sarah McKenzie, Scott Samuelson and Kevin Sandher

SUMMARY OF YEAR ONE
   TPI and Interviews (Constructed baselines
    of educational beliefs and values about
    learning and teaching).
       TPI and surveys provided a way to collect
        repeated measures on any changes in beliefs
        and values as a result of the IG initiative
   Workshops (4) – Jan, Feb, May and June
     Complexity thinking for to focus on three
      conditions that are necessary for the
      emergence of learning within collectives
     Social critical theory - to contextualize the
      focus of the research, namely situated ethics
      in the teaching and learning of games.

YEAR 2

 Through learning Inventing Games,
teachers:
 Learn about Complexity thinking through three
  conditions:
     Diversity & commonality
     Enabling interactions through decentralized control
     Enabling constraints by opening possibilities by
      limiting choices
   Learn about Social critical theory through
       Situated Ethics and
       Moments of Aporia
   Teachers design their Inventing Games units

YEAR 3- DATA COLLECTION

   Each teacher taught 2 units
     Inventing Games Unit precedes
     TGfU unit within same games category as the IG unit

   Research team visited 3 times in each unit at
    beginning, middle and end

   Pre and post questionnaires were given out to
    students (beginning and end of each unit)

   One-on-one individual interviews with focus group (6)
    occurred at the beginning and end of the visits

HOW DOES INVENTING GAMES (IG)
CONNECT TO PHYSICAL LITERACY?

                                 Inventing Games
    Physical Literacy
   Develops personal and       The IG program is ideally
    inter-personal capacities     placed to support the
                                  notions of;
   Integrated mind-body
                                 participatory culture,
    approach
                                 collective engagement,
   Capacities afford
                                 and situated ethics
    humans the opportunity
                                 Helps people interact
    to carry out a wide
                                  with situations that
    range of movement
                                  may arise outside of
    skills and be in tune         the classroom in the
    with their environments       ‘real-world’

(Whitehead, 2001)

PHYSICAL LITERACY, INVENTING GAMES
         AND THE TEACHER

   Whitehead (2010) suggests that using physical
    literacy in physical education can be threatening
    and scary for many physical educators

   This can create hesitancy around trying
    strategies that help promote physical literacy
    such as Inventing Games (IG)

   What does it take to move physical educators
    beyond their fears and create pedagogy that is
    enriched and extended by a focus on physical
    literacy?

PHYSICAL LITERACY, INVENTING GAMES
         AND THE TEACHER

   Year 1 & 2 of the study challenged the six
    teacher researchers to reassess their pedagogical
    practices in PE and consider the three goals of
    Physical Literacy

   Physical Literacy
     Enriches teachers aspirations for pedagogy
     Puts learners at the heart of the process
     Liberates PE from its common, limited role in sports
      development
(Whitehead, 2010)

EMERGING FINDINGS
        (PRE- IG UNIT QUESTIONNAIRE)

Question           Elementary         Secondary         commonalities
                   answers            answers

Question 1:        1) Cooperation     1)Teamwork        None
What do you        2) Being Fair      2)Leadership
expect to learn
in IG?
Question 3: How    Pros and Cons      1)What will       Pros and Cons
do you make                           benefit the
decisions?                            individual
                                      2)Pros and Cons
Question 8:        1)Fairness/inclu   1) People with    Fairness
What social        sions              less abilities
justice issues     2)Treat others     don’t matter
have you learned   how you want to    2)Equality and
in PE?             be treated         fairness

EMERGING FINDINGS-POST IG UNIT QUESTIONNAIRE
Question             Elementary             Secondary             Commonalities
                     answers                answers
Question 1: What     1) Offensive/defens Importance of            None
did you learn?          ive strategies   Teamwork
                     2) Saying “mine”
                        and positions

Question 3: What     It could actually be   Decision making       None
did you learn that   FUN
you did not expect
to learn?

Question 6: What    Must be safe, fair,     Must be safe, fair,   Must be safe, fair,
did you learn about inclusive, flow and     inclusive, flow and   inclusive, flow and
making a game fun? simple                   simple                simple

Question 7: What     1)Keeping              1) Agreeing on        Making rules
were some main       strategies                rules
challenges?          2) Choosing teams      2) Making
                     3) Making rules           decisions

Q 9: Anything to     It was FUN             It was FUN            FUN
add?

THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAY AND FUN

"…the currently dominant form of the subject (PE)
  makes more enemies than friends of children, does
  not progress their learning and thus fails to develop
  their perceived competence and motivation for
  physical activity, and ultimately fails to achieve the
  ubiquitous aspiration, common to programmes
  around the world, of a long-term active lifestyle.”

      Kirk, D. (2012 p.128)

THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAY AND
FUN          AND INVENTING GAMES
   Inventing Games is presented as a model that has the
    potential to shift dominant teaching perspectives
    away from the evaluation of standardised outcomes
    towards learning processes that engage students.

   Inventing Games affords students ‘autonomy’,
    allowing “a genuine say in the form of physical
    education they experience” (Kirk 2012).

   By focusing on students’ affective experiences PE may
    illicit “satisfaction and enjoyment”, “achievement”,
    “confidence” and “a sense of wellbeing” needed to
    promote Physical Literacy (Almond & Whitehead
    2012).

CONCLUSION
  Including a
   participatory culture,
   collective engagement,
   and situated ethics

in PE can help develop personal and inter-personal
   capacities and a integrated mind-body approach,

which may result in FUN and engagement in life
 long physical activity pursuits

REFERENCES

Almond, L. & Whitehead, M. (2012) The value of physical literacy. Physical Education
   Matters

Kirk, D. (2012). Physical Education Futures: Can we reform physical education in the
   early 21st Century? eJRIEPS 27 juillet 2012 p. 120-144

Whitehead 1, M. (2001). The concept of physical literacy. European Journal of Physical
  Education, 6(2), 127-138
.