The role of gamification in problem solving.

The application of gamification, that is the usage of game elements in non-game contexts, is growing in PE and youth sport. Whether it is through simple points scoring systems for fitness workouts, cards that offer game based scenarios and super powers or through a more comprehensive use of guiding principles to shape practice. In a …

4 domains of learning in Physical Education – Refined

  18 months on from my initial post about the different domains of learning in PE and my thinking on them has been refined. I am aware that once you accept a 'theory' and then use it to make decisions it becomes difficult to find fault and challenge it. It can lead to 'theory blindness', …

A constraints led approach in designing flow activities

One of the key benefits of a constraints led approach is the supposed enhancement of motivation on the participants. The literature that supports a constraints led approach focuses around two theories of motivation. Achievement Goal Theory and Ryan and Deci's Self Determination Theory. The latter I feel provides a very good model to use in …

4 domains of learning in Physical Education

During one of my recent departmental PE meetings, we may have moved away from the set agenda. Instead we engaged in an enjoyable but heated discussion about the 'best' students we had in Physical Education. So a few weeks ago I asked the #physed community the same question: To be fair it was a vague and subjective …

Physical Literacy: Motivation

In my previous post I stated that Physical Literacy as an outcome for Physical Education is a concept that I personally think has great potential to shape our provision. However it still requires a lot of work to clarify, understand and place into practice. Margaret Whitehead in her book Physical Literacy. Throughout the life course describes physical …

Physical Literacy: The Philosophy

“Physical literacy can be described as the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding to value and take responsibility for engagement in physical activities for life.” (Whitehead, 2014) In his recent webinar on the UNESCO Guidelines on Quality PE, Dr Dean Dudley made the statement that 'physical literacy could be a game changer in Physical …

A models based approach to PE: TGfU

My last 'models based approached to PE' showed how we had implemented Sport Education into our KS4 Curriculum with a particular focus on developing student leadership. This post will focus on showing how we have implemented a Teaching Games for Understanding approach to introducing Year 7s to rugby. Why did we adopt a TGfU? In …