in the classroom of that demonstration , whether it be a technical demonstration or a performance demonstration – the better the grade will be .
So individuality , technical variations based on an individual ’ s capabilities , are not part of the teaching framework because the teaching framework is about replicating the performance that ’ s being prescribed for you by the teacher .
In a game sense approach , we have a constructivist understanding that the individual builds their performance based on their experience . And from that experience , the role of the teacher is to build a more capable participant in the activity that we ’ re doing .
The game sense approach also involves greater student agency because questioning is one of the primary strategies to involve what we call the thinking player , so that we ’ re helping the individual be able to solve the problems of the game rather than have to rely on coach instruction or teacher instruction to solve the complexity of the play , because the players are the ones in the moment . They ’ re confronting the problem of the game . They ’ re the ones that have to decide on a solution , which we see is the way that they play the game .
So the game sense approach is about that self-determination : the ability to be autonomous and regulated as a learner and have some autonomy in the decisionmaking as a consequence of the questions that are being asked . The game sense approach is a foundation pedagogy of the Sports Australia Playing for Life philosophy . And that ’ s driven by the desire to get people physically active for life through sport , with healthy people and healthier communities as a consequence of that participation .
And in more recent times , we have the physical literacy strategy , which brings the holistic dimension of physical , social , emotional , as well as cognitive learning that happens in physical activity spaces like sport . And again , the game sense approach is aligned with that physical literacy strategy to realise the playing for life objective of Australian sport .
The study also argues that these two frameworks help PE educators teach in more culturally diverse ways too . Why is that ? That ’ s because it draws out the fact that student understanding is the starting point for the learning process and engages the students sensitively in the construction of understanding .
It ’ s not that it ’ s a weakly guided approach where anything goes . The teacher is controlling the learning process and it has the targeted outcomes . So it is explicit in the sense that the to-be learns are known by the students , but it ’ s involving the students in a conversation to construct the learning so the learning is more meaningful , and attempting to personalise that learning so that the students are able to take that learning beyond the school gate into meaningful participation and physical activity contexts in society .
It ’ s very important when we ’ re using a game sense approach informed by selfdetermination theory that the teacher has this view on the long-term game , pardon the pun , which is physical activity participation beyond the school gate throughout one ’ s life .
What kind of feedback did you receive from the students playing buroinjin ? The students enjoyed the opportunity to play a game that in one sense was familiar because it engaged similar skills to netball , Australian football and touch football in the passing , and the movement on and off the ball . But it wasn ’ t that sport , and so some students could apply familiar skills to the activity .
Other students were more comfortable to have a go at the activity because having been unsuccessful in traditional sports like netball , basketball , football and soccer , this novel sports space didn ’ t bring that baggage of feeling unsuccessful and therefore reluctant to participate . They felt more inclined to have a go . So it was familiar and it was providing a safe space for those that normally feel reluctant to participate in PE .
Do you think more PE departments across Australia will start to see the benefits of such frameworks , or are already utilising such frameworks to teach physical education and perhaps introduce more Aboriginal games ? I ’ ll start at the end point . Physical education , like all curriculums , has a mandate to teach Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures as they pertain to the curriculum area . I ’ m aware of many schools that are
Developments in curriculum will make the requirement for teachers … to bring Aboriginal games into physical education more apparent .
introducing games from the Yulunga resource . But often what ’ s missing is that they ’ re not taught with an Aboriginal pedagogy . And that ’ s the next development of the work that John and I are doing , to look at not just giving people an experience of a traditional game but trying to bring an Aboriginal pedagogy-informed curriculum to that learning space .
Yunkaporta ’ s eight-ways framework , for example , is an Aboriginal pedagogy that we are now looking to use as part of our curriculum framing to make the experience more authentic and sensitive .
More teachers will start to use the selfdetermination theories and understanding of how the game sense approach works as more research is done in this space to explain the benefits of it and also the concept of it . At the moment the game sense approach is probably explained more from a cognitive perspective of developing the thinking of players , whereas that effective domain of learning work is confidence in the individual to participate , because they had a sense of autonomy and capacity to be selfregulated , is under emphasised in the literature related to the game sense approach .
There are also developments in curriculum which will make the requirement for teachers at all year levels to bring Aboriginal games into physical education more apparent , as part of teaching the cross-curricular priority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures .
For example , in South Australia , there ’ s soon to be released a prescribed health and physical education curriculum which will include a unit of work on pando grade seven , pando being possum skin football , and will exemplify to teachers in South Australia how to bring in traditional Aboriginal games in a very meaningful way to their teaching . ■
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