Mitchell, S. A., Oslin, J. L. (1999). An investigation of tactical transfer in net games. European Journal of Physical Education, 4(2), 162-172
Background: Recent literature has examined the effectiveness of the games approaches to teaching, but questions still remain about how learning transfers from one game form to another within the same category. Purposes: Thus, the purpose of this study was to address whether tactical understanding transfers from one game form to another in the same game category. Methods: Participants were 21 (12 males and nine females) randomly selected ninth grade students (aged 14-15) enrolled in a compulsory physical education class in Midwestern United States. An experienced physical education teacher used a tactical approach to teaching pickeball and badminton. Participants were videotaped playing half-court badminton singles play before they participated in five lessons of badminton instruction. After these five lessons, participants were videotaped again playing singles badminton. Students then received five lessons of pickelball. On completion of these lessons participants were videotaped playing half court singles pickelball. All teaching lessons lasted 50 minutes. Game play performance was assessed using the decision-making component of the Game Performance Assessment Instrument (GPAI). A decision-making index was formulated by dividing the number of appropriate decisions by the total number of decisions made. During the third lesson of the pickelball unit six students were randomly selected to answer two structured written questions related to the similarities between the two activities and the degree to which learning badminton helped them with learning pickelball. Repeated measures ANOVA with Tukey post hoc analysis was undertaken to indicate changes in decision-making scores. Results: Results indicated a significant change in decision-making over time. However, the post hoc analysis showed an improvement in decision-making over the duration of the badminton instruction, but no significant changes after the pickelball instruction. Thus, students retained tactical learning from badminton instruction when progressing to pickelball. Results from student responses to structured questions revealed that students had developed both declarative and procedural knowledge. Conclusions: Findings from this article demonstrate that there is some likely transfer of learning from one game to another in the same category when using the games approach to teaching. Thus, using a games approach to teaching in physical education could go some way to aiding students’ development of intelligent game performance, alongside an appropriately organized and sequenced games curriculum.
Background: Recent literature has examined the effectiveness of the games approaches to teaching, but questions still remain about how learning transfers from one game form to another within the same category. Purposes: Thus, the purpose of this study was to address whether tactical understanding transfers from one game form to another in the same game category. Methods: Participants were 21 (12 males and nine females) randomly selected ninth grade students (aged 14-15) enrolled in a compulsory physical education class in Midwestern United States. An experienced physical education teacher used a tactical approach to teaching pickeball and badminton. Participants were videotaped playing half-court badminton singles play before they participated in five lessons of badminton instruction. After these five lessons, participants were videotaped again playing singles badminton. Students then received five lessons of pickelball. On completion of these lessons participants were videotaped playing half court singles pickelball. All teaching lessons lasted 50 minutes. Game play performance was assessed using the decision-making component of the Game Performance Assessment Instrument (GPAI). A decision-making index was formulated by dividing the number of appropriate decisions by the total number of decisions made. During the third lesson of the pickelball unit six students were randomly selected to answer two structured written questions related to the similarities between the two activities and the degree to which learning badminton helped them with learning pickelball. Repeated measures ANOVA with Tukey post hoc analysis was undertaken to indicate changes in decision-making scores. Results: Results indicated a significant change in decision-making over time. However, the post hoc analysis showed an improvement in decision-making over the duration of the badminton instruction, but no significant changes after the pickelball instruction. Thus, students retained tactical learning from badminton instruction when progressing to pickelball. Results from student responses to structured questions revealed that students had developed both declarative and procedural knowledge. Conclusions: Findings from this article demonstrate that there is some likely transfer of learning from one game to another in the same category when using the games approach to teaching. Thus, using a games approach to teaching in physical education could go some way to aiding students’ development of intelligent game performance, alongside an appropriately organized and sequenced games curriculum.