science

Teaching games for understanding

Teaching games for understanding is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Teaching games for understanding rather than just read about it. In short: Teaching Games for Understanding is an approach to physical education developed by Peter Werner, David Bunker, and Rod Thorpe, and was adopted in the year 2002 by a group of representatives, associations and individuals from all around the world. It is a global agenda for scholarly inquiry in the field of teaching with the help of games.

Key takeaways

Teaching games for understanding belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Teaching games for understanding to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Teaching games for understanding from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Teaching Games for Understanding is an approach to physical education developed by Peter Werner, David Bunker, and Rod Thorpe, and was adopted in the year 2002 by a group of representatives, associations and individuals from all around the world. It is a global agenda for scholarly inquiry in the field of teaching with the help of games.

Process The fundamental concept of this model is "understanding". The process of this model is

Game Form: Introduction of the game in the process of building upon the entire form of the game. Game Appreciation: Clear understanding of the rules and regulations of the game played. Tactical Awareness: Understanding of the techniques of the game in accordance to the rules and regulations. Decision Making: It is a necessity to make timely decisions in accordance to the changing environment due to the dynamic nature of the game. Skill Execution: In relation to the learners capabilities and understanding execution of the required movements involved in the game takes place in this step of the process. Performance: The learning outcome will be analyzed which will be subjective in nature as each learner's understanding level will be different. Through this, one can understand and measure the appropriateness of response was and the efficient use of technique by the player.

References

"Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) Approach". Archived from the original on 2014-10-26. Griffin, Linda; Butler, Joy (2005). Teaching Games for Understanding: Theory, Research, and Practice. Human Kinetics. ISBN 9780736045940.

External links http://tgfu.info/

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Teaching games for understanding

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Teaching games for understanding claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Teaching games for understanding before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Teaching games for understanding ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Teaching games for understanding

In research: Teaching games for understanding appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Teaching games for understanding in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Teaching games for understanding is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Educational games, Learning theory (education), so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Teaching games for understanding outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Teaching games for understanding in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Teaching games for understanding means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Teaching games for understanding out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Teaching games for understanding in simple terms?

Why does Teaching games for understanding matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Teaching games for understanding?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Teaching games for understanding.