Curriculum constructions of ability: enhancing learning through Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) as a curriculum model

Abstract

This article examines the curricular constructions that influence our perceptions of learner ‘ability’ within games education. Games education has both inherent and intrinsic value for learners, and within this context, teachers make important choices about what they believe will be of most value and interest for students. This in turn impacts the way that the curriculum is constructed and developed. Extrinsic cultural and social values have also had an impact upon the discipline. These values have been usefully summarized by Jewett as five value orientations: (1) disciplinary mastery, (2) self-actualization, (3) social reconstruction, (4) learning process and (5) ecological integration. Identification of the philosophical principles which underpin the curriculum allows the reflective part of the praxis to take place. These five value orientations provide critical reference points for my exploration of the different ways in which two curricula constructions frame ability. Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) and the more familiar model of Technique-Based or Direct Instruction are considered, not to further the methodology debate, but to illustrate how each frames ability differently. This will be achieved by examining the context and culture within which each has developed. Finally, a closer examination will be made of the TGfU curriculum model in terms of the ways in which it defines learner ability. It is suggested that, TGfU offers a more inclusive way to think about ability in PE by employing a range of value orientations. As teachers encourage learners to invent their own games, they help them to develop respect for equal justice and for free and open inquiry (social reconstruction). In this way, learners come to appreciate and understand their responsibility to protect individual and collective rights and freedoms. When it comes to teaching democracy, it is clearly important to pay close attention to the entire context in which learning takes place, since by definition, the notion of democracy applies to individuals as they operate within community. The TGfU approach lends itself to the teaching of democracy in schools, since it empowers both teacher and learner and invites them to question the status quo (ecological integration). In this way, players focus on creating play as a shared experience, not just on being winners.

Keywords:

• Constructions of ability
• Constructivism
• Curriculum model
• Democracy
• Inventing games
• Learner centered teaching
• Physical education
• Teaching Games for Understanding
• Values orientation