An investigation into teaching games for understanding: Effects on skill, knowledge, and game play

The purpose of this study was to test the validity of the games for underst anding model by comparing it to a technique approach to instruction and a c ontrol group. The technique method focused primarily on skill instruction w here the skill taught initially was incorporated into a game at the end of each lesson. The gn;games for understanding approach emphasized developing tactical awareness and decision making in small game situations. Too physic al education specialists taught field hockey using these approaches for IS lessons (45 min each). The control group did not recieve any field hockey i nstruction. Data were collected from 71 middle school children. Pretests an d posttests were administered for hockey knowledge, skill, and game perform ance. Separate anlyses of variance or analyses of covariance were conducted to examine group differences for cognitive and skill outcomes. The games f or understanding group scored significantly higher an passing decision maki ng than the technique and control groups during posttest gameplay and signi ficantly higher than the control group for declarative and procedural knowl edge. The games for understanding group scored significantly higher on cont rol and passing execution than the other groups during posttest game play. For hockey skill, there were no significant differences among the treatment groups for accuracy, but the technique group recorded faster times than th e control group an the posttest.