Jia Yi Chow

The Role of Nonlinear Pedagogy in Physical Education

In physical education, the Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) pedagogical strategy has attracted significant attention from theoreticians and educators for allowing the development of game education through a tactic-to-skill approach involving the use of modified games. However, some have proposed that as an educational framework, it lacks adequate theoretical grounding from a motor learning perspective to empirically augment its perceived effectiveness. The authors examine the literature base providing the theoretical underpinning for TGfU and explore the potential of a nonlinear pedagogical framework, based on dynamical systems theory, as a suitable explanation for TGfU’s effectiveness in physical education. Nonlinear pedagogy involves manipulating key task constraints on learners to facilitate the emergence of functional movement patterns and decision-making behaviors. The authors explain how interpreting motor learning processes from a nonlinear pedagogical framework can underpin the educational principles of TGfU and provide a theoretical rationale for guiding the implementation of learning progressions in physical education.

A constraints-led perspective to understanding skill acquisition and game play: a basis for integration of motor learning theory and physical education praxis?

Background: In order to design appropriate environments for performance and learning of movement skills, physical educators need a sound theoretical model of the learner and of processes of learning. In physical education, this type of modelling informs the organisation of learning environments and effective and efficient use of practice time. An emerging theoretical framework in motor learning, relevant to physical education, advocates a constraints-led perspective for acquisition of movement skills and game play knowledge. This framework shows how physical educators could use task, performer and environmental constraints to channel acquisition of movement skills and decision-making behaviours in learners. From this viewpoint, learners generate specific movement solutions to satisfy the unique combination of constraints imposed on them, a process which can be harnessed during physical education lessons. Aims: In this paper the aim is to provide an overview of the motor learning approach emanating from the constraints-led perspective, and examine how it can substantiate a platform for a new pedagogical framework in physical education: nonlinear pedagogy. We aim to demonstrate that it is only through theoretically valid and objective empirical work of an applied nature that a conceptually sound nonlinear pedagogy model can continue to evolve and support research in physical education. We present some important implications for designing practices in games lessons, showing how a constraints-led perspective on motor learning could assist physical educators in understanding how to structure learning experiences for learners at different stages, with specific focus on understanding the design of games teaching programmes in physical education, using exemplars from Rugby Union and Cricket. Findings: Research evidence from recent studies examining movement models demonstrates that physical education teachers need a strong understanding of sport performance so that task constraints can be manipulated so that information–movement couplings are maintained in a learning environment that is representative of real performance situations. Physical educators should also understand that movement variability may not necessarily be detrimental to learning and could be an important phenomenon prior to the acquisition of a stable and functional movement pattern. We highlight how the nonlinear pedagogical approach is student-centred and empowers individuals to become active learners via a more hands-off approach to learning. Conclusions: A constraints-based perspective has the potential to provide physical educators with a framework for understanding how performer, task and environmental constraints shape each individuals physical education. Understanding the underlying neurobiological processes present in a constraints-led perspective to skill acquisition and game play can raise awareness of physical educators that teaching is a dynamic ‘art’ interwoven with the ‘science’ of motor learning theories.

‘How does TGfU work?’: examining the relationship between learning design in TGfU and a nonlinear pedagogy

Background: In the last few decades, conceptions about teaching and learning in physical education have evolved from a teacher-centred approach to a more student-centred approach where learners are encouraged to develop problem-solving skills, critical thinking and autonomy of thought. A popular model advocating this approach in physical education, Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU), has attracted widespread attention. Although advocates of TGfU have provided some empirical and anecdotal evidence to support the ‘tactical over technical approach’ to games teaching, recent work has highlighted that to date, the question ‘Does TGfU work?’ has remained largely unanswered. Therefore, there is a need to research the intuitive assumptions about how students learn to play games and to understand how the TGfU approach might work for games teaching and learning. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide insights to further our understanding of the possible processes underpinning the pedagogical principles of TGfU in games teaching. In this regard, we outline how a Nonlinear Pedagogy approach could provide a theoretical rationale to explain how the principles of TGfU might support learning design for games teaching. To achieve this aim, we examined the viability of the four key pedagogical principles of the TGfU model and highlighted the theoretical and practical implications of Nonlinear Pedagogy, considered with some empirical evidence from the motor learning literature. Findings: The theoretical ideas emanating from an ecological dynamics perspective, such as constraints manipulation, importance of maintaining information-movement coupling and harnessing movement variability, can underpin a Nonlinear Pedagogy approach. It has been proposed that research evidence from the motor learning literature can provide a suitable theoretical grounding to support the viability of the four main pedagogical principles of the TGfU model (i.e., sampling, tactical complexity, representation and exaggeration) and can contribute insights to the possible processes of TGfU in games teaching. Summary: A Nonlinear Pedagogy approach has the potential to provide researchers and physical educators with an understanding of the theoretical and practical work on TGfU, in association with its pedagogical principles. Understanding the underlying processes linked to the key pedagogical principles in learning design is critical for addressing pedagogy and curriculum concerns in physical education to enhance student learning. The ideas raised in this paper provided some rationale for the efficacy of the model, and also a platform for researchers and practitioners to more effectively engage students using the TGfU model.

Variation in coordination of a discrete multiarticular action as a function of skill level.

The authors investigated coordination modes that emerged as a function of the interaction between skill level and task constraints in a multiarticular kicking action. Five skilled, 5 intermediate, and 5 novice participants attempted to satisfy specific height and accuracy constraints in kicking a ball over a barrier. Skilled and intermediate groups demonstrated a functional coordination mode involving less joint involvement at the proximal joints and greater joint involvement at distal joints, mimicking a chip-like action in soccer. Conversely, the novice group tended to produce larger ranges of motion throughout the kicking limb in a driving-like kicking action. Key differences were also found for task outcome scores, joint angle-angle relations, and ball-trajectory plots between the skilled and intermediate groups and the novice group. Findings from this study demonstrated that joint involvement during this discrete multiarticular action is a function of skill level and task constraints rather than a consequence of a global freezing-freeing strategy suggested in some previous research. The authors also highlight the merit of using a model of the acquisition of coordination in examining how coordination modes for multiarticular actions differ as a function of skill.

The influence of pitch dimensions on performance during small-sided and conditioned soccer games

Abstract This study examined the influence of pitch dimensions in small-sided soccer games in shaping opportunities for performers to maintain ball possession, pass to teammates and shoot at goal. Fifteen amateur standard male participants (M = 21.87, σ = 1.96 years) played 5 v 5 small-sided soccer games in three varying pitch conditions (28 m × 14 m, 40 m × 20 m and 52 m × 26 m). Thirty sequences of play in each condition were selected for digitisation using TACTO software, allowing the capture of bi-dimensional displacement coordinate data of all players and the ball. The values of interpersonal distance between all attackers and immediate defenders and the relative distances of defenders to intercept a shot and a pass were computed as dependent variables. Results showed existence of fewer opportunities to maintain ball possession on smaller pitches, compared to medium and larger pitches. Conversely, the different dimensions set to the pitch did not influence opportunities for players to shoot at goal, or to perform passes to other teammates. By examining the specific spatial–temporal relationships of players and key-task constraints, the data from this study explain how effects of manipulating pitch dimensions of small-sided games might enhance opportunities for acquiring specific movement and decision-making skills.

Nonlinear Pedagogy: An Effective Approach to Cater for Individual Differences in Learning a Sports Skill

Learning a sports skill is a complex process in which practitioners are challenged to cater for individual differences. The main purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of a Nonlinear Pedagogy approach for learning a sports skill. Twenty-four 10-year-old females participated in a 4-week intervention involving either a Nonlinear Pedagogy (i.e.,manipulation of task constraints including equipment and rules) or a Linear Pedagogy (i.e., prescriptive, repetitive drills) approach to learn a tennis forehand stroke. Performance accuracy scores, movement criterion scores and kinematic data were measured during pre-intervention, post-intervention and retention tests. While both groups showed improvements in performance accuracy scores over time, the Nonlinear Pedagogy group displayed a greater number of movement clusters at post-test indicating the presence of degeneracy (i.e., many ways to achieve the same outcome). The results suggest that degeneracy is effective for learning a sports skill facilitated by a Nonlinear Pedagogy approach. These findings challenge the common misconception that there must be only one ideal movement solution for a task and thus have implications for coaches and educators when designing instructions for skill acquisition.

Complex and nonlinear pedagogy and the implications for physical education

There is increasing support to describe and examine the teaching of game skills in physical education from a complex and nonlinear perspective. The emergence of game behaviours as a consequence of the dynamic interactions of the learner, the game environment and the task constraints within the game context highlights the nonlinear and complex nature of how learning of game skills can occur. While there is increasing recognition that teaching and learning should be seen from a complex and nonlinear perspective, the challenge is to provide teachers with ideas on how to deliver lessons and activities that are underpinned by specific pedagogical practices from this perspective and in alignment with emerging curricular guidelines. In this paper, key features of complex and nonlinear pedagogy are discussed and exemplified through a Singaporean PE context. Practical implications are shared on how lessons/activities (soccer) based on aspects of complex and nonlinear pedagogy can be delivered in the school.

Why the Constraints-Led Approach is not Teaching Games for Understanding: a clarification

Background: There is some apparent confusion regarding similarities and differences between two popular physical education (PE) pedagogical frameworks, that is, the Constraints-Led Approach (CLA) and Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU). Purpose: Our aim in this commentary is to detail important theoretical and pedagogical concepts that distinguish these approaches, as well as to recognise where commonalities exist. Findings: In particular, we note that TGfU had its roots in the 1960s in the absence of a substantial theoretical framework, although several attempts to retrospectively scaffold theories around TGfU have subsequently emerged in the literature. TGfU is a learner-centred approach to PE in which teachers are encouraged to design modified games to develop the learners understanding of tactical concepts. In contrast, the CLA has arisen more recently from the umbrella of Nonlinear Pedagogy (NLP), emerging from the empirically rich theoretical framework of ecological dynamics. The CLA adopts a ‘learner–environment’ scale of analysis in which practitioners are encouraged to identify and modify interacting constraints (of task, environment and learner) to facilitate the coupling of each learners perceptual and action systems during learning. The CLA is a broader framework which has been adapted for the design of (re)learning environments in PE, sport and movement therapy. Other key distinctions between the approaches include: the overall goals; the way in which the learner and the learning process are modelled; the use of questioning as a pedagogical tool; the focus on individual differences vs. generic concepts; and how progressions and skill interjections are planned and implemented. Conclusions: Despite such distinctions, the two approaches are somewhat harmonious and key similarities include: their holistic perspective of the learner; the proposed role of the teacher and the design characteristics of learning tasks in each. Both TGfU and the CLA have a powerful central focus on the nature of learning activities undertaken by each individual learner. This clarification of TGFU and the CLA is intended to act as a catalyst for more empirical work into the complementarity of these juxtaposed pedagogical approaches to learning design.

Effects of different instructional constraints on task performance and emergence of coordination in children

Abstract The objectives of this study were to determine the impact of different instructional constraints on standing board jump (sbj) performance in children and understand the underlying changes in emergent movement patterns. Two groups of novice participants were provided with either externally or internally focused attentional instructions during an intervention phase. Pre- and post-test sessions were undertaken to determine changes to performance and movement patterns. Thirty-six primary fourth-grade male students were recruited for this study and randomly assigned to either an external, internal focus or control group. Different instructional constraints with either an external focus (image of the achievement) or an internal focus (image of the act) were provided to the participants. Performance scores (jump distances), and data from key kinematic (joint range of motion, ROM) and kinetic variables (jump impulses) were collected. Instructional constraints with an emphasis on an external focus of attention were generally more effective in assisting learners to improve jump distances. Intra-individual analyses highlighted how enhanced jump distances for successful participants may be concomitant with specific changes to kinematic and kinetic variables. Larger joint ROM and adjustment to a comparatively larger horizontal impulse to a vertical impulse were observed for more successful participants at post-test performance. From a constraints-led perspective, the inclusion of instructional constraints encouraging self-adjustments in the control of movements (i.e., image of achievement) had a beneficial effect on individuals performing the standing broad jump task. However, the advantage of using an external focus of attentional instructions could be task- and individual-specific.

An exploratory analysis of variations in quiet eye duration within and between levels of expertise

The ability to pick-up task-relevant visual information during movement control is crucial in successful sport performance. Quiet eye (QE), the final fixation prior to final movement onset, has been shown to be characteristic of the visual search strategies exhibited by skilled athletes in self-paced aiming tasks. Longer QE durations were previously associated with skill and successful performance outcomes. In this study, gaze behaviour data of six expert (E) and six novice (N) 10-pin bowlers were measured using a mobile eye tracker as they completed 20 trials of two single-pin conditions each (Easy: 1-pin; Hard: 10-pin). Expert bowlers exhibited significantly longer QE durations in both conditions as compared to their less-skilled counterparts. However, QE duration was not found to be significantly different as a function of accuracy nor task condition. Further detailed analysis revealed considerable variance in QE characteristics between individuals, warranting the need to explore individualised interventions centred on the development of perceptual-motor control during self-paced aiming tasks. Moreover, this study raised an important methodological issue relating to the analysis of trials with the absence of QE.