Lucile Lafont

A social-constructivist approach in physical education: Influence of dyadic interactions on tactical choices in an instructional team sport setting

The purpose of this study was to analyze the role of dyadic verbal peer interactions in a team sport such as handball. Participants, 20 boys and 20 girls aged between 11 and 12, were assigned to two learning condition groups. The task was an instructional setting in team handball (2 attackers against 1 defender in each half court). The experimental group with verbal exchanges was expected to obtain higher performances in the post-tests than those who had not interacted verbally between playing sequences. The secondary objective was to investigate whether dyadic gender had an effect on tactical choice and cognitive skills in playing games. The experiment demonstrated the superiority of the dyadic verbal interaction group over the non-interactive group as regards tactical choices and action projects. It also showed gender differences since males performed better females with regard to action efficiency. The results are discussed within the theoretical framework of the social psychology of acquisition and development and within that of teaching for understanding. In conclusion, the socio-constructivist approach would seem to be pertinent in team sport decision-making tasks.RésuméCette étude se propose de mettre en évidence le rôle des interactions verbales en dyades paritaires dans l’apprentissage d’un sport collectif comme le handball. Les participants, 20 garçons et 20 filles, âgées de 11 à 12 ans, étaient répartis en deux groupes selon la condition d’apprentissage. La tâche est une situation de jeu réduite du handball: 2 attaquants contre 1 défenseur dans chaque moitié du terrain. Les participants du groupe expérimental, bénéficiant d’interactions verbales entre pairs, étaient supposés obtenir de meilleurs résultats aux post-tests que ceux du groupe témoin, n’ayant pas interagi verbalement entre les séquences de jeu. Le second objectif était d’observer si le genre avait un effet sur les performances tactiques et sur les connaissances en jeu. L’expérimentation démontre la supériorité du groupe bénéficiant d’interactions verbales en dyades par rapport au groupe n’ayant pas interagi au regard des choix tactiques et du projet d’action. En outre des différences de genre ont été trouvées dans le sens où les garçons obtiennent de meilleures performances que les filles au niveau de l’efficacité de l’action. Ces résultats sont discutés dans la perspective théorique des travaux de psychologie sociale des acquisitions et du développement et dans le courant de l’apprentissage par la compréhension. Cette étude expérimentale démontre un intérêt pour une approche socio-constructiviste de la prise de décision en sports collectifs.

How to structure group work? Conditions of efficacy and methodological considerations in physical education

This article is grounded in social constructivist perspectives of learning: its purpose is to provide an overview of the ‘Interactions Sociales et Acquisition’ (ISA) [Social Interactions and Acquisition] French group’s research that examines how a peer-assisted learning (PAL) group context facilitates students’ acquisition of motor and social skills in physical education (PE). Issues addressed include the pairing of students in dyads and how training them to endorse tutor and tutee roles facilitates students to work in small groups. The effects of peer interaction on social relations and the inclusion of students with special needs are also overviewed. Findings regarding the influence of student interactions on learning were derived using a variety of data collection methodologies, including quantitative data used to test the effectiveness of various interactive procedures and qualitative analyses of verbal protocols to better understand the interactive dynamics involved in such learning devices. The ISA work highlights the complementary value of both of these methodological approaches for studying group work effects. ISA findings suggest that PE teachers prepare students for functional interaction group work by taking into consideration the students’ characteristics (like gender or desire for control) in the constitution of dyads and then effectively training the tutors to deliver the expected content. Cooperative learning (CL) contexts also provided a viable alternative for facilitating the inclusion of students with disabilities or those with lower initial skill levels.

Impact of Trained versus Spontaneous Reciprocal Peer Tutoring on Adolescent Students

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two different forms of reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) on the motor and cognitive performance of adolescents in a physical education setting. We also explored the influence of gender. We assigned 72 ninth-graders (36 M, 36 F), all novices in a table tennis task, to a 2 × 3 (Gender × Learning Condition: physical practice with trained RPT [TRPT] vs. physical practice with spontaneous RPT [SRPT]vs. physical practice without any form of RPT [PP; individual control condition]) factorial design. Results indicated superior motor performance and cognitive skills for the TRPT condition and no difference between the SRPT and PP conditions. The peer-tutor training was thus a crucial organizational variable of the success of RPT. Interestingly, our results support the assumption that females particularly benefit from a highly structured peer tutoring framework.