"New Directions in Games Teaching"

Chapter written by Rod Thorpe in Neil Armstrong's book "New Directions in Physical Education", written in 1990

Summary by Kristina Klein

 This was a fairly lengthy chapter and had several main points to help support the general thought "that a games experience presented well can be enriching for anyone and should be included in the curriculum" (Thorpe, 1990, pg 79).  

Thorpe begins by pointing out that most school curriculums are unbalanced in that games dominate time spent in PE.  He asks whether or not this is because "it works with little effort from the teacher" (pg 80).  He also points out that there should be a line drawn between the role of a coach and the role of a physical educator, because the aim of the latter should not be specific skill performance.  

 The problems with physical education begin in the primary schools where teachers are usually not qualified to teach a subject that is "vital to the development of basic movement patterns and...to the development of attitudes toward physical education" (pg 82).  He gives the following recommendations:

   - provide in-service training to build confidence in teachers

   - provide more initial training to primary teachers regarding what to teach and how to teach it to young children

   - use knowledgeable people from the community as resourses, inviting them in to the classroom to assist

 In the secondary system, Thorpe writes that when teachers spend time "teaching games by placing the game and tactics centrally in the physical education lesson" (pg 93) rather than focussing on skills all the time, then the students may realize the links between games and be lead to "understand a range of games at least at a basic level" (pg 87).  The progression is shown by the following model:

  "1) game

   2) game appreciation

   3) tactical awareness

   4) decision making

   5) skill execution

   6) performance" (pg 93-94)

 Finally, similarity to the article summarized by Chris (Butler, 1997), this chapter refers to teaching for understanding.  Thorpe lists the following fundamentals for developing a games curriculum:

   1) sample a variety of different games

   2) consider "tactical complexity" (pg 95) of games when deciding on order of introduction

   3) modify the games (representation: making games look like adult games)

 There was a lot of valuable information presented in this chapter, but the main theme in realation to our class is illustrated by the following line: "The natural outcome of a teaching for understanding approach is the development of a games education that ensures that children experience and gain insight into the wide variety of games possible" (pg 95).  I believe this approach to be something lacking in the current school system, at least from personal experience; perhaps in our futures as physical educators, we will be able to introduce the ideas of sampling from a wide variety of games, modifying activities to meet all levels, and learning to not focus on specific skills.

 Thorpe, R. (1990). New directions in games teaching. In N. Armstrong (Ed.), New directions in physical education (pp. 79-100). London: Human Kinetics Books.