Game Sense
Approach
Teaching Student-centred Games and Sports
By Chris Cordina
So, what is the Game Sense (GS) Approach?
Engages children in minor and modified game strategies and concepts, and promotes
opportunities to develop both skills and an understanding of the tactics of the game.
GS encourages simple modifications (easier or harder) to accommodate different ability levels
and therefore maximises inclusion and challenges students with significant abilities in physical
education
Games have modified rules, the playing area or the equipment for the purpose of highlighting
aspects of the game such as attackers sending a ball beyond the reach of opponents or ‘forcing’
a striker to hit a ball with a bat into a defined region.
The GS approach strives to create and promote the ‘thinking player’.
Australian Sports Commission, 2018
Unlike previous models of teaching physical education, learning in the GS Approach occurs
through the dialogue between players and between players and the teacher
Light, 2013.
Game Sense categories
The four types of games that are explored in the GS Approach are:
Target games – Golf, Lawn bowls, Tenpin Bowling
Striking and fielding games – Cricket, Softball, Baseball
Court and net games – Tennis, Badminton, Volleyball, Squash,
Invasion games – Soccer, Rugby Union, AFL
Australian Sports Commission, 2018
Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS)
Within the GS approach the students continue to develop Fundamental
Movement Skills (FMS) in primary school. These are developed through
the teaching of Health and Physical Education, specifically:
Locomotor and non-locomotor skills: Rolling, balancing, sliding,
jogging, running, leaping, jumping, hopping, dodging, galloping,
skipping, floating and moving the body through water to safety
Object control skills: Bouncing, throwing, catching, kicking, striking
Australian Curriculum, 2018
Strengths of the GS Approach – GS pedagogy
The strengths of the GS approach to teaching physical education can be summed up in four categories:
1. Provides a suitable (physical) learning environment
This is one of the most important aspects, because when teachers ‘get the game right’ (Thorpe & Bunker,
2008) players learn through adapting to the learning environment.
2. Uses questions to formulate dialogue, interactions and reflections in physical education sessions
In GS approach, questioning is used to encourage higher order thinking in the students.
3. Collaboration to formulate tests and evaluate solutions to problems
A central way of learning is through collaboration to formulate and create solutions to a problem through
experience (Constructivist theory, Vygotsky, 1978; Bruner, 1996)
4. Provides supportive socio-moral environment
GS approach supports and promotes a positive physical education environment, where mistakes are
welcomed and seen as essential to learning
Light, 2014
Two significant strengths of the GS approach
Light, 2013
Inclusiveness
GS is inclusive as the games are designed to suit the developmental,
emotional and social needs of the players
Social inclusion
GS promotes interaction between all the players in the team. A
significant feature of Game Sense pedagogy are the discussions about
strategy, tactics and technique . They occur at the beginning of a session
or game/activity and during modified games as team talks where the
players discuss tactics, develop ideas and test them
NSW PDHPE Syllabus
Board of Studies, 2014
The GS approach works in line with several important features of the PDHPE
syllabus, further justifying the importance of this approach to physical education:
A significant feature of the PDHPE rationale focuses on the “physical, social,
cognitive and emotional growth and development patterns” recognising that
self-confidence and self-acceptance and being able to act in a manner that is
in the best interests of themselves and others (Rationale, 2014). Collaborating
with other students to solves problems to questions in GS activity very much
promotes this idea.
GS promotes “The development and maintenance of positive interpersonal
relationships” (Rationale, 2014).
References
Australian Curriculum. (2018). [Website]. Glossary. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-
curriculum/health-and-physical-education/Glossary/?term=fundamental+movement+skills
Australian Sports Commission. (2018). [Website]. Game sense approach. Australian Government. Retrieved from
https://sportingschools.gov.au/resources-and-pd/schools/playing-for-life-resources/game-sense-approach
Board of Studies. (2014). [PDF]. PDHPE. K-6 Rationale.
Light, R. (2013). Game sense: Pedagogy for performance, participation and enjoyment. Routledge Studies in
Physical Education and Youth Sport. New York: Routledge
Light, R. (2014). Quality teaching beyond games through Game Sense pedagogy. University of Sydney Papers in
HMHCE, Special Games Sense Edition, 1-13.
Thorpe, R. & Bunker, D. (2008). Teaching Games for Understanding - Do current developments reflect original
intentions? Paper presented at the 4th International TGfU Conference, Vancouver: Canada, 16 May.
