Australian School Students’ Responses to Game Based Pedagogy: an Analysis of Tactical Awareness and Enjoyment by Gender

One of the most dominant themes in physical and coach education research has been the focus on pedagogy. Scholars have for more than two decades focussed on examining effective methods of teaching and coaching. Casey and Kirk (2020) provide a comprehensive synthesis of over 40 years of research on pedagogy and models in physical education, clearly reinforcing the centrality and scope of this research. One of the prominent pedagogical models examined and promoted in the literature is the game-based approach and its various derivatives (Teaching Games for Understanding, Game Sense, Play Practice). So pervasive has this stream of research been, that in 2020, the pandemic year, there were more than a dozen publications promoting the merits of this approach; the most pertinent example being an edited book (Pill,  2020). In this volume there are entries examining and promoting the merits of the approach in wide and varied coaching settings, but very little presenting student or player participant perspectives. Much of this  edited book and the literature in general has focussed on responses from teachers, pre-service teachers or coaches but very few studies have documented the use and impact of the pedagogy from students or players perspectives. There are of course exceptions and much of the recent interest has emerged from Europe (Braco, Lodewyk & Morrison, 2019; Alcala & Carijo, 2017; Morales-Belando, Calderon & Arias-Estero, 2017). While there is no doubt that game-based pedagogy has made a significant impact on the Australian teaching and coaching landscape, there has been very little primary source research evaluating the impact in the school or youth sport setting. This research attempted to address some of this neglect, by examining Year 8 student responses to game based pedagogy focusing on tactical awareness and enjoyment. Students were randomly allocated into twomixed classes and received a 10-weekbasketball and soccer unit using a gamebased approach. Once the intervention was completed, measurement instruments were used to quantify tactical understanding and enjoyment.Results highlighted that students generally demonstrated improved tactical awareness and increased enjoyment using the game-based approach. While enjoyment levels were  similar between boys and girls,in the tactical understanding component of the research, girls reported  higher levels that boys. While it is important to explore the experiences of teachers and coaches who have chosen to use game-based pedagogy, this paper argues that morefocus and attention needs to be directed to the responses of students and players. Giving voice to these participants is a more effective and authentic method of evaluating this mode of pedagogy.