INVENTING GAMES AND PHYSICAL
LITERACY: AN INVITATION TO PLAY
Sarah Taylor – Graduate Student
Joy Butler – Associate Professor
Dept of Curriculum and Pedagogy
University of British Columbia
OUTLINE

This work is a part of a larger study supported and
funded by Social Science and Humanities Research
Council (SSHRC) entitled: “Situated Ethics through
inventing games: teacher perspectives and student
learning.”

Purpose: To explore the connection between Physical
Literacy and Inventing Games (IG) through play

1st: Description of current study

2nd: Connections between Physical Literacy and the
study

3rd: Findings thus far
SITUATED ETHICS IN INVENTING GAMES
RESEARCH FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS
Researchers: Joy Butler (PI), Tim Hopper, Brent Davis and Sarah
Taylor
Teachers:
Darryl Beck, Anja Berning, Erin McGinley,
Sarah McKenzie, Scott Samuelson and Kevin Sandher
SUMMARY OF YEAR ONE

TPI and Interviews (Constructed baselines
of educational beliefs and values about
learning and teaching).


TPI and surveys provided a way to collect
repeated measures on any changes in beliefs
and values as a result of the IG initiative
Workshops (4) – Jan, Feb, May and June
Complexity thinking for to focus on three
conditions that are necessary for the
emergence of learning within collectives
 Social critical theory - to contextualize the
focus of the research, namely situated ethics
in the teaching and learning of games.

YEAR 2
Through learning Inventing Games,
teachers:
 Learn about Complexity thinking through three
conditions:

Diversity & commonality
 Enabling interactions through decentralized control
 Enabling constraints by opening possibilities by
limiting choices


Learn about Social critical theory through



Situated Ethics and
Moments of Aporia
Teachers design their Inventing Games units
YEAR 3- DATA COLLECTION

Each teacher taught 2 units
Inventing Games Unit precedes
 TGfU unit within same games category as the IG unit




Research team visited 3 times in each unit at
beginning, middle and end
Pre and post questionnaires were given out to
students (beginning and end of each unit)
One-on-one individual interviews with focus group (6)
occurred at the beginning and end of the visits
HOW DOES INVENTING GAMES (IG)
CONNECT TO PHYSICAL LITERACY?
Physical Literacy



Develops personal and
inter-personal capacities
Integrated mind-body
approach
Capacities afford
humans the opportunity
to carry out a wide
range of movement
skills and be in tune
with their environments
(Whitehead, 2001)
Inventing Games
The IG program is ideally
placed to support the
notions of;
 participatory culture,
 collective engagement,
 and situated ethics
 Helps people interact
with situations that
may arise outside of
the classroom in the
‘real-world’
PHYSICAL LITERACY, INVENTING GAMES
AND THE TEACHER



Whitehead (2010) suggests that using physical
literacy in physical education can be threatening
and scary for many physical educators
This can create hesitancy around trying
strategies that help promote physical literacy
such as Inventing Games (IG)
What does it take to move physical educators
beyond their fears and create pedagogy that is
enriched and extended by a focus on physical
literacy?
PHYSICAL LITERACY, INVENTING GAMES
AND THE TEACHER


Year 1 & 2 of the study challenged the six
teacher researchers to reassess their pedagogical
practices in PE and consider the three goals of
Physical Literacy
Physical Literacy
Enriches teachers aspirations for pedagogy
 Puts learners at the heart of the process
 Liberates PE from its common, limited role in sports
development

(Whitehead, 2010)
EMERGING FINDINGS
(PRE- IG UNIT QUESTIONNAIRE)
Question
Elementary
answers
Secondary
answers
commonalities
Question 1:
What do you
expect to learn
in IG?
1) Cooperation
2) Being Fair
1)Teamwork
2)Leadership
None
Question 3: How
do you make
decisions?
Pros and Cons
1)What will
benefit the
individual
2)Pros and Cons
Pros and Cons
Question 8:
What social
justice issues
have you learned
in PE?
1)Fairness/inclu
sions
2)Treat others
how you want to
be treated
1) People with
less abilities
don’t matter
2)Equality and
fairness
Fairness
EMERGING FINDINGS-POST IG UNIT QUESTIONNAIRE
Question
Elementary
answers
Secondary
answers
Commonalities
Question 1: What
did you learn?
1) Offensive/defens Importance of
ive strategies
Teamwork
2) Saying “mine”
and positions
None
Question 3: What
did you learn that
you did not expect
to learn?
It could actually be
FUN
Decision making
None
Question 6: What
Must be safe, fair,
did you learn about inclusive, flow and
making a game fun? simple
Must be safe, fair,
inclusive, flow and
simple
Must be safe, fair,
inclusive, flow and
simple
Question 7: What
were some main
challenges?
1)Keeping
strategies
2) Choosing teams
3) Making rules
1) Agreeing on
rules
2) Making
decisions
Making rules
Q 9: Anything to
add?
It was FUN
It was FUN
FUN
THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAY AND FUN
"…the currently dominant form of the subject (PE)
makes more enemies than friends of children, does
not progress their learning and thus fails to develop
their perceived competence and motivation for
physical activity, and ultimately fails to achieve the
ubiquitous aspiration, common to programmes
around the world, of a long-term active lifestyle.”
Kirk, D. (2012 p.128)
THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAY AND
FUN
AND INVENTING GAMES



Inventing Games is presented as a model that has the
potential to shift dominant teaching perspectives
away from the evaluation of standardised outcomes
towards learning processes that engage students.
Inventing Games affords students ‘autonomy’,
allowing “a genuine say in the form of physical
education they experience” (Kirk 2012).
By focusing on students’ affective experiences PE may
illicit “satisfaction and enjoyment”, “achievement”,
“confidence” and “a sense of wellbeing” needed to
promote Physical Literacy (Almond & Whitehead
2012).
CONCLUSION
Including a
 participatory culture,
 collective engagement,
 and situated ethics
in PE can help develop personal and inter-personal
capacities and a integrated mind-body approach,
which may result in FUN and engagement in life
long physical activity pursuits
REFERENCES
Almond, L. & Whitehead, M. (2012) The value of physical literacy. Physical Education
Matters
Kirk, D. (2012). Physical Education Futures: Can we reform physical education in the
early 21st Century? eJRIEPS 27 juillet 2012 p. 120-144
Whitehead 1, M. (2001). The concept of physical literacy. European Journal of Physical
Education, 6(2), 127-138
.