Undergraduate sports students’ perceptions of a change to game sense pedagogy

This paper contributes to research in the scholarship of teaching by reporting on undergraduate sports students’ perceptions of their own learning when exposed to a Game Sense learning approach and reflections on my experience of teaching it. A multiple methods approach was utilised to gather data from a four-week “games” component of a 10-week unit of study with all participants (n = 20; aged 18-21) in their first year of a three-year sports-related undergraduate degree. The games classification system was used to plan session content over the four weeks with each week focusing on a different games classification. Data were organised and coded via inductive coding procedures with analysis conducted concurrently to identify three prominent themes: 1) positive experiences of competition and game play, 2) the range of cognitive and emotional learning opportunities provided by Game Sense pedagogy facilitated improved student engagement and learning, and 3) the challenge of effective teacher questioning to stimulate game play knowledge construction.