PE, Youth Sport and Physical Activity
I am increasingly wary of any position that claims to have found the answer to physical education. This includes claims about what PE is for, what it should teach, and how it should be taught. My concern is not with strong ideas and strong traditions of practice. My concern is with when those ideas and … Continue reading Against Pedagogical Fundamentalism
I have been thinking a lot recently about translation work with regard to teaching PE. I've had two roles in my PE career. The first was as a PE teacher where part of my role was applying knowledge to inform my teaching practice. Now as a PE academic part of my role is to generate … Continue reading Some thoughts… on being a PE translator.
What is a GBA? There is a wide range of terminology, concepts, frameworks, models and interpretations when it comes to teaching approaches that prioritise the development of tactical understanding and game sense through the play of modified games. In response to this, the TGfU SIG International Advisory Board (2021) proposed Game-Based Approach (GBA) as an umbrella term … Continue reading 5 Critical Components of a Games-Based Approach
In the last six months I have experienced moments of real joy speaking to over 30 PE teacher educators from around the world. Listening to them talk passionately about their practice has been one of the best professional development experiences I have had since moving into higher education, but it has also been a double … Continue reading A Patient Pedagogy of PE Teacher Education
I'm increasingly becoming aware of a form of pedagogical concept creep with regards to meaningfulness. In my mind meaningfulness is about the process of children and young people ascribing value to their experiences over time. However in practice it begins to absorb other desirable things like enjoyment, motivation, wellbeing and inclusion. Meaningful PE can then … Continue reading The 3Ps that underpin Meaningful PE
"Improved methods of instruction probably are not the high payoff area, even though our pragmatic instincts may turn us in that direction. Whatever is inadequate with teaching in physical education lies much less in the domain of effective methods and hardware for use in public school gymnasia, and much more in the struggle for the … Continue reading The non-teaching PE teacher
Top 5 read posts in 2025Top 5 read posts written in 2025What is a ‘constraints led approach’? (2016) A constraints led approach is a relatively new approach to skill acquisition. By manipulating constraints in highly specific and systematic way we can educate a performers attention to perceptual information or encourage them to come up with a different … Continue reading Drowning in the Shallow 2025-in-review
There are two ways we can improve children and young people's experience of physical education. We can increase what is good by intentionally creating moments of meaning, enjoyment, progress, and connection. Or we can reduce what is harmful by systematically rooting out and removing abuse, alienation, bullying, embarrassment and injury. However the field often focuses on adding … Continue reading Is chaos worse than control? Understanding harmful teaching styles in PE
As a PE teacher, I often thought in terms of the knowledge, skills and behaviours I wanted my pupils to develop. Becoming clearer about these, a continual challenge, helped me to refine my practice: how I planned lessons, the instructional approaches I chose, and how I judged whether learning had occurred. When I moved into … Continue reading Perspectival Knowing and the Viewing Frame
Scott Kretchmar’s idea of playgrounds has been on my mind. When he talks about playgrounds he doesn't mean the children's playground of slides and swings, but a conceptual playground where play lives and grows. He offers it as a way of thinking about the different textures of movement we can personally experience. Some of those … Continue reading Cultivating Playgrounds
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