Games and sports make up approximately half of the PE curriculum for children and adolescents, in addition to other movement skills such as gymnastics, dance, athletics and swimming. Therefore, it is essential that we continue to strive for best-practice methodology in order to maximise student development in the 4 key learning outcomes of: (1) psychomotor (skills), (2) cognitive (knowledge), (3) social (e.g. friendships, affiliation), and (4) affective (e.g. enjoyment, motivation, confidence). In this session a tactical games approach (game sense) will be presented, using some in-school action-research examples, that combines concepts of multiple models to address the aforementioned outcomes. This game sense model was developed to address the many educational issues involved with using a traditional teaching approach and sport-based curriculum by encompassing many skill acquisition and educational psychological theories. We will investigate and discuss the pedagogy of playing small-sided designer games, questioning techniques and task-constraint modifications to maximise learning and participation.
