The TGFU Instructional Approach Contribution to the Teaching of Team Games to 5th and 6th Grade Students

Abstract

Team games constitute an essential thematic unit of the Physical Education (PE) curriculum in Elementary level. Participating in games is challenging for students but also a chance for fun, enjoyment, cognitive development, health boost and self-confidence enhancement. TGFU is an instructional approach which is proposed as an alternative teaching method for the teaching of games in PE. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the views of PE teachers with a specialization in individual sport and without coaching or athletic experience in team games, on the effectiveness of TGFU in teaching team games to 5th and 6th Grade students of Greek Elementary Education. Six PE teachers (3 females and 3 males) with extensive experience in teaching (Μ = 22.17 ± 3.25 years) participated in this study. They taught a common unit of 8 consecutive lessons in the framework of the PE lesson. The data were collected after the completion of the lessons through the strategy of semi-structured interview. The strategy of inductive content analysis was followed for the data analysis. The contribution of TGFU model in achieving the teaching objectives for team games was one of the main findings of the study. In summary and according to the participated teachers, the TGFU model is a didactic approach that has all the characteristics to contribute positively to the teaching of team games in the context of the PE lesson.