Student-Designed Games

Ashley Casey, Peter Hastie, and Ben Dyson

Aim to show that student

designed games is a way

forward in developing

teaching and learning in physical

education.

Some predict the

extinction

of Physical education

Games-making involves pupils in a mutually-designed and owned game in which they decide upon the rules, and find answers to problems that

arise.

Search for Innovation

Not ‘Normal’ PE

Student Learning Significant Buying in

Search for Innovation

Not ‘Normal’ PE

Student Learning Significant Buying in

Search for Innovation

Not ‘Normal’ PE

Student Learning Significant Buying in

Search for Innovation

Not ‘Normal’ PE

Student Learning Significant Buying in

Search for Innovation

Not ‘Normal’ PE

Student Learning Significant Buying in

Search for Innovation

“there wasn’t really any boundaries with the game that we could design, so we could

be creative and choose whatever we wanted”

- Male Student

“it’s like your own idea and you’re not doing something that you were told to do”

- Female Student

“The beginning bit, when we had to come up with

something from scratch, that was quite hard”

- Female Student

“most of the games we’ve made up have all been based

on netball so it’s like every lesson we’re doing kinda

netball with a twist, which isn’t great for some people”

- Female Student

Not ‘normal’ physical education

“I think PE has been a time to mess about for the whole time

I’ve been at school”

- Male Student

“Usually in PE it’s just like...sport and you just play”

- Male Student

“this particular group of kids we’re working with, they’re not particularly

sporty, they’re not particularly competitive, they’re not particularly good at PE, it’s one of those types of groups so

for them to spend the next two years doing practical PE where we’re saying “You need to get better at netball, you need to get better at hockey”, I think

they’re intelligent enough to know “why would I want to do that? I don't

particularly enjoy it, I don't have that particular edge”, so I think it’s a good

change”

- Female Teacher

“they’ve gained knowledge, an understanding of games and how games are created and what makes up a game, whereas previously when we’ve taught

them, it’s a case of we tell them everything they need to know about the

game and then we go and play it, obviously with some structured teaching within there as well but with this, they’ve had to dissect again and build it back up and I think that’s been beneficial to a lot

of them. ”

- Male Teacher

“This half-term’s been good because I can look forward to

PE now”

- Female Student

Student Learning

Learning -

“creating a game, thinking of everything and then because it didn’t work, we had to create a

new one and that was even harder...”

- Female Student

Learning a new skill set –

“I don’t think we were familiar with the situation, before we

were split into boys and girls in normal PE but then we got

used to it, we knew we had to work together to achieve...”

- Male Student

Learning how games work -

“It’s not just you’re told a game and you do it, you

actually think more about it...”

- Male Student

Learning what is easy and what is difficult-

“there’s bits we had to make up rules and if it doesn’t really,

like when you score a goal, you had to make it easier to score goals so that the game

didn’t slow sown and get boring and it was quite hard..”

- Female Student

Learning what makes a good game -

“I think was really different because before we just played a game, we got taught how to play the game and we played it whereas this time you'd got to think more about why other games are like, why other games are good so you've got to try and make your

game good, so base it on some other

games but change things as well.”

- Female Student

Significant Buying in

“It’s like much more fun because in normal PE you have to something and go by your teacher’s rules, this time you can play by your own rules”

- Female Student

“I think there’s more of a challenge for the children than there was previously in their

lessons, so more of a direction, more of an aim and I feel

they’ve got more of a focus in their lessons rather than

previously”

- Male Teacher

“I have seen some positive stuff, I’ve seen a few girls that I wouldn't have expected to come forward and not

necessarily take them on and take the lead, but are coming up to me and saying, “Miss, I’ve got a really good

idea, why don't we do this ...?”, they’re girls that really are not into this competitive sport side of the curriculum and they’re coming up

with some good ideas”

- Female Teacher

An Agenda forFuture Research

Who makes the best games?

Is this learning readily transferable to existing

games?

Does games-making replicate the social learning advantages of Cooperative Learning and

Sport Education?

Do the students benefit from working in roles other than

that of player?

What do students remember about games-making?

Picture CreditsSlide 1 – “Home Design” by Forwardcom on StockxchngSlide 2 - “Sexy Bow” by g-point on StockxchngSlide 3 - Image from iStockPhotoSlide 4 - “Fossil 2” by BTK on Stockxchng Slide 5 - Image from iStockPhotoSlide 6/10 - “Watching” by ngould on StockxchngSlide 7/15 - Wellington Physical Training School Men doing stretches 1898 by National Library NZ on FlickrSlide 8/21 - Image from iStockPhotoSlide 9/27 – “2 Dollars” by carlsilver on Stockxchng Slide 31 – “the teacher” by Prozac74 on flickr