OER - Reports

This research programme consists of three main phases of work that aim to examine the effectiveness of a Nonlinear Pedagogy approach at various levels of the human movement system. The three main research objectives of this research programme are as follows: a) To investigate the effectiveness of a Nonlinear Pedagogical approach for learning a sports skill (i.e., tennis forehand stroke); b) To investigate the effectiveness of a Nonlinear Pedagogical approach in learning a modified net/barrier game (modified tennis); c) To investigate the effectiveness of a Nonlinear Pedagogical approach in teaching and learning a unit of modified tennis in a physical education context.

Increasingly, school teachers see the need to recognize the complex and dynamic interactions that occur between the individual, task and environmental constraints during learning. Nonlinear Pedagogy (NP), underpinned by Ecological Dynamics, provides a suitable pedagogical approach to encourage exploratory learning amongst children that is learner-centred and exploratory in nature. This approach is in contrast to a more traditional form of Linear Pedagogy (LP) that is teacher-centred and emphasises repetition in practices to promote movement form consistency in enhancing the acquisition of movement skills. Primarily, NP involves teachers identifying and manipulating constraints on learning to facilitate the emergence of goal-directed behaviours in children (Chow et al., 2016; Davids et al., 2008). Other key pedagogical principles relating to representativeness, awareness of focus of attention instructions, task simplification and the functional role of noise can help learners to develop 21st century competencies (Chow et al., 2016). Given growing concerns that physical inactivity could represent the biggest threat to global health in the 21st century, it is vital that children receive a high quality of education to develop their health and wellbeing.