ABSTRACT
In this chapter we explore key concepts used in the design of videogame and consider how these can inform the application of teaching games for understanding (TGfU) with the Sport Education model (SEM) to create an ecological approach to learning. This chapter is separated into four areas: (1) videogame design principles of gameplay, playability, game mechanics and player identity; (2) constraints and ecological approaches to learning; (3) personal narratives on gameplay related to school PE; and (4) connecting videogame concepts to personal narratives on gameplay. A central proposition informing this chapter is that as suggested by TGfU and SEM critiques of teaching games, too often games taught in PE remove the complexity of the game, focusing on motor skills to play the game resulting in monotonous lessons, or for novice learners, a feeling of failure or lack of imagined identity with the game. In contrast, successful video games effectively channel this complexity into exciting challenges that enable skill learning to emerge in the game, as learners become players who experience the flow of the game. Focusing on PE games we show through a series of anecdotes drawn from our lived experiences as game player, non-game player and parent, how learning can be understood as emerging within a complex adaptive system. As such we suggest that a combination of the TGfU/SEM approaches, informed by video game design, can help realize ecological learning approaches to teaching games in PE.
