Closed and Open Practice

One of my favourite topics to speak on is game design principles. This interest was first established when I read Rick Charlesworth's ideas on a game-based coaching approach that he called Designer Games.

During my thesis work while investigating the design theory behind game-basd approaches to sport teaching in PE and sport coaching I came across Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman's (2003) "Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals". They descibe the essential features of games as:

There is Design:

There is Meaning:

Games are Systems:

There are Rules:

Rules, Play, and Culture intersect:

Some years later while researching for a paper, I came across the Good Game Design and Learning ideas of J. P Gee, describing how digital game designers use learning theory. This work described good game design for player learning as comprising:

Customising identity:

Risk-Taking and Failure positied as opportunities to learn:

Customisation of interaction within the game:

Pleasantly frustrating experiences as players are constantly operating in their zone of proximal development:

The games are a sequence of well-ordered problems:

The game involves cycles of expertise:

Information is provided to the players "Just-in-Time" and "On-Demand":

Players learn through doing (Active learning):

Players must use critical thinking and reasoning to solve the problems:

There are 'sandboxes' - practice areas outside of the game

 This exploration lead me write to the paper: Game play: What does it mean for pedagogy to think like a game developer? Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 85(1), 9-15.

Available here

and a few years later to collaborate with Amy Price on the papers:

 

Can Gee’s good (digital) game design features inform game-based sport coaching. Research Journal of Sport Science, 4, 257-69. Available here

Game design fundamentals and sport coaching. ÁGORA para la Educación Física y el Deporte, 19(1), 19-34. Available here

I have written about the ideas in those papers in a previous blog here and specifically for PE teaching here and for sport coaching here

Amy Price developed a pedagogical model based on Gee's ideas for sport coaching, with three key ideas:

Focus on developing thinking players using player metacognition and problem-solving by coaching through training scenarios where players must analyse situations, make choices, and direct their own decisions on the field.

Empower Players: Enable players to feel like active agents in their learning through choices and customisation.

Outcome: Good game design enables players to become more self-aware, flexible, and independent in their thinking, enabling them to make better decisions and adapt to dynamic game situations.

You can read more about that work here

Putting the ideas into my Own Practice

This is an example of what the game design ideas look like in my own practice (I coach an Australian football-AFL women's D1 team using the Play with Purpose model). This is an example from the game-form practice of a recent training session. 

Play

The game had the following 'special' rules that matched to our game plan. The game started and re-started from any score at one of the teams defensive-end with a "free kick" from the goal square as the focus of the month was 'how' to build attacking play out of the back-defensive third of the ground.

- Team Power Ups: 

If the starting kick resulted directly in a mark to team-mate anywhere on the 50m arc at that end of the field, the team 'powered up' with an immediate shift forward of possession to a free kick from the centre circle.

If in open play, there was a switch from 'half-back' and the 'narrow' (where most of the players were) side across to the 'fat' or 'open' side of the ground the team 'powered up' with an immediate shift forward of possession to a free kick at their forward 50m line.

- Individual Power Ups

In our training, players wearing a yellow vest indicates they can't be tackle as they are required by the medical team to be in non-contact training. Three players from each team were told that when they attained 5 handball receives from a team-mate they were able to 'power-up' to a yellow vest. These are players whose role requires them to get to 'A2' or 'contest-connect' positions.

Practice

- Sandbox

At any time, a player could exit the game and practice with a designated assistant coach their kicking for 6 minutes.

Inquiry

- the captain of either team could call a maximum of two- 2 minute 'tactical time-outs' to discuss team strategy and individual player tactics with their team during the 30 minutes of play 

In summary

The best Games are built and function as systems (Saleen and Zimmerman)

These systems are designed to be inherently effective for learning (Gee)

Thanks for stopping by and reading this post. If you would like to connect with me on a project to do with this blog or any of the other ideas that I have blogged about, you can contact me by the email link available here