Vignettes and triadic games: Novel approaches to assess students’ declarative knowledge in physical education

Abstract

The emergence of Teaching Games for Understanding aimed to promote a shift from teacher-centred to student-centred learning frameworks. The Tactical Games Model, a simplified version, aims to create players who are both technically and tactically intelligent. Triadic games are a novel framework for games teaching, since they include the ambivalent relationship between three teams playing the same game. This study sought to compare the impact of two intervention programmes on students’ declarative tactical knowledge. A quasi-experimental, pre-test, post-test research design was employed with a total of 268 participants (grades 8–12). The experimental group ( n = 131, 62 boys, 69 girls) experienced triadic games, while the comparison group ( n = 137, 79 boys, 58 girls) experienced dual games. To assess students’ knowledge, students solved vignettes: concise descriptions of a hypothetical situation. At the beginning and end of each session, the students solved the same vignette designed based on the tactical principle/goal of the session. To assess the students’ responses, a four-level rubric was developed. Descriptive and inferential analyses of variance and covariance were conducted. Results showed that both study groups improved their scores to a similar extent, in all grades, except grade eight. It is notable that girls showed stronger improvements ( p = .028). Triadic games appear to constitute a useful game form and vignettes an appropriate instrument for assessing students’ declarative tactical knowledge.