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The Tactical Versus Technical Paradigm: Scholarship On Teaching Games With A ‘Catch-22’, Adrian P. Turner

School of Human Movement, Sport, and Leisure Studies Faculty Publications

This chapter examines specific game-based and technique approaches that constituted the foci for experimental research attempting to test hypotheses concerning cause-and-effect relationships. Games teaching approaches, e.g., Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) and technique instruction, were manipulated and measured on criteria that included skill assessments, declarative and procedural knowledge, and game performance components. Research also contrasted off-the-ball offensive and defensive player movements. This method of experimental inquiry necessitated a meticulous approach; it required investigators to restrict threats to the internal validity of the research while simultaneously trying to protect the ecological validity. This scenario represented a “Catch-22” for sport pedagogy scholars …