A game sense approach focuses physical education lessons on games, encouraging students to develop tactical awareness, decision making skills, and strategic thinking within a realistic game context. This makes lessons more enjoyable while effectively developing skills. Using games applies techniques in realistic situations that require pressure, tactics, and skill. It challenges students to explore and discover solutions themselves, while developing communication, cooperation and rule following. This aligns well with the NSW PDHPE syllabus by promoting negotiation, decision making, cooperation, creative movement, problem solving, and participation in games incorporating strategy, teamwork and fair play.

1. USING A
GAME SENSE
APPROACH IN
5L PDHPE

2. WHAT IS A GAME
SENSE APPROACH?
Game Sense is a teaching and coaching
approach that targets games as the focus of the
lesson (Towns, 2002).

3. WHY USING A GAME
SENSE IS BENEFITIAL?
A Game Sense approach encourages
the students to be more aware in their tactics, make
better decisions during the game, to think strategically
about game concepts whilst developing skills within a
realistic context and to have fun during the process.
When students are focused on the game, they are
encouraged to develop a greater understanding of the
game being played. The desired effect of this is that
players/students are more tactically aware and are
therefore able to make better decisions during the game.
At the same time skills are being developed within a
realistic and enjoyable context rather than practice in
isolation (Towns, 2002; Pill, 2016).

4. GAME SENSE
APPROACH STRENGTHS
Games as well as being fun, offer a very effective way
of developing skill since the techniques are learnt in a
'real' game situation with a degree of pressure and
the need for tactical thinking. Skill development is
not forgotten, but incorporated into the game
situation. Developing technique is vitally important;
the more skill, the more options.

5. GAME SENSE APPROACH
STRENGTHS
The Game Sense is an approach that challenges students,
allows and encourages students to explore, to hold back
and allow players to discover for themselves, to step in
only occasionally to ask questions and to raise awareness
or offer guidance and advice (Towns, 2002). This
approach allows students to come up with solutions,
which may be different from the one anticipated, but at
the rewards to be gained by the process of obtaining that
solution. Using this approach, the teachers thinking is
also challenged (Light, 2013).

6. GAME SENSE LINKS WITH THE
PDHPE SYLLABUS
The Game Sense teaching approach in many ways
relates to the Stage 3, Year 5 PDHPE syllabus.
COS3.1
Communicates confidently in a variety of situations.
– uses negotiation skills in group activities, eg games
DMS3.2
Makes informed decisions and accepts responsibility
for consequences.
– applies decisionmaking processes when choosing a
recreational pursuit
– evaluates personal decisions
– accepts responsibility for their decisions

7. GAME SENSE LINKS WITH THE PDHPE
SYLLABUS
INS3.3
Acts in ways that enhance the contribution of self and others in a range of cooperative
situations.
– Expresses and acts appropriately on concern for others
MOS3.4
Refines and applies movement skills creatively to a variety of challenging situations.
PSS3.5
Suggests, considers and selects appropriate alternatives when resolving problems.
– selects the most appropriate solution to a given problem
– reflects on outcomes of chosen solution
GSS3.8
Applies movement skills in games and sports that require communication,
cooperation, decision making and observation of rules.
– devises games or refines rules of games that require equipment
– participates in games and sports combining strategy, teamwork, movement skill and fair
play
– explains the rationale for particular strategies and rules in individual and team games
and sports

8. REFERENCES
Board of Studies, NSW. (2007). Personal development, health and
physical education K-6: Syllabus. Sydney, Australia: Author.
Light, R. (2013). Game sense for physical education and sport coaching.
In Game sense: Pedagogy for performance, participation and enjoyment
(pp. 37-47). London, UK: Routledge.
Towns, J. (2002). About Game Sense. University for Woolongong.
Retrieved from
http://www.activehealth.uow.edu.au/gamesense/index.html
Pill, S. (2016). An appreciative inquiry exploring game sense teaching in
physical education. Sport, Education and Society, 21(2), 279-297.