Examining the efficacy of the tasks framed by the stages of game development on upper elementary students' learning in tennis

Teacher sequencing of instructional tasks is necessary for student learning (Siedentop & Tannehill, 2000). Rink (2006) proposed four stages of game development (SGD) to assist teachers in transitioning student learning from... [ view full abstract ]

Teacher sequencing of instructional tasks is necessary for student learning (Siedentop & Tannehill, 2000). Rink (2006) proposed four stages of game development (SGD) to assist teachers in transitioning student learning from discrete skill performance to applying skills in game contexts. To date, there has been no research evidence validating that efficacy of Rink’s model. This study examined how the use of SGD impacted student learning in an elementary tennis unit. 

Participants were one elementary school teacher and 41 students in 4^th and 5^th grade organized into the comparison (CC; n=26; 2 classes) and the experimental conditions (EC; n=15; 2 classes). The teacher taught a three-day tennis unit to the CC. Next, he received two-hours of tennis content training to introduce tasks framed by SGD. Finally, he taught a three-day tennis unit to the EC. Prior to and following the teacher training, the teacher’s knowledge of instructional tasks was assessed using a content map and categorized using SGD. Tasks used in actual teaching in both conditions were also categorized using SGD. Students’ tennis skills were assessed by a performance test on the pre-post test. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the content map and actual teaching. Students’ learning gains were examined using a Mann-Whitney U test. 

The teacher’s developed more tasks in stage two (controlling the object/body in complex and dynamic contexts) and three (integrating simple offense and defense skills) on the content map after the training (pre-2,post-8). The teacher also used more stage two (pre-7%,post-29%) and stage three tasks (pre-0,post-10%) in his actual teaching. The students in the EC had a higher gain score in the tennis skill performance test than the students in CC (U=84.50,Z=-2.99],p=.003,r=-.46).

The findings provide the first empirical evidence of the efficacy of SGD demonstrating that step-by-step sequenced tasks are critical for student learning.