Integrating the Inducement of Cognitive Conflict into the Pedagogical Model of the Tactical Approach to Teaching Volleyball Tactics in Physical Education

Abstract

The aim of the study was the integration of the teaching strategy of inducing cognitive conflict in the context of the tactical approach of TGfU (Teaching Games for Understanding) to teaching game tactics in PE and the comparison of its effectiveness to the dominant pedagogical model of the technical approach. 140 8th grade students from all public schools of Mytilene, Greece, participated in the study. Two 45-minute teaching interventions were realized, whereas students completed a previously validated volleyball tactics questionnaire on a pretest and posttest basis. While no statistically significant improvement was exhibited in both the control group and the typical teaching strategy group, results recorded statistically significant increase in the adoption of the accepted tactics conceptions in the discipline by students involved in the constructivist orientation intervention. The study confirmed that students’ active cognitive engagement in the construction of their knowledge constitutes a more effective teaching strategy than the typical teaching strategy of demonstration, explanation and practice, which perceives learning as a reproductive process. Moreover, the consideration of student preconceptions in the formulation of the appropriate questions for inducing cognitive conflict provides a promising teaching proposal in the context of the dialectical methodology of the tactical approach of TGfU.