Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) as a positive and versatile approach to teaching adapted games

This paper presents a small scale research project that focused on pre-service physical education (PE) teachers’ and sports coaches’ considerations of using Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) to teach games. A research design akin to action research was adopted whereby pre-service PE teachers and sports coaches (n = 72) completed a one-off 90 minute introduction to wheelchair rugby league utilising a TGfU approach. Data were generated through end of session whole-class reflections, semi-structured individual interviews undertaken (n = 3), and post session first-author/primary practitioner reflections. Data analysis was conducted via inductive coding procedures and revealed three themes: 1) TGfU as a positive pedagogy; 2) TGfU as a versatile approach, and 3) significance of content within a PE Teacher Education programme.