Unit rationale, description and aim
Games and sport are prominent movement contexts within Physical Education, offering opportunities for young people to develop movement competence, tactical understanding, confidence, social connection and dispositions towards lifelong physical activity. Effective HPE/PDHPE teachers require the content knowledge and pedagogical judgement to select, modify and teach games safely, inclusively and purposefully for diverse learners.
This unit examines invasion, net/wall, striking/fielding and target games through sociocultural, movement science and game-based pedagogical perspectives. Preservice teachers will analyse the educational value of selected sports, movement demands, participation barriers, risk and safety considerations, and approaches that support equitable engagement. They will apply Games Sense and related game-based approaches to develop skills and tactical understanding through modified games, questioning, feedback, assessment and progressive lesson design.
The aim of this unit is to prepare preservice teachers to justify the inclusion of games and sports within HPE and to plan safe, inclusive and developmentally appropriate learning sequences that develop movement skills, decision-making and active participation.
Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Analyse the contribution of games and sport to mov...
Learning Outcome 01
Explain movement concepts, skill demands and tacti...
Learning Outcome 02
Evaluate a selected sport for safe, inclusive and ...
Learning Outcome 03
Design progressive lesson sequences that develop g...
Learning Outcome 04
Justify pedagogical decisions that support diverse...
Learning Outcome 05
Content
Topics will include:
- Purposes, histories and sociocultural meanings of games and organised sport in Australian HPE
- Contribution of games and sport to movement competence, physical activity, health, wellbeing and lifelong participation
- Games classifications: invasion, net/wall, striking/fielding and target games
- Movement concepts, fundamental movement skills, sport-specific skills and tactical principles
- Game-based pedagogies, including Games Sense, Teaching Games for Understanding and modified games
- Constraints, task modification, small-sided games, questioning, feedback and representative learning design
- Planning progressions from skill exploration to tactical application in game contexts
- Observation, movement analysis and assessment of skill execution, decision-making and game performance
- Risk assessment, safe equipment and space use, duty of care and management of practical HPE environments
- Inclusive participation, differentiation and adaptation for diverse cultural backgrounds, strengths, prior experiences and learning needs
- Gender, ability, access, competition and equity in games and sport participation
- Curriculum justification, lesson sequencing, resource selection and reflective professional practice
Assessment strategy and rationale
Two complementary assessment tasks provide authentic evidence of the unit learning outcomes. Together, the tasks assess analysis, evidence-informed judgement and practical planning. They establish the disciplinary and curriculum reasoning needed for professional practice across various games and sports. The sequence supports feedback between tasks, while reflective justification makes pedagogical decision-making visible. Generative AI may be used where permitted in the task instructions and must be acknowledged and critically evaluated.
Task 1 requires a critical analysis of a selected sport as an HPE context. Preservice teachers examine its movement and physical activity demands, educational value, sociocultural considerations, safety requirements and capacity to support inclusive participation, then justify whether and how it should be included in an HPE program. Task 2 requires the design of three connected lessons to develop a particular skill within a game context. Preservice teachers apply game-based pedagogy, learner progression, differentiation, safety, formative assessment and curriculum alignment to an implementable sequence.
To pass the unit, preservice teachers must demonstrate satisfactory achievement of all learning outcomes and attain an overall passing grade.
Overview of assessments
Assessment Task 1: Critical Sport Analysis for HP...
Assessment Task 1: Critical Sport Analysis for HPE
Select one sport and prepare an evidence-informed analysis of its appropriateness for inclusion within HPE/PDHPE. Analyse the sport’s movement patterns, skill and tactical demands, contribution to physical activity, and potential to support health, wellbeing and lifelong participation. Evaluate relevant safety, risk-management and duty-of-care considerations and identify barriers and enablers for inclusive participation by diverse learners.
50%
Assessment Task 2: Games Skill Sequence Plan a...
Assessment Task 2: Games Skill Sequence
Plan a coherent series of three lessons that develops one skill in the context of a selected game. The sequence must show learner progression from initial exploration and diagnosis to increasingly complex application in representative game situations. Provide a rationale explaining how the sequence draws on movement science, game-based pedagogy, curriculum requirements and evidence about how learners develop skill and tactical understanding. Explain how assessment evidence from each lesson informs the next lesson and how the planned adaptations support learners with varied strengths, prior experiences and needs.
50%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
Preservice teachers will learn through an integrated program of theoretical study, practical engagement, movement analysis, collaborative problem solving and reflective application. Adult learning is supported by connecting research and curriculum expectations to authentic decisions HPE teachers make when selecting, modifying, and teaching games and sports.
Practical engagement and video-supported observation will enable preservice teachers to experience invasion, net/wall, striking/fielding and target games, examine skill and tactical demands, and evaluate how constraints, questioning and feedback shape learning. Guided inquiry, case analysis and peer critique will develop the capacity to identify participation barriers, manage safety and adapt tasks for diverse learners. Online modules and independent study will provide flexible access to conceptual content and professional resources, while planning and micro-teaching activities will support rehearsal and constructive feedback. Across delivery modes, the learning design progressively moves from analysis of games and sport contexts to the application of evidence-informed, inclusive and safe pedagogies in coherent lesson sequences.
Australian Professional Standards for Teachers - Graduate Level
In connection to the learning outcomes, on successful completion of this unit, pre-service teachers should have developed the following industry specific knowledge based on the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers - Graduate Level standards:
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge and understanding of research into how students learn and the implications for teaching.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO4, LO5
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge of teaching strategies that are responsive to the learning strengths and needs of students from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO3, LO4, LO5
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge and understanding of strategies for differentiating teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO3, LO4, LO5
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concepts, substance and structure of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2, LO3, LO4
Relating toOrganise content into an effective learning and teaching sequence.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO4
Relating toUse curriculum, assessment and reporting knowledge to design learning sequences and lesson plans.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO4
Relating toPlan lesson sequences using knowledge of student learning, content and effective teaching strategies.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO4, LO5
Relating toInclude a range of teaching strategies.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO4
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge of a range of resources, including ICT, that engage students in their learning.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO3, LO4
Relating toIdentify strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in classroom activities.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO3, LO4, LO5
Relating toDescribe strategies that support students’ wellbeing and safety working within school and/or system, curriculum and legislative requirements.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO3, LO4, LO5
Relating toDemonstrate understanding of assessment strategies, including informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative approaches to assess student learning.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO4
Representative texts and references
Recommended text and documents
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2022). Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education (Version 9.0).
Relevant state or territory HPE curriculum and school safety documentation.
Recommended references
Breed, R., & Spittle, M. (2021). Developing game sense in physical education and sport. Human Kinetics.
Casey, A., & Larsson, H. (Eds.). (2016). Routledge handbook of physical education pedagogies. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315743561
Casey, A., & MacPhail, A. (2018). Adopting a models-based approach to teaching physical education. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 23(3), 294–310. https://doi.org/10.1080/17408989.2018.1429588
Dudley, D., Mackenzie, E., Van Bergen, P., Cairney, J., & Barnett, L. M. (2022). What drives quality physical education? A systematic review and meta-analysis of learning and development effects from physical education-based interventions. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, Article 799330. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.799330
Goodyear, V. A., Casey, A., & Kirk, D. (2014). Hiding behind the camera: social learning within the Cooperative Learning Model to engage girls in physical education. Sport, Education and Society, 19(6), 712–734. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2012.707124
Harvey, S., Pill, S., & Almond, L. (2018). Old wine in new bottles: A response to claims that Teaching Games for Understanding was not developed as a theoretically based pedagogical framework. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 23(2), 166–180. https://doi.org/10.1080/17408989.2017.1359526
Hyndman, B., & Pill, S. (2018). What’s in a concept? A Leximancer text mining analysis of physical literacy across the international literature. European Physical Education Review, 24(3), 292–313. https://doi.org/10.1177/1356336X17690312
Jeanes, R., Spaaij, R., Penney, D., & O’Connor, J. (2021). Managing differences and belonging in physical education and school sport. Sport, Education and Society, 26(9), 951–964. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2020.1800205
Mitchell, S. A., Oslin, J. L., & Griffin, L. L. (2020). Teaching sport concepts and skills: A tactical games approach (4th ed.). Human Kinetics.
Pill, S., SueSee, B., Rankin, J., & Hewitt, M. (2021). The spectrum of sport coaching styles. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003041443
Rudd, J. R., Woods, C., Correia, V., Seifert, L., & Davids, K. (2021). An ecological dynamics conceptualisation of physical ‘education’: Where we have been and where we could go next. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 26(3), 293–306. https://doi.org/10.1080/17408989.2021.1886271
Tolgfors, B. (2018). Different versions of assessment for learning in the subject of physical education. Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, 23(3), 311-327. https://doi.org/10.1080/17408989.2018.1429589
Valle-Muñoz, V. M., Mendoza-Muñoz, M., & Villa-González, E. (2025). Physical literacy as a pedagogical model in physical education. Children, 12(8), Article 1008. https://doi.org/10.3390/children12081008
Wilkie, B., Jordan, A., Foulkes, J., Woods, C. T., Davids, K., & Rudd, J. (2023). Examining the validity, reliability and feasibility of capturing children’s physical literacy through games-based assessment in physical education. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 5, Article 1188364. https://doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2023.1188364