Wii Teach Movement Qualities in Physical Education

Abstract

In Sweden, the PE curriculum states that students are expected to develop a number of abilities, a variety of movement activities and qualities. Interesting to explore is then if exergames (video games that includes physical activity) can be seen as a teaching resource to learn different movement's qualities. With a new teaching tool that has been introduced in education and new policy documents emphasising development of different movement qualities, the purpose of this article is accordingly to investigate students' use of different movement qualities when playing various exergames during PE. For this we use a version of Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) adapted for exploring exergames in PE practice. The empirical data include video-recordings from PE lessons. The games offered were of three different characters; sports games, exercise games and dance games. We are inspired by the LMA framework and explore students' movement qualities on the basis of four aspects; body, effort, space and relations. Further, with socio-cultural learning theory, recognition of artefacts, other people and the offered content of the exergames are also involved in the analysis. Our findings show that exergames are creating opportunities for PE teachers and students to pay attention to different movement qualities. In PE the player is accordingly involved in a complex context of movement qualities, interacting with the game and with other students.

Meaningful Experiences in Physical Education and Youth Sport: A Review of the Literature

“…When students struggle to establish connections to their broader lives, they report a lack of meaningfulness in these physical education and youth sport experiences (Koekoek et al, 2009;Quennerstedt, 2013;Redelius, Quennerstedt, & Öhman, 2015;Smith & Parr, 2007). The use of exergames represents one contemporary way to help students make connections between physical education in schools and physical activity interests outside school and thus enhance meaningful participation for students (Maivorsdotter et al, 2015;Meckbach, Gibbs, Almqvist, & Quennerstedt, 2014).…”

Exploring gender habits: A practical epistemology analysis of exergaming in school

“…The study reported in this paper is part of a larger four-year project funded by the Swedish Research Council, which includes a group of researchers taking part in the data collection and analysis of the qualitative data (Meckbach et al, 2014; Öhman et al, 2014; Quennerstedt et al, 2013). In the project, PE lessons in which exergames are used in combination with ‘free choice’ activities organised by the PE teacher are video-recorded.…”

How Wii Teach Physical Education and Health

“…Nyberg & Meckbach (2015) continue this argument showing students' knowledge in relation to dance exergames. Meckbach, Gibbs, Almqvist & Quennerstedt (2014) show how different movement qualities are offered in the games.…”