Gymnastik- och idrottshögskolan, GIH

Introduction

Exergames inspire participants to be physically active in order to play. Several scholars pay attention to that the games have become popular among young people and may lead to an attractive alternative for promoting a healthy, active lifestyles, not at least in school (Gao et al 2013;Ennis 2013). In Sweden, PE should offer a variety of movement activities and movement qualities. Interesting to explore is then if exergames can be seen as a teaching resource to learn different movement’s qualities.

Research question

With a new artefact that has been introduced in PE and new policy documents emphasising development of different movement qualities, this paper aims to explore students’ movement qualities when they use exergames in PE with support of Laban´s movement analysis (LMA) and socio-cultural learning theory.

Method

The empirical datain this study mainly includevideo-recordings from three PElessons.The gamesoffered were ofthree differentcharacters, and the recorded material for this studyincludes a total of 24 events ofsports games,fitness games and dancegames. In the study, we are inspired bythe LMA frameworkand explorestudents' movement qualitieson the basis offouraspects; body, -effort-space andrelations. Further, with socio-cultural learning theory,recognition of artefacts, other people and the offered content of the exergames are also involved in the analysis. The learning explored isthereforeaboutaspectswhere the game, the player andthe social environmentinteractin learning of different movement qualities.

Results and discussion

Our findings show that exergamesare creating opportunitiesfor PEteachers and studentsto pay attentionto differentmovementqualities.When comparingthe three games both similarities and differencesinmovementqualities emerge in relation to thelearningofmovementqualities thatoccursin the interactionbetweenthe game,the learnerandthe learning environment. In PE the player is accordingly involved in a complexcontext of movement qualities, interactingwith the game andwithother student.

References

Ennis, C. D. (2013). Implications of exergaming for the physical education curriculum in the 21 st century. Journal of Sport and Health Science, 2, 152–157

Gao, Z., Hannan P., Xiang, P., Stodden, D. F., Valdez, V. E. (2013). Urban Latino children´s physical health and academic performance: effect of active video game based exercise. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 44, 240–246.