The influence of school context on the implementation of TGfU across a secondary school physical education department

Over the past decade Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) has enjoyed a sustained revival of interst from researchers and practitioners across the globe that is strong enough to be described as a 'movement' (see, for example, Light 2005). Along with other game-based approaches (GBA) it has come to form one of the more prominent areas of research interest in physical education with a well-attended series of international conferences on TGfU established from2001, and with the most recent one held in TGfU's 'birthplace' at Loughborough University in the UK in July 2002. Research consistently confirms the effectiveness of this approach to teaching in terms of developing better games players, generating positive affective experiences of learning and promoting a range of positive social, moral and personal learning (see, for example, Butler and Griffin 2010; Holt, Ward and Wallhead 2007; Light 2013 and Chapter 6 by Jarrett and Harvey). Despite these positive developments, the uptake of TGfU and other game-based approaches (GBA) by physical education teachers across the globe remains limited. Even in Singapore, where a variation of TGfU, the games concept approach (GCA), was mandated by the Ministry of Education, a sustained body of research conducted over the past decade suggests that it is yet to make a significant impact upon practice (see Chapter 3 by Fry and McNeill)