Many of you are familiar with Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU). For those who are not, TGfU is a games-based learning approach to physical education and sports training. In many ways it is a sort of spiritual precursor to the constraints-led approach (CLA), and many CLA coaches have borrowed from or built upon games and coaching tactics from TGfU.

Teaching Games for Understanding originally came out of constructivist learning theory: the idea that knowledge is actively constructed through experiences with the subject matter to be learned. It is active participation versus passive consumption. Constructivism is also the theoretical basis of discovery learning, which is a method I have referenced perhaps hundreds of times throughout my writings and podcasts.

Constructivism is technically a member of the cognitivist family of learning theories, but you will notice that its approach to knowledge is strikingly similar to the ecological one. This fact combined with the historical reality that it provided the fertile ground from which to grow both TGfU and the discovery learning method is what interested me to more closely study constructivism as a theory and what I can learn from it as an ecological thinker.

In this podcast, I’m going to be exploring an important concept in educational psychology through the lens of constructivism—and doing my best to connect it to the ecological approach for my readers.

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This episode was produced by Micah Peacock, including the intro and outro music.

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