The Effect of Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) Approach on Physical Literacy among Ten-year-old Boys

The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of teaching games for understanding approach on physical literacy, as well as its subdomains. To this aim, the ten-year-old (mean age=10.2 years, SD 0.7) students in two fourth-grade classes at a school in Sirjan were randomly divided into control (N = 12) and experimental (N= 12) groups. First, all of the students were given a Canadian Assessment of Physical Literacy Second Edition (CAPL-2). The students in the experimental group participated in an intervention program for 36 sessions each for 45 minutes. The participants in the control group followed the usual program. In the next procedure, they were given the same test after the intervention. Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the scores of each factor after the intervention and the groups by removing the effect of each factor before the intervention based on the scale of “multivariate analysis of covariance" and “Poisson regression analysis” by using the GEE method at the significance level of P ≤0.05. Based on the results, teaching games for understanding approach played a positive role in physical literacy, daily behavior, knowledge and understanding, and motivation and confidence, but no significant difference was observed regarding physical competence. Thus, the use of the TGfU approach can be effective in facilitating the development of physical literacy elements among children.