Making Sense of Decision Making in Invasion Team Sports - A Teaching/Learning Perspective in Physical Education

Abstract

Since the 1990s, decision making (DM) in sports has been extensively investigated, particularly through expert players' decisions made mostly in standardized contexts but also, to a lesser extent, in naturalistic settings. The purpose of this article is to re-examine the teaching/learning of decision making in invasion team sports in light of the contemporary research conducted with high-level performers. First, following a brief overview of the situation awareness (SA) construct, three decision making (DM) perspectives are presented: information processing (IP), naturalistic DM, and ecological dynamics (EcoD). In a second major section, invasion-team-sports (ITS) SA in PE is examined with regard to SA components and the differentiation of five SA facets. In a third major section, presenting implications for ITS DM learning in PE, the teaching/learning of ITS-DM is discussed with regard to beginner- and novice-level players in Physical Education. Constructing a shared reference-framework for DM through team reflection on game-play situations is also considered, namely with regard to critical-incidents analysis and unexpected play-occurrences. In a context of the teaching/learning of DM in ITS in school, the authors submit that precedence should be given to information processing and to recognition-primed perspectives. Resort to mental representation networks and recognition of familiar configurations of play is critical to establish situation awareness and learn to make appropriate decisions. Such an option fits well with a social constructivist view of DM learning. Keywords: invasion team sports, decision making, situation awareness, information processing, recognition-primed process