Nonlinear Pedagogy and its role in encouraging twenty-first century competencies through physical education: a Singapore experience

Abstract

Nonlinear Pedagogy is an exploratory approach to teaching and learning Physical Education that can be potentially effective to help children acquire relevant twenty-first century competencies. Underpinned by Ecological Dynamics, the focus of Nonlinear Pedagogy is on the learner and includes the provision of less prescriptive instructions and guided discovery which serve to develop greater autonomy, competency, and relatedness in the learning process. This paper describes a study that examines the factors that contributed to motivation, enjoyment, and the development of twenty-first century competencies in Primary School Children. One hundred and thirty-three children were taught over seven weeks to play a modified-tennis game either with a Nonlinear Pedagogy or a Linear Pedagogy (i.e., more teacher-centred) approach in a Singapore school. While findings from the intrinsic motivation inventory (IMI) questionnaire showed that there was no difference for the subscales measured, student and teacher interviews indicated that the Nonlinear Pedagogy approach created a learning environment that facilitated perceived competence, autonomy, and relatedness, thus potentially enhancing intrinsic motivation and enjoyment during practice. Nonlinear Pedagogy encourages teachers to create representative learning designs through the inclusion of a variety of modified games, the freedom to choose, an emphasis on exploration and problem-solving, and can be relevant to develop twenty-first century competencies.