Getting familiar with Teaching Games for Understanding – A qualitative experiment with German and Swiss teachers

The professionalization of teachers is one central topic in both educational sciences and subject didactics. Within this debate pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) has turned out to be a core component of professional competence. Consequently, PCK must be a primary task for teacher education. In Physical Education teaching games has been a conflicting issue in sport didactics for more than fifty years, especially considered from the perspective of game vs. skill orientation. In this case, the concept of TGfU has proved as an adequate and effective conception; thus, it can be assumed that this approach should be integrated into the education of PE teachers. This article deals with the issue of teaching TGfU to preservice teachers in Germany and Switzerland. We first deal with a framework for teacher education and its main target dimensions. Second, we present TGfU as a didactical conception for teaching sport games and its possibilities of implementing quality dimensions. Third, we present a study in which a qualitative experiment was conducted. It aimed at teaching the concept of TGfU to a variety of teachers over nine months. Some ideas and recommendations for teacher education round off the article.