A Pragmatic Approach to Skill Acquisition for Physical Education: Considering Cognitive and Ecological Dynamics Perspectives

Learning theories provide philosophically informed, basic principles for understanding the mechanisms through which people learn based on a combination of field or laboratory studies. Unfortunately, however, there are several clear conflicts between theoretical approaches and common methods in teaching. Consequently, key challenges among teachers relate to knowing which theoretical approach to adopt and, therefore, methods to apply. This contradiction is even more confusing since some arguments from each approach are coherent with current practice, whilst others are either inconsistent, unclear or even counter to established teaching views. In short, the implications for teachers are, at best, suboptimal. Accordingly, this paper aims to explore the differences in theoretical perspectives and thence, to propose that there is a need for multiple approaches, possibly used in combination. We hope to offer clearer guidance for practitioners and provide some direction to promote better application from researchers.