Hybridization of pedagogical models in games invention

Abstract

This paper brings together the theoretical framework and research related to game invention, the comprehensive model, cooperative learning, and self-construction of materials in the context of Physical Education. Game Invention is a pedagogical model that engages students in the process of creating and improving their own games through collaboration. To put it into practice, students must collaborate, dialogue, and make decisions together to design playable game activities. Our curriculum proposal is based on the cooperative structure of learning teams and the rotation of roles. The integral model provides knowledge about the nature of sports games and the transfer of common tactical principles between modalities of the same category. The design framework is informed by the taxonomy of sports games proposed by Almond (1996) and later extended by Méndez-Giménez (2009). The link with the self-constructed material is intuitive and allows students to participate in the elaboration of didactic materials for Physical Education (Méndez-Giménez, 2024b). Their involvement enriches the creative process, brings variability to this hybridization, and reinforces collaboration, both in the construction of artifacts and in the evaluation itself. There are six phases in the development of these didactic units (6-10 sessions): (1) introduction and creation of materials, (2) game design, (3) testing of one's own and others' games, (4) refining the final game, (5) establishing the game, and (6) intraclass or interclass championship of the selected games. The results of the study by Méndez-Giménez and Garví-Medrano (unpublished) showed significant effects over time (global cooperation and competence) and interactions between factor X and group (identified regulation, self-determination index, basic psychological needs, global cooperation and social responsibility) in favor of the experimental group. No gender differences were found. The results help to understand how this hybridization affects the motivational and social dimensions of adolescents.