‘I can show you; here’s the video’ – video-supported student-led debates in game-based approaches

The utilization of devices like iPads for video feedback has become increasingly popular and is now acknowledged as a valuable asset in PE. Nevertheless, existing research and implementation of video feedback have been primarily concentrating on particular skills. This study explores students’ perceptions of video-supported debates in game-based approaches. For this purpose, a football unit was taught using the instructional approach of Teaching Games for Understanding. Students were presented with football in the context of three-versus-three games and one child on each team tagged game situations with an app. The research approach involved qualitative methods, specifically using grounded theory methodology (Corbin & Strauss, Citation2008), to analyse semi-structured interviews conducted with students. Based on the interview analysis, the phenomena that students experienced in visualised student-led debates were classified as: 1) beneficial video analysis (with the subcategories of visible assessment of game performance and facilitating images for the discussion of (certain) game situations), and 2) collaboratively developed game plans (with the subcategories of strategic tactical considerations and efficient technical hints). The outcomes of the study reveal beneficial impacts on student conversations and interactions. The findings suggest that collectively watching videos can have a positive impact on debates of ideas, even at the primary school level.