Skill Acquisition in Physical Education: A Speculative Perspective

How we learn motor skills has always been of interest to physical educators. Contemporary conceptual frameworks about motor skill learning draw from earlier behavioral and cognitive psychology learning theories. As a point of departure this paper foregrounds complexity theorizing, arguing that skill is contingent upon the performer's physical and social context. Drawing on nonlinear dynamics systems theory, ecological psychology (Gibson, 1979), its associated perception/action coupling (Kugler and Turvey, 1988), an adaption to Gibson's ecological theory (Withagen & van der Kamp, 2010), and the sociological framework of Pierre Bourdieu (1977, 1990, 1998, 2000), it is argued that ecological perspectives and social theories that take account of the complexity of the performance contexts have a part to play in explaining how physical skills are performed and learnt. The relational properties between the learner and the context are essential elements of skill.