PACT 240 - Cooperative Games in Physical Education

Understand your assignment

• Read your assignment thoroughly and highlight important points, such as the due date and format.
• Click on the Literature Review tab in this guide to learn more about that type of assignment.
• Check with your instructor if you have questions about the assignment itself. Different sections of PACT 240 may have slightly different assignments.

Gather background information

• Consult your course materials (notes, slides, textbook, etc...) and select a general topic to research. Ask yourself what aspect of cooperative games and child development you are interested in exploring? 

• Login with your CUE email address and password. This online encyclopedia has entries describing current research about various topics in the field of education. Use the search box located at the top, right hand side of the screen. Search for entries about the concepts you want to explore. For example, type in the words Physical Education and add a term like inclusion or social-emotional, depending on your topic of interest. Then read a few of the entries to help you understand your focus and pick some keywords and author names to use when searching the library databases.

Choose your focus question (also called a research question, inquiry question, or specific topic)

• Watch the video: Picking Your Topic IS Research and notice how the main character adjusts her topic (focus question).

• Do some test searching in the Education Research Complete database about the broad topic of cooperative learning in physical education and how it relates to the narrower topic in your focus question. For example, benefits to inclusion, academic performance, or social-emotional skills.
• Scan the results of your test searches and read some of the article summaries. This will help you to create a focus question that is not to broad or too narrow for your assignment. Make a note of any useful keywords you find about your topic.
• Remember to get approval from your instructor before going ahead and completing the assignment, if required.