In the past two decades, complexity thinking has emerged as an important theoretical response to the limitations of orthodox ways of understanding educational phenomena. Complexity provides ways of understanding that embrace uncertainty, non-linearity and the inevitable 'messiness' that is inherent in educational settings, paying attention to the ways in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This is the first book to focus on complexity thinking in the context of physical education, enabling fresh ways of thinking about research, teaching, curriculum and learning.Written by a team of leading international physical education scholars, the book highlights how the considerable theoretical promise of complexity can be reflected in the actual policies, pedagogies and practices of physical education (PE). It encourages teachers, educators and researchers to embrace notions of learning that are more organic and emergent, to allow the inherent complexity of pedagogical work in PE to be examined more broadly and inclusively. In doing so, Complexity Thinking in Physical Education makes a major contribution to our understanding of pedagogy, curriculum design and development, human movement and educational practice.

Chapter 1. Complexity thinking in Physical Education; Reframing pedagogy, curriculum and research - Alan Ovens, Tim Hopper, Joy Butler Chapter 2. Complexity of Intervention: Implementing Curricula in the Authentic World of Schools - Catherine Ennis Chapter 3. Introducing Conditions of Complexity in the Context of Scottish Physical Education - Mike Jess, Nicola Carse and Matthew Atencio Chapter 4. Complexity, Equity and Critical Approaches to Physical Education - Katie Fitzpatrick Chapter 5. Affordance networks and the complexity of learning - Alan Ovens & Kath Godber Chapter 6. Intentionality, Coordination dynamics and the complexity of human movement - Wayne Smith Chapter 7. Ongoing adaptation as a feature of complexity: Further thoughts and possible ideas for pedagogy in physical activity - Anthony Rossi & Timothy Carroll Chapter 8. "Another damned, thick, square book!" Tracing learning theory in physical education textbooks, 1900-2010 - Ellen Singleton Chapter 9. Enabling Constraints: Co-creating Situated Learning in Inventing Games - Joy Butler and Claire Robson Chapter 10. Effective Learning Design for the Individual: A Nonlinear Pedagogical Approach in Physical Education - Jia Yi Chow, Ian Renshaw, Chris Button, Keith Davids, Clara Tan Wee Keat Chapter 11. A nonlinear pedagogy for sports teams as social neurobiological systems: How teams can harness self-organization tendencies - Chris Button, Jia-Yi Chow, Bruno Travassos, Luis Vilar, Ricardo Duarte, Pedro Passos, Duarte Araújo and Keith Davids Chapter 12. Emergence in School Integrated Teacher Education for elementary PE teachers: Mapping a complex learning system - Tim Hopper Chapter 13. The "Complex Thinking" paradigm in Physical Education Teacher Education: Perspectives about the "reflective practitioner" concept in France - Nathalie Wallian and Ching-Wei Chang Chapter 14. Modification by Adaptation: Proposing Another Pedagogical Principle for TGfU - Karen Pagnano Richardson, Deborah Sheehy, Timothy Hopper Chapter 15. Thinking about complexity thinking for physical education - Richard Tinning and Anothony Rossi