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New
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Year 11
Edexcel

Classification of skills on a continua

I can classify skills based on their characteristics and place them on the difficulty, environmental and organisational continua.

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New
New
Year 11
Edexcel

Classification of skills on a continua

I can classify skills based on their characteristics and place them on the difficulty, environmental and organisational continua.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Skills can be classified along continua based on their charactersitics.
  2. The difficulty continua classifies skills based on how complex they are to perform.
  3. The environmental continua classifies skills based on the level of influence environmental factors have when performing.
  4. The organisational continua classifies skills based on the ability to break down the skill into parts or subroutines.

Keywords

  • Skill - a learned action/behaviour

  • Difficulty continua - classifying how basic or complex a skill is to perform

  • Environmental continua - classifying how open or closed a skills is

  • Organisational continua - classifying whether a skill is low or high orgainsation.

Common misconception

A very common mistake made when classifying skills is to name a sport without the skill. For example, trying to classify 'rugby' rather than one of the many different skills within rugby.

Ensure pupils understand that specific skills are required and that they can name multiple examples of skills from different sports.


To help you plan your year 11 physical education lesson on: Classification of skills on a continua, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

Edexcel's Practical Performance Assessment Criteria document is a useful source for lists of sport specific skills which students can practice placing along the different continua for their own sports.
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This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
Which of these best defines a skill?
knowledge and understanding
natural talent
Correct answer: learned actions or behaviours
measurements
Q2.
Which of the following makes you a skilful performer?
performing an action successfully
Correct answer: repeating an action successfully
successfully doing a skill once
Q3.
Match these skills to their sport.
Correct Answer:scrummaging,rugby
tick

rugby

Correct Answer:cover drive,cricket
tick

cricket

Correct Answer:gybing,sailing
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sailing

Correct Answer:underarm serve,volleyball
tick

volleyball

Correct Answer:twizzle,figure skating
tick

figure skating

Q4.
What does the word classify mean?
to randomly assign something to a category without any reason
to make something more complicated by adding unnecessary details
to eliminate something from a group entirely
Correct answer: to categorise something based on its characteristics
Q5.
Which order would most people learn the following skills in?
1 - walking
2 - running
3 - kicking a ball and chasing after it
4 - running with a ball close to their feet
5 - dribbling a ball around other people with losing it
Q6.
The word environment means...
the weather conditions in a specific area at a given time
a set of laws and regulations governing human activities and behaviours
Correct answer: everything that surrounds us and influences our lives
a collection of buildings and infrastructure that make up a city or town

6 Questions

Q1.
Which of these are not skills?
passing in handball
serving in badminton
Correct answer: rugby
stopping in snowboarding
Correct answer: gymnastics
Q2.
Put these skills in order from the most closed to open in terms of environmental factors.
1 - a solo dance routine
2 - swimming in a freestyle race
3 - a table tennis serve
4 - receiving a pass in netball
Q3.
Match the continua to its description.
Correct Answer:difficulty continua,classifying how basic or complex a skill is to perform
tick

classifying how basic or complex a skill is to perform

Correct Answer:environmental continua,classifying how open or closed a skill is
tick

classifying how open or closed a skill is

Correct Answer:organisational continua,classifying whether a skill is low or high organisation
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classifying whether a skill is low or high organisation

Q4.
Low organisation skills have separate subroutines. Put these subroutines in order for the tennis serve.
1 - stance/start position
2 - ball toss
3 - backswing
4 - ball strike
5 - follow through
Q5.
A skill which is complex is likely to have which of these characteristics?
Correct answer: lots of information to process
no decisions to make
Correct answer: requires lots of concentration
is learned easily
Q6.
A skill which cannot be broken down into subroutines is classified as organisation.
Correct Answer: high, a high