Learning Basketball Tactical Actions from Video Modeling and Static Pictures: When Gender Matters

Recent studies within the physical education domain have shown the superiority of dynamic visualizations over their static counterparts in learning different motor skills. However, the gender difference in learning from these two visual presentations has not yet been elucidated. Thus, this study aimed to explore the gender difference in learning basketball tactical actions from video modeling and static pictures. Eighty secondary school students (M(age) = 15.28, SD = 0.49) were quasi-randomly (i.e., matched for gender) assigned to a dynamic condition (20 males, 20 females) and a static condition (20 males, 20 females). Immediately after watching either a static or dynamic presentation of the playing system (learning phase), participants were asked to rate their mental effort invested in learning, perform a game performance test, and complete the card rotations test (test phase). The results indicated that spatial ability (evaluated via the card rotations test) was higher in males than in female students (p < 0.0005). Additionally, an interaction of gender and type of visualization were identified, supporting the ability-as-compensator hypothesis: female students benefited particularly from video modeling (p < 0.0005, ES = 3.12), while male students did not (p > 0.05, ES = 0.36). These findings suggested that a consideration of a learner’s gender is crucial to further boost learning of basketball tactical actions from dynamic and static visualizations.