The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences and the meanings of the teachers in writing
competitive game activities of elementary physical education textbooks for 3rd through 6th graders. The
participants were three teachers who had been teaching game activities more than 10 years and who had
strived to be experts in elementary physical education. From May of 2012 through October of 2013, a total of
six in-depth interviews were performed for each participant. Additional informal interviews, email, and
telephone conversations were done more than thirty times. Also a supplementary informant, two peer
debriefers, and member checks were used to increase the trustworthiness of the data. Using NVivo 10, data
obtained from interviews, journals, pictures, videos, and manuscripts were coded and classified. The emerged
categories were ‘the philosophy of writing textbooks’, ‘the difficulties of the writers’, ‘the meaning of writing
textbooks’, and ‘the necessary changes for the future.’ The philosophy of writing textbooks was grouped by
‘identifying problems of existing textbooks’, ‘recognizing the importance of good textbook’, and‘recognizing the
appropriate activities in elementary physical education.’ The difficulties of the writers were ‘lack of
understanding about Teaching Games for Understanding’, ‘conflicts among the writers’, conflicts between the
writers and the publisher, and ‘processes of overcoming conflicts.’ The writers’ meanings of writing textbooks
were boiled down to ‘having the pride of the writers’, ‘expressing the values of physical activity’ and ‘expanding
expertise in elementary physical education.’For the desirable changes in writing textbooks of game activities,
‘worries of the writers’, ‘recognizing the necessity of changes’ and ‘the changes for practical application’ were
discussed.