Teachers' perspectives about contents and learning aim of physical education in Italian primary school

The physical education (PE) in the Italian primary school and its teaching and organizational issues have long been a key topic of the political and scientific debate, however the various actions carried out so far have not been enough to recognize contents and methods of physical and sports education correctly oriented in an educational way, often reducing the time of curricular PE or the project experiences of physical literacy and sport to mere physical-technical exercises. The aim of this work is to develop the essential didactic-methodological contents and to define a model of core curriculum of Sport and Exercise Sciences degrees for teaching of PE in primary school and for sport education in sports associations for leisure and recreational activities. To this end will be conducted an analysis of ministerial documents for the identification of the main educational aspects of the contents and learning outcomes of PE in primary school. Then discussion with primary school teachers has been realized, through focus groups content-focused on PE at school as provided by National Guidelines and on specific projects carried out in collaboration between Italian Ministry of Education and Italian Olympic Committee

Inclusion in physical and sport education for special movement needs

European Union countries promote an approach to social cohesion based on equity of rights. One of these fundamental rights is access to optimal health: physical activity is a key element in promoting and maintaining individual health and well-being. It is therefore necessary to guarantee full access to the right to health for all, also through a correct approach qualitative-quantitative to physical activities and sports, with particular attention to "special" populations (children, elderly, people with disabilities and more generally people who are vulnerable) which are more exposed to risk factors for health and well-being. The research activity aims to promote inclusion through physical and sports education programs able to respond to the needs for movement by "special" populations, needs that require specific and further adaptations according to the contingencies determined by the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose is also to describe and compare the behaviours implemented and the opinions expressed, as well as the system of norms, values, beliefs to which the subjects belonging to the selected sample of participants (disabled people that practice sport activities) in the survey activity in order to define physical and sports education programs adapted to the special needs for movement

Outdoor movement education in primary school during COVID-19 pandemic in the synthetic perceptions of primary school university training student

The problem is the new scenario for the school in the SARS-COVID-19 pandemic era, especially in physical education (PE) because of the extreme difficulty to practice body and physical activity by distance for students 5-11 age. The aim is to detect the opinions of master's degree courses in primary education students to have the complex aspects of contents and objectives of PE in outdoor mode. Through a qualitative survey carried out by submitting specific questionnaires by the Google Modules platform at the random sample of primary education master student population of Salerno and Basilicata in the southern part of Italy. Questionnaire is made by 28 questions related to: demographic data (1-5), practice of indoor and outdoor physical activity (6-14), physical education in school during pandemic (15-18), the future practice or possibility of practicing outdoor lessons (19-23), on the psychological impact due to social distancing / closure of gyms (24-26 ) and on the perception of the importance of physical and motor activity during COVID-19 (27-28). The data showed how active are students, where they practice, how the pandemic and the smart configuration of life affected their lifestyles, what are their perceptions and perspectives about outdoor movement education. Thus, it needs different university training about the teaching methods of PE, the need to provide training actions also on the teaching of outdoor movement education, by providing these knowledges during teachers’ training, it is possible that they can increase children chances of moving and of a global development of their skills

Primary school physical education in outdoor during COVID-19 pandemic: The perceptions of teachers

In Italy since February 2020 and still currently, schools of all levels throughout the National territory have carried out their activities alternating distance teaching with face-to-face one, with the relative adaptations due to the online and face-to-face mode in compliance with the health safety protocols. Teachers had to make substantial changes to their teaching/learning design and, to deal with this issue, the permanent training activities in service are fundamental. Physical education is one of the teaching subjects that most needs to be adapted in design and outdoor movement education seems to be a good practice to be developed to offer new ideas for teaching/learning planning. The aim is to detect the opinions of primary school teachers in order to offer effective contents of the permanent training about physical education during pandemic and to promote teaching methods of physical education in primary school moreover on outdoor education. The results show how active are teachers, where they practice, how the pandemic and the smart configuration of life affected their lifestyles, what are their perceptions and perspectives about outdoor physical education and its importance for the achievement of children movement development goal. The collected data revealed an high recognition of the contribution that physical education offers to the achievement of skills development goals but at the same time emerge specific training needs in teaching methods of physical education

Topological susceptibility of 2d CP12d~\mathrm{CP}^1 or O(3)\mathrm{O}(3) non-linear σ\sigma-model: is it divergent or not?

The topological susceptibility of $2d$ $\mathrm{CP}^{N-1}$ models is expected, based on perturbative computations, to develop a divergence in the limit $N \to 2$, where these models reduce to the well-known non-linear $\mathrm{O}(3)$ $\sigma$-model. The divergence is due to the dominance of instantons of arbitrarily small size and its detection by numerical lattice simulations is notoriously difficult, because it is logarithmic in the lattice spacing. We approach the problem from a different perspective, studying the behavior of the model when the volume is fixed in dimensionless lattice units, where perturbative predictions are turned into more easily checkable behaviors. After testing this strategy for $N = 3$ and $4$, we apply it to $N = 2$, adopting at the same time a multicanonic algorithm to overcome the problem of rare topological fluctuations on asymptotically small lattices. Our final results fully confirm, by means of purely non-perturbative methods, the divergence of the topological susceptibility of the $2d$ $\mathrm{CP}^1$ model.Comment: v1: 20 pages, 26 eps figures; v2: 14 pages, 14 eps figures, revised text, conclusions unchanged, matches published versio

Physical activity and sports sciences between European Research Council and academic disciplines in Italy

Also in Italy, as well as to be in all others states European Union, the academic disciplines in university system have to change to conform to the 3 areas: SH Social Sciences and Humanities, PE Physical Sciences and Engineering, LS (Life Sciences), 25 panel and 333 sub panel of European Research Council Panel Structure 2018. Nowadays, it is compulsory to have the same language within the European Union and its European Research Council Executive Agency (ERCEA). This change concerns the funding of research and the recruitment of professors; currently in Italy they follow two different procedures and the reform aims to pursue the unique way. Physical activity and sports sciences are in two different scientific areas: the human and social sciences and the life sciences. The problem is therefore to choose a single scientific area or to stay in two areas, to define the declaration of the academic discipline with the protection of the professors’ rights and the relationship with the ERC Area. The academic disciplines of Physical activity and Sport sciences field could be made by the following descriptors: Health, ageing - Social aspects of learning, curriculum studies, educational policies - Science and technology studies - Cognitive basis of human development and education, developmental disorders; comparative cognition - Personality and social cognition – Emotion - Clinical and health psychology – Neuropsychology - Attention, perception, action, consciousness - Learning, memory - Cognition in ageing - Reasoning, decision-making – Intelligence - Language learning and processing - Theoretical linguistics - computational linguistics - Comparative physiology and pathophysiology - Fundamental mechanisms underlying ageing - Sensation and perception - Neural bases of cognitive processes - Other medical technologies for diagnosis and monitoring of diseases - Epidemiology and public health - Environmental health, occupational medicine - Health services, health care research, medical ethics. In Italy its declaratory could be simplified: “Theories and methods of physical education, training, health and well-being” in Life sciences area with the exception for some professors to be structured in human and social sciences for educational profil

The educational value of rules in basketball

The game rules of team sports and the technique and tactical methods applicable to them are indispensable for practicing competitive sports. The correct competition arose from the automatic mechanism of the sanction following the infringement of a game rule which is also aided by the individual members of the group who demand the application of the rule to continue playing. The competition can also be self-regulated by the two groups who compete without even the decisive action of the referee as happens in training activities. The aim of the study is to identify the significant elements of the game rules and the related technique and tactical behaviours in individual team sports and to identify an inventory of significant behaviours. The method is documentary archival research for the analysis of the rules of individual team sports, a subsequent comparative method between grids of indicators, descriptors and weights that classify rule, technique and tactics. The expected results will focus on the appropriate presence of the significant elements and the commonality or discrepancy between team sports. The data is useful for measuring the quantity of significant behaviours in order to qualitatively elaborate the value of each of them with respect to the other current behaviours of quantitative performance and establish the connections. Subsequently, requests for self-perception can be administered to practitioners (athletes and students) on the specific connections between the need for the rule and its application in order to play sports at the highest levels with gratification and satisfaction

Academic training of generalist teachers in ‘teaching methods of physical activity’: Perceptions of students enrolled in Primary Education undergraduate degrees

Teachers’ training is an arduous issue that cross with the school "reformism" and which is structured into further levels of complexity when we consider the level of education and the specific branch of knowledge. In relation to the recent legislative provision that introduces the specialist physical education (PE) teacher in primary school, we focused the attention on perceptions that students of degree courses in Primary Education have about the teaching methods of physical activities, as a characterizing formative activity which should specifically train to the teaching of PE and in the field of experience of the body and movement, but more generally it should promote a culture of corporeality aimed at permeating teaching in the primary segment of education, generating experiential teaching / learning processes that enhance bodily potential of the students for the broader achievement of the learning goals and the development of competences