What's Happening in Portugal?

What's Happening in Portugal

Learner-Oriented Teaching and Assessment in Youth Sport

Farias, C., & Mesquita, I. (Eds.). (2022). Learner-Oriented Teaching and Assessment in Youth Sport. Routledge (ISBN 9780367690076).

This book aims to help games-based sport educators to find teaching and coaching solutions to the following educational quest: How can I, as a sport educator, promote the utmost motor, social, cognitive, and personal development in learners[i] through their experience of active participation in sport and games?
Games-based sport educators are provided with a comprehensive, learner-centred instructional toolkit to empower children and young people in collaborative, independent learning of team sports and games (TSGs). It brings together the various pedagogical dimensions inherent to the teaching-learning process of TSGs: the instructional system (teaching strategies), the social system (interactional climate), the task system (learning tasks and activities), and the assessment (for learning) system. It also shows how to effectively involve learners as active agents in promoting more democratic learning environments and equitable interactions between sportspersons. Written by a team of experts with extensive experience of using student-centred approaches as teachers, youth coaches, teacher educators, researchers, and theorists, the book introduces key concepts and evidence-based examples of best practice, with practical instructional strategies, learning tasks, and activities included in every chapter. As the chapters of the book unfold, they teach the reader how to create game-based tasks that are suited to different learner skill levels, how to align tasks, learning goals and learner needs, and feel empowered to engage young people in creativity development activities.

Covering key themes in contemporary sport pedagogy from the constraints-led approach and appropriateness to learner-designed games and the use of technology, this is essential reading for all trainee and in-service physical education teachers and sports coaches working with children or young people.
The term ‘learner-oriented’ was purposely chosen for two main reasons:
(i) The unique sporting, cultural, and social experience and skills of each learner are placed at the heart of the planning of children’s experience of learning sport and games.
(ii) Since the teaching-learning process is, as far as reasonably possible, ‘oriented’ (driven) by the learners themselves, the sport educator becomes a facilitator of learning through scaffolding strategies.

National Coach Training Programmes

The pedagogical principles of student-centred and game-based approaches are in these manuals put into practice and systematized in a logic (not so restricted to a framework exactly identical to the instructional models) revisited (and simplified) in order to align with the cultural (sport coaching) reality of the country (Portugal).
The goal is to make appealing, both for beginner coaches (UEFA C) and confirmed coaches (UEFA B), the core premises of game-based, student-centered approaches, understandable, and practicable so that coaches can turn them into mainstream practice.

National Coach Training Programme. UEFA B

Module: Sport pedagogy and Sport didatique

Mesquita, I. & Farias, C. (2022). From promising coach to confirmed coach/Do treinador promissor ao treinador confirmado. In Pedagogia do Desporto Manuais de Formação Geral. Cursos de Treinadores de Desporto. Grau II, p. 20-34. Lisboa: Instituto Português do Desporto e Juventude. https://ipdj.gov.pt/catalogo-referenciais-de-formacao.

Mesquita, I. & Farias, C. (2022). The progressive empowerment of the practitioner in training and competition/A Autonomização progressiva do praticante em treino e competição. In Pedagogia do Desporto Manuais de Formação Geral. Cursos de Treinadores de Desporto. Grau II, p. 46-58. Lisboa: Instituto Português do Desporto e Juventude. https://ipdj.gov.pt/catalogo-referenciais-de-formacao.

Farias, C. & Mesquita, I. (2022). Expansion of the coach's didactic performance: practitioner-centered strategies/Expansão da atuação didática do treinador: estratégias centradas no praticante. In Pedagogia do Desporto Manuais de Formação Geral. Cursos de Treinadores de Desporto. Grau II, p. 77-88. Lisboa: Instituto Português do Desporto e Juventude. https://ipdj.gov.pt/catalogo-referenciais-de-formacao.

Farias, C. & Mesquita, I. (2022). Observation as a tool to mediate the effectiveness of the training process/ Observação como instrumento mediador da eficácia do processo de treino. In Pedagogia do Desporto Manuais de Formação Geral. Cursos de Treinadores de Desporto. Grau II, p. 89-99. Lisboa: Instituto Português do Desporto e Juventude. https://ipdj.gov.pt/catalogo-referenciais-de-formacao.

National Coach Training Programme. UEFA C

Module: Sport pedagogy and Sport didatique

Mesquita, I. & Farias, C. (2021). Learning to be a coach: mission and project/ Aprender a ser treinador: missão e projeto. In Pedagogia do Desporto Manuais de Formação Geral. Cursos de Treinadores de Desporto. Grau I, p. 22-32. Lisboa: Instituto Português do Desporto e Juventude. https://ipdj.gov.pt/catalogo-referenciais-de-formacao.

Mesquita, I. & Farias, C. (2021). The culture of pedagogical “best practices” in promoting adherence and affiliation to sport/ A cultura de “boas práticas” pedagógicas na promoção da adesão e afiliação ao desporto. In Pedagogia do Desporto Manuais de Formação Geral. Cursos de Treinadores de Desporto. Grau I, p. 33-48. Lisboa: Instituto Português do Desporto e Juventude. https://ipdj.gov.pt/catalogo-referenciais-de-formacao.

Mesquita, I. & Farias, C. (2021). Sports training centered on the practitioner/ O treino desportivo centrado no praticante. In Pedagogia do Desporto Manuais de Formação Geral. Cursos de Treinadores de Desporto. Grau I, p. 49-62. Lisboa: Instituto Português do Desporto e Juventude. https://ipdj.gov.pt/catalogo-referenciais-de-formacao.

Farias, C. & Mesquita, I. (2021). Strategies for gradual empowerment of practitioners in learning/ Estratégias para autonomização gradual dos praticantes na aprendizagem. In Pedagogia do Desporto Manuais de Formação Geral. Cursos de Treinadores de Desporto. Grau I, p. 93-107. Lisboa: Instituto Português do Desporto e Juventude. https://ipdj.gov.pt/catalogo-referenciais-de-formacao.

Farias, C. & Mesquita, I. (2021). Strategies for effective accountability of practitioners in the training process/ Estratégias para responsabilização efetiva dos praticantes no processo de treino. In Pedagogia do Desporto Manuais de Formação Geral. Cursos de Treinadores de Desporto. Grau I, p. 108-114. Lisboa: Instituto Português do Desporto e Juventude. https://ipdj.gov.pt/catalogo-referenciais-de-formacao.