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

Abstract

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.