A biopsychosocial approach to plan inclusive learning environments in physical education

Abstract

In light of the new scientific awareness of motor learning and the new regulatory scenarios regarding inclusion, this contribution aims to highlight the potential of framing the teaching of motor activities according to a biopsychosocial approach. To this end, the study focuses on several key points, common to the non-linear pedagogy approach and inclusive didactics, that are considered capable of fostering the active and personalized participation of all (in quantitative and qualitative terms). This fostering helps to pursue a broadening of experience and an improvement in motor skills starting from personal and social autonomies, that are transferable and generalizable to different life contexts. In order to offer a theoretical framework capable of providing food for thought, interpretation, and analysis of the problem-situations emerging in the complexity of teaching practices, this study uses a theoretical-argumentative approach to promote the framing of motor activity within a holistic perspective, in which in the recognition of the dynamics of interdependence individual/environment, central both in terms of inclusion and learning processes, suggests the need to overcome the reductionism inherent in a traditional approach and to recognize the potential of an integrated approach that takes into account the complexity underlying motor learning processes, in particular. Such an approach helps to draw attention to the need to use the complementarity of the dynamic-ecological approach and the biopsychosocial perspective of the ICF to analyze and subsequently remodel inclusive teaching. The principles of the non-linear approach, placed in relation to the biopsychosocial approach, open new perspectives for teacher training by fostering the development of specific skills that can promote motor learning, life skills and inclusion.