Developing athletes into cooperative learners
The Potential in Viewing Coaches as Educators and Coaching as Teaching
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7168754 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Anna Renström (0000-0002-5152-570X, Umeå University, corresponding author), Cecilia Stenling (0000-0002-9619-801X, Umeå University), Josef Fahlén (0000-0002-2745-4841, Umeå University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 715-727 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-24 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sport Education and Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1357-3322 • E-ISSN: 1470-1243 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13573322.2024.2334426 |
| OpenAlex | W4396772007 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 41 |
Talent development environments are usually group-based, meaning athletes comprise each other’s learning context. Consequently, athletes’ ability to learn with and from each other is essential. This implies that there is a key role for coaches to play in cultivating reciprocal, cooperative athletes and creating talent environments in which participants can ‘learn to learn’. The aim of this study was to create knowledge on day-to-day coaching conduct that supports the development of athletes’ reciprocal abilities. Observations of 75 h of football (soccer) lessons within the Swedish Football Association’s school sports programme – a cornerstone of the FA’s talent development system, located in upper secondary schools – were carried out over the course of three school semesters, and included in-depth interviews with the teacher-coaches. Data were analysed using the five key teaching pillars within a cooperative learning approach: positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to-face interaction, interpersonal skills and group processing. Findings show how teacher-coaches engage in activities that focus on organization of lessons and structuring of group work to create situations where individuals are motivated to learn, but also motivated to support other group members’ learning. Thereby, teacher-coaches place more emphasis on positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to-face interaction. In contrast, findings also show how teacher-coaches to a lesser extent perform coaching conduct associated with lesson content that has the potential to develop the skills and abilities required to participate in and benefit from group work – interpersonal skills, and group processing. This means that while teacher-coaches seem well-equipped to create learning environments that support reciprocal learning, they may benefit from challenging the role of the coach as an expert and tackle the preconceptions around cooperative behaviours that athletes bring from club football contexts. Taken together, these findings point to the need for a better understanding of overlapping learning sites within talent systems
Athletes · Coaching · Mathematics education · Medical education · Multimedia · Pedagogy · Physical therapy · Psychotherapist · Computer Science · Medicine · Motivation and Self-Concept in Sports · Physical Education and Pedagogy · Psychology · Sport Psychology and Performance
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Ethnography as Method, Methodology, and “Deep Theorizing”
Cooperative learning in physical education
Ethnography
Exploring sports coaches’ experiences of using a contemporary pedagogical approach to coaching
An Application of Socialization Resources Theory
Regulation and deregulation in education policy
Learning movement cultures in physical education practice
Carl Rogers, learning and educational practice
Mixed-ability grouping in physical education
Conceptualizing cultural leadership in physical education and youth sport
Talent development as an ecology of games
What do coaches orchestrate? Unravelling the ‘quiddity’ of practice
Cooperative learning in physical education encountering Dewey’s educational theory
To See or Not to See
The Sociology of Sports Coaching
The ecology of learning
Learning Careers
Expanding Young People's Capacity to Learn
Power, Discourse, and Symbolic Violence in Professional Youth Soccer
Situated Learning as a Theoretical Framework for Sport Education
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |