Teachers of all subjects can contribute to promote sport at school
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How to Motivate Students Only Interested in Sport to Improve their School Performances
Teachers of All Subjects
2. Value in the class the benefits of sport
Researches show that physical activities stimulate the production of substances that protect neurons, which can improve memory, concentration and attention span. Researchers also note that it increases confidence, self-esteem and self-image.
Philippe Godin, professor of sport psychology at the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) assures that the practice of sports develops qualities that are necessary to studies: “Doing sport improves time management skills, confidence and stress resistance, positively influences health and sleep. These benefits contribute to a good intellectual activity. Besides, collective sports improve relational and social skills, which affects psychological abilities and foster students’ motivation…” These social skills, such as team spirit, could be put to good use to improve the class group dynamics.
When creating the annual time schedule for the PE activities, try to place the PE lessons on such places that they support the above mentioned aspects and thus support students’ mental welfare and performances in other lessons.
Provide the students with as many different sport activities and physical activities for the PE lessons as possible. Ensure that the motivation can be guaranteed both for top athletes and for “normal” students.
Cooperate with teachers of various subjects for the integration of sports into other school subjects. There is a lot of possibilities for integrating sports and languages, sports and maths, sports and health education etc.
Learning Objective
The learning objective of step 2 is to give ideas for integrating sports into the school curricula and study programmes in a way that all learning activities support the individual development of the student.
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