Preventing Young Football Players from Early School Leaving by using Integrated Distance Learning Methodologies and Facilities
Marta Serrano Valenzuela, Teddy Pro (Italy)
Salvatore Giuliano, Istituto E. Majorana (Italy)
Valeria Santagata, Istituto Pacinotti – Archimede (Italy)
Abstract
European countries have committed to reducing the proportion of early school leavers to less than10% by 2020.
Unfortunately, early leaving represents a complex challenge at individual, national and European levels. Young people who leave education and training early are often both socially and economically disadvantaged compared to those who stay on and gain the necessary qualifications to help themsucceed in life.
Italian football clubs appear concerned about such a threaten. Indeed, the aim for young footballers to succeed at the highest level of sport requires intensive training and competitions, even abroad, which can be difficult to reconcile with the challenges and restrictions in our national educational system.
In addition to motivation, commitment, resilience and responsibility from the athlete, also special arrangements are needed to avoid the situation where talented and elite athletes are forced to choose between education and sport.
On such purpose and with the support of the Italian Ministry of Education, one of the top Italian football clubs tested a new flexible form of education delivery in order to meet the needs of young football players in all types of education. The project was based on distance learning methods where advanced technologies provided the students - athletes with flexibility in terms of the timing and location of their sporting and school activities. For two years teachers developed and tested materials and technology-based delivery methods via digital eLearning platforms. Such an experience may lead to the development for the whole national sports community of Virtual
Learning Environments (VLE) in many educational institutes and the advent of cheap and functional means of providing tutorial support via multimedia open online courses (MOOC).
Educational authorities keep on supporting cooperation among Italian institutes to develop learning curricula for sport players as well as programmes and materials using either a shared Virtual Learning
Environment as a platform or a shared protocol to be adopted for local VLE platforms. Many sports associations and federations highlight the relevance of the problem and shall invest in awareness creation actions throughout the national sports community.
The paper illustrates goals, procedures and achievements of the project.