ABSTRACT

Background

Youth sport is threatened by an enormous dropout of prospective athletes. For this reason, we sought a training approach that would enhance young athletes’ learning in areas that should be critical for their retention in sport. According to current literature, a mastery motivational climate, good peer relationships and a good self-concept should have a positive impact on the length of an athlete’s career. The results of previous studies, albeit in physical education (PE), have shown the effectiveness of Cooperative Learning (CL) in achieving various affective, social, physical and cognitive learning goals. However, the impact of CL in competitive sport has not yet been investigated.

Purpose

The aim of this study was to investigate in youth athletics, (a) whether CL is more effective than previously used Direct Instruction (DI) in achieving specific goals in the social and affective domains, and (b) whether CL can promote the development of movement skills at least to the same extent as DI.

Methods

An experimental pretest–posttest comparison group design was used. Twelve Slovenian athletics trainers and 157 athletes (9.56 ± 0.73 years) were included in the sample. They were randomly divided into an experimental group (EG) that completed three consecutive CL units and a control group (CG) that continued with DI according to the control programme. The effects of the models were assessed using three standardised psychological questionnaires measuring peer relationships, motivational climate and self-concept. The movement skills of the young athletes were measured using four standardised fitness tests. One-Way ANCOVAs were conducted to examine whether the model (CL vs. DI) influenced posttest scores, taking into account pretest scores. We also captured all three elements of fidelity to CL.

Findings

There were significant posttest differences between the EG and the CG in peer relationships, emotional self-concept, mastery and performance motivational climate. The differences between the groups on the four physical variables were not significant.

Conclusion

The results confirmed that CL promotes better peer relationships, higher levels of mastery motivational climate, lower levels of performance climate and better emotional self-concept in young track and field athletes compared to DI. According to the current literature, improving these social and affective variables should reduce dropout rates in promising athletes. Therefore, we appeal to athletics federations to recognise the benefits of CL. We propose to inform trainers about the positive effects of CL and to include it in the education and training of trainers.

中文翻译：

---

合作学习对青少年体育动机氛围、同伴关系和自我概念的影响

摘要

背景

青少年体育运动受到潜在运动员大量流失的威胁。出于这个原因，我们寻求一种训练方法，以加强年轻运动员在对他们继续运动至关重要的领域的学习。根据现有文献，精通的激励氛围、良好的同伴关系和良好的自我概念应该对运动员职业生涯的长度产生积极影响。以前的研究结果，尽管是在体育教育（PE）领域，已经表明了合作学习（CL）在实现各种情感、社交、身体和认知学习目标方面的有效性。然而，CL 在竞技体育中的影响尚未得到研究。

目的

本研究的目的是调查青少年体育运动中，(a) CL 在实现社交和情感领域的特定目标方面是否比以前使用的直接指导 (DI) 更有效，以及 (b) CL 是否可以促进青少年体育运动的发展。运动技能至少达到与 DI 相同的程度。

方法

采用实验性前测-后测比较组设计。样本中包括 12 名斯洛文尼亚田径教练和 157 名运动员（9.56 ± 0.73 岁）。他们被随机分为完成三个连续 CL 单元的实验组 (EG) 和根据控制计划继续 DI 的对照组 (CG)。使用三份衡量同伴关系、动机氛围和自我概念的标准化心理问卷来评估模型的效果。使用四项标准化体能测试来测量年轻运动员的运动技能。进行单向 ANCOVA 来检查模型（CL 与 DI）是否影响后测分数，同时考虑前测分数。我们还捕获了对 CL 忠诚度的所有三个要素。

发现

EG 和 CG 在同伴关系、情感自我概念、掌握和绩效动机氛围方面存在显着的后测差异。各组之间在四个物理变量上的差异并不显着。

结论

结果证实，与 DI 相比，CL 可以促进年轻田径运动员更好的同伴关系、更高水平的掌握动机氛围、更低水平的表现氛围和更好的情感自我概念。根据目前的文献，改善这些社会和情感变量应该会降低有前途的运动员的辍学率。因此，我们呼吁田径联合会认识到 CL 的好处。我们建议让培训师了解 CL 的积极影响，并将其纳入培训师的教育和培训中。