Physical Education Professionals’ Knowledge about Teaching Methods Used in Infant Swimming

Abstract

Introduction: Swimming is an activity that contributes to children´s growth and development. Despite this important contribution, it is possible to identify a large dropout of students due to dissatisfaction with teaching pedagogy applied by teachers. This problem with teaching pedagogy may be the result of professionals’ lack of knowledge on how to make use of available knowledge to guide their practice or the lack of it in the specific swimming literature. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge of physical education professionals who work in teaching children’s swimming about the most used teaching methods in swimming: global, analytical and mixed. Methods: 41 Physical Education professionals involved in the modality participated in the study, who answered a questionnaire containing closed and open questions about training, logistics and theoretical knowledge. The study was conducted through a questionnaire, with voluntary participation of Physical Education professionals. For data analysis, exploratory descriptive statistics were performed. Results: The mains results show that 60,9% of the professionals make mistakes when defining the teaching methods, most define the analytical method correctly (78.1%), and most teachers report using a set of methods to teach their classes (63.4%). The reasons for this lack of specific knowledge about teaching methods may be related to the lack of research in the area and curricular shortcomings. Conclusion: As a conclusion, the knowledge of swimming professionals is insufficient and that, for this reason, they guide their practice based on their professional background and personal experiences.