Efectos didácticos/contextualizados y aprendizaje significativo en universitarios deportistas con bajos niveles de competencia en lengua/literatura

Introduction: Contextualized education is designed by taking into account the personal, social, or disciplinary context of the student, with the aim of increasing the relevance, motivation, and utility of learning. Assessing its effects in specific contexts such as sports is essential for effective curricular design. Objective: To evaluate the effects of a contextualized didactic strategy, based on situations from the sports domain, on meaningful learning in language and literature among university student-athletes with low academic performance. Methods: A quasi-experimental study was conducted with a nonequivalent control group, both presenting homogeneous performance at the beginning of the intervention (p>0.05). A sufficiently large experimental sample (n = 35) was exposed to a contextualized didactic strategy. Both independent groups were assessed in terms of reading comprehension and written production, and semistructured interviews were conducted to enable qualitative triangulation. Results: Both independent groups showed intragroup improvement in reading comprehension (Experimental: p=0.000; Control: p=0.020), while the experimental group also significantly improved in written production (p=0.000). Intergroup comparisons revealed higher average ranks for the experimental group with statistically significant differences in all cases (p<0.001). Qualitative findings highlighted experiential and functional factors, involving emotional, identity-related, and motivational components not captured by standardized assessments. Conclusions: The contextualized didactic strategy based on the sports context proved effective not only in improving academic performance but also in fostering meaningful learning and appropriation processes, supported by educational theories and the students’ specific perceptions.