Collective Sports Practice In Brazilian Public Schools: Teaching Methods, Leadership, And Student Development Factors

During adolescence, sports can be a valuable resource to prevent potential individual and social issues. The teacher/coach plays a critical role in fostering a positive and supportive environment, yet few studies have explored the impact of teachers’/coaches’ psycho-pedagogical behaviors on factors related to youth development. PURPOSE: This study investigates the teaching methods and leadership profiles of teachers/coaches and their associations with aspects of human development in student/athletes across different categories, genders, and team sports. METHODS: Participants included 910 Brazilian student-athletes (mean age = 14.00 ± 1.8 years) and 57 teachers/coaches (mean age = 45.57 ± 7.25 years) from after-school sports programs in 37 public schools in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. Data were collected via a questionnaire evaluating teaching methodologies, leadership profiles, and their effects on students’ positive development and decision-making perceptions. Ordinal logistic regression was used to analyze associations among gender, category, sport, teaching method, teacher/coach perception, and student/athlete perception with the tertiles of scores for positive development characteristics and decision-making perceptions. Odds ratios (OR) were calculated with 95% confidence intervals (CI), adopting a significance level of p < 0.05. RESULTS: The synthetic teaching method was positively associated with cognitive skills (OR = 1.32, 95% CI = 1.09-1.59), goal setting (OR = 1.36, 95% CI = 1.07-1.69), and commitment to decisional learning (OR = 1.21, 95% CI = 1.01-1.49). Positive associations were also found between athletes' perceptions of coaches' leadership profiles paired with: personal/social skills, cognitive skills, goal setting, initiative, decisional competence, and commitment to learning. Conversely, athletes’ perceptions of coaches’ autocratic behavior were inversely associated with personal/social skills (OR = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.70-0.95) and goal setting (OR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.69-0.94) and positively associated with anxiety and fear in decision-making (OR = 1.34, 95% CI = 1.11-1.62). CONCLUSIONS: Findings for this program suggest using the synthetic teaching method with a democratic, motivational, and socially supportive leadership style. Supported by: Support from Unespar, Fundação Araucária/SETI and the Federal University of Paraná