Education and transfer of water competencies: An ecological dynamics approach

Abstract

To cope in various aquatic environments (i.e. swimming pools, lakes, rivers, oceans), learners require a wide repertoire of self-regulatory behaviours such as awareness of obstacles and water properties, floating and moving from point to point with different strokes, decision making, emotional control and breathing efficiently. By experiencing different learning situations in stable indoor pool environments, it is assumed that children strengthen aquatic competencies that should be transferable to functioning in open water environments, where prevalence of drowning is high. However, this fundamental assumption may be misleading. Here, we propose the application of a clear, related methodology and theoretical framework that could be useful to help physical education curriculum specialists (re)shape and (re)design appropriate aquatic learning situations to facilitate better transfer of learning. We discuss the need for more representativeness in a learning environment, proposing how the many different task and environmental constraints on aquatic actions may bound the emergence of functional, self-regulatory behaviours in learners. Ideas in ecological dynamics suggest that physical educators should design learning environments that offer a rich landscape of opportunities for action for learners. As illustration, three practice interventions are described for developing functional and transferrable skills in indoor aquatic environments. It is important that aquatic educators focus not just upon ‘learning to swim’, but particularly on relevant transferable skills and self-regulatory behaviours deemed necessary for functioning in dynamic, outdoor aquatic environments.

When and How to Provide Feedback and Instructions to Athletes?—How Sport Psychology and Pedagogy Insights Can Improve Coaching Interventions to Enhance Self-Regulation in Training

“…In ecological dynamics, it has been proposed that directions of constraints on self-organizing tendencies of individual athletes and sports teams, during synergy formation, are continuously shaped by local-to-global (exploiting intrinsic dispositions for self-organization) and global-to-local influences (being organized by external agents such as coaches; Ribeiro et al, 2019 ). Particular emphasis in CLA has been placed on exploiting existing local-to-global self-organization processes, which ultimately aim to develop intelligent, self-regulating, and adaptable performers (see Ribeiro et al, 2019 ; Guignard et al, 2020 , for detailed elaborations of bi-directional self-organization processes in team and individual sports). In order to drive these self-regulatory tendencies, it is a major task of sport practitioners to manipulate task constraints within training session designs to facilitate skill learning ( Newell, 1985 ; Pacheco et al, 2019 ).…”

Theory to Practice: Performance Preparation Models in Contemporary High-Level Sport Guided by an Ecological Dynamics Framework

“…Conceptualised through ecological dynamics, selfregulation broadly emphasises emergent interactions between a performer and the environment. From this perspective, performers learn to self-regulate through the acquisition and exploitation of functional relationships between their actions, perceptions, intentions, emotions and environment [6]. Exposure to rich and varied practice environments promotes opportunities for performers to develop knowledge of [31] their performance environments that they can learn to self-regulate and adapt stable perception-action couplings to emergent problems encountered within competition.…”

“…An important direction of constraint on athlete selfregulation in performance concerns the exploitation of inherent self-organising tendencies for individuals to locally adapt and adjust to emerging competition demands, from an internally driven source. From an ecological ontology, 'self-regulation' refers to the development and exploitation of deeply intertwined, functional relationships between a performer's actions, perceptions, intentions, emotions and the environment [6]. This interpretation differs from the orientation of self-regulation in cognitive psychology defined by Zimmerman [7], p. 14 as "…self-generated thoughts, feelings and actions that are planned and cyclically adapted to the attainment of personal goals".…”

Untitled

“…However, it does limit the extent to which one can be confident of the transferability of skills and knowledge in the current study. The important topic of transfer and representative design of the practice environment has been discussed in more depth elsewhere (Guignard et al, 2020).…”

“…Indeed, learning to swim within the sheltered confines of a swimming pool may create a misplaced confidence in aquatic ability that may not transfer well to other aquatic environments (Stallman et al, 2008). The motor learning literature has highlighted this issue in recent times and recommended water safety instructors to implement representative learning designs to optimize skill transfer (e.g., Guignard et al, 2020). Langendorfer and Bruya (1995) proposed that a basic level of water competence is required for humans to recreate safely in aquatic environments.…”