Rafael Pinheiro

Education through sport (ETS) and Non Formal Education (NFE) Experiences

It is through the valorisation and implementation of non-formal and informal education strategies that lies the key to the healthy development of learning the values inherent to society. Sport may be considered one of these educational strategies, contributing to stimulate the learning process, allowing the approach of sensitive themes in a more subtle and indirect way, which motivates young people to become more interested in such themes.

During the year every month I carry out an activity on a different theme and during the month of February the theme was “Feelings: Friendship, Love, Affection” I carried out an activity called “Players with heart”, at the end of the football training, I gave a heart, cut out in cardboard to everyone, that they could give to a person they understood to be, for them, a special person. It was an activity that surprised them and that aimed, above all, to lead to a moment of reflection about the others in their lives. That’s why many of them ended up giving their hearts to a father, a mother, a grandmother and other colleagues in the team.

This activity helped a lot in the boys’ acceptance of the girls since boys usually do not accept girls very well in the same football team because they always have the idea that they are better than them and the teams I train are mixed.

Another very successful activity was the “Wall of Feelings”. This was a poster with a question “How do you feel when……you score a goal? – … Mister compliments you? – … a teammate plays better than you? – … you get bad grades? – … you get affection? To answer these questions, they had to choose one of five smiles (emoji), which were the following: Very happy Sad, Happy, Very sad, Indifferent.

This activity helps to strengthen the team spirit of both boys and girls by helping them to achieve or exceed their goals for the day.

In a global balance of the activity, it can be considered that the participation was massive and that the young people enjoyed it, besides being a moment of reflection on themselves and of sharing which allowed deepening mutual knowledge and, eventually, the bonds between the elements of the group.