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RETHINKING DIVERSITY AND PARTICIPATION THROUGH PHYSICAL 

EDUCATION IN INCLUSIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS 
 

Dr. Amaka Chinyere Nwosu 

Department of Educational Foundations, Faculty of Education, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria 

 
Keywords:     

Learning; Inclusion;  

Special Pedagogy, 

 Physical Activity, 

Educational Equity, 

 Diversity 

  

  

  

ABSTRACT   

This paper explores the transformative role of inclusive physical education in 

fostering equitable learning environments that promote participation, social 

integration, and personal development for all students. Emphasizing the 

Italian educational context, it highlights how inclusive practices in motor 

activity support a collaborative alliance between schools, families, and 

communities, valuing diversity as a resource. Physical education emerges not 

just as a subject, but as a pedagogical approach that nurtures holistic growth 

and combats exclusion. 

 
  

Introduction 

In recent decades, one of the most prominent and 
evolving themes in the field of education has been the 
pursuit of inclusiveness within schools. School 
inclusiveness is achieved when educational 
environments are structured to ensure the success of 
all students—none excluded—regardless of their 
individual differences or specific needs. An inclusive 
school is not one that simply accommodates 
diversity, but one that intentionally designs its 
practices, environments, and teaching strategies with 
every learner in mind. It focuses on modifying 
contexts and approaches rather than attempting to 
change the individual, thus creating educational 
spaces that are equitable, supportive, and 
empowering. 
In the Italian educational system, inclusiveness has 
become a central objective, with current pedagogical 
and didactic guidelines emphasizing the value of 
diversity as a vital resource. These guidelines 
promote the idea that diversity should not be viewed 
as a limitation, but as an opportunity to enhance the 
learning experience for all. In such a vision, every 
student has the right to personalize and individualize 
their learning journey, with particular attention given 
to those who face learning or participation barriers. 
Historically, Italy has made significant strides in 
inclusive education, starting with the closure of 
special schools under Law 517/1977, which led to the 
integration of students with disabilities into 
mainstream classrooms. Initially referred to as 
"insertion," this process was soon recognized as 

inadequate to capture the dynamic and interactive 
nature of inclusive education. The terminology 
evolved to "integration," emphasizing the active 
involvement of students with disabilities in 
classroom learning alongside their peers, facilitated 
by adapted materials, modified teaching approaches, 
and the support of specialized educators. 
True inclusiveness, however, requires the 
collaborative involvement of all educational 
stakeholders—teachers, school leaders, families, 
students, and local authorities. It demands a 
commitment to leveraging all available resources 
and educational opportunities to implement 
interventions that do not isolate or stigmatize, 
but rather embrace and harmonize the unique 
differences of each learner. The disabled 
classmate, in this context, is no longer seen as a 
passive recipient of support but as an active 
contributor to the educational community—a 
resource and even a strength for the class as a 
whole. 
Thus, the inclusive school becomes a microcosm 
of a fair and equitable society, one that upholds 
the dignity of every person and fosters the 
development of each student’s potential. It is 
through this inclusive vision that schools can 
truly fulfill their educational and social mission, 
preparing students not just for academic 
achievement but for life in a diverse and 
interconnected world. 

 



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From the mid-1990s, however, people began to 

question the value of the term "integration", 

which risked taking on negative, purely 

compensatory connotations, forgetting unique 

aspects related to the person, such as originality, 

authenticity, and freedom. The term "inclusion" was 

born, with the intention of highlighting a mutual 

permeability and exchange between pupils with 

different potentials within the same class.  

The concept of inclusiveness, as we understand it 

today, is therefore nothing more than the result of a 

slow and gradual evolution of the original concept of 

"tailor-made school", based on the centrality of the 

child, already typical of Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Fröbel 

and Aporti, and which takes the form of innovative 

educational proposals and pedagogical theorizations 

by particularly significant pedagogues of the late 

nineteenth and twentieth centuries attentive to 

learning environments and development psycho-

cognitive and social, disability and the child's 

emotionality (Stentiford, & Koutsouris, 2021).  

Inclusion thus becomes a two-way phenomenon, in 

which not only the disabled classmate adapts to the 

behavior of the non-disabled classmates, but also the 

whole class must strive to adapt and understand the 

partner's disability, learning and changing through 

experience with people with disabilities and vice 

versa. The new term "inclusion", therefore, refers to a 

process, a philosophy of acceptance, such as the 

ability to provide a framework within which pupils 

can be equally valued, treated with respect and 

provided with equal opportunities. It is a 

comprehensive approach, not only centered on the 

individual disabled person, but which is aimed at all 

pupils and all their potential (Hansen, Carrington, 

Jensen, Molbæk, & Secher Schmidt, 2020).  

The inclusion of students with disabilities in Italian 

schools has been implemented for forty years in 

regular schools and normal classes and is achieved 

through the individualization and personalization of 

educational activities, starting from the differences 

and potential of each disabled student, valued in the 

context of the class group.  

Inclusion processes in schools  

The theme of inclusion, as argued so far, is certainly 

an issue that, especially in recent years, is crucial in 

the school context. Italy was among the first 

countries to choose the path of integration of pupils 

with disabilities in ordinary classes. We have 

therefore moved from a situation of complete 

exclusion to special schools intended exclusively for 

"different" children, to the integration of the same 

within the common classes up to the achievement of 

inclusion processes. Diversity cannot be considered 

an obstacle, but a fundamental resource for the 

whole class group and essential to promote learning 

processes. We can talk about inclusion only when 

everyone feels they are appreciated and their 

participation is not suffered but is instead welcome. 

The inclusive classroom is an important point of 

arrival for the school and the pupil with disabilities 

can take great advantage of the companion 

resource, an essential component not only 

cognitive, but also social and affective (European 

Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education, 

2017). The inclusive school is the one that allows all 

students not only to feel part of the group to which 

they belong, but also to reach the highest possible 

level thanks to those differences that allow 

everyone's growth, through a process of great 

personal enrichment. Inclusive teaching aims to 

create an inclusive climate, first respecting and 

accepting these diversities. The teaching staff will 

have to try to adapt their teaching style, also 

modifying their ongoing strategies and, if necessary, 

find points of connection between the 

programming. It will also have to always try to 

develop a cooperative approach (trying, for 

example, to use innovative methodologies such as 

cooperative learning   and peer tutoring), 

enhancing the forms of expression and favoring the 

creation of relational networks between school, 

family, health specialists and territorial services. At 

the center of an inclusive educational action there is 

always the person because we are talking about an 

education for everyone, which can only lead to 

personalization. Moving from the logic of 

integration to that of inclusion does not simply 



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mean making room for everyone, but it means 

putting each student at the center of all educational 

action by rethinking what the concept of curriculum 

is. Among the general principles of inclusion we 

have, first, the acceptance of diversity, the 

development of collaborative practices, the active 

participation of all and a school that becomes 

different, that is, that learns and promotes change 

and development. Starting from some regulatory 

references, we can certify that our school system 

was the first in Europe to introduce the generalized 

school inclusion of pupils with disabilities and was 

not limited to this. With the subsequent issuance of 

specific guidelines, it has also clarified the 

principles relating to the inclusion of pupils with 

SLD (Specific Learning Disorders) to the point of 

giving organizational indications on the inclusion of 

those children who are not certifiable neither with 

disabilities nor with DSA, but who have specific 

learning difficulties due to personal, family and 

socio-environmental disadvantage. The synthesis of 

these choices can be found within the Legislative 

Decree of 13 April 2017, n.66, Rules for the 

promotion of school inclusion of students with 

disabilities, where it is stated that inclusion 

concerns everyone and responds to different 

educational needs by realizing itself through 

specific educational strategies aimed at developing 

the potential of each, improving their quality of life 

through the commitment of all those involved,  from 

the school community, to families to local 

authorities, to achieve the educational success of all. 

Inclusion therefore takes the form of a route to 

follow, starting from the construction of contexts 

populated by multiple diversities and therefore by 

special needs. Special pedagogy promotes the 

appreciation of these diversities that are unique and 

that concern individuals. In this perspective, motor-

sports activity can constitute that specific context in 

which it is possible to really experience inclusive 

education. The sporting experience, formative from 

an educational point of view, becomes a precious 

opportunity for active participation and equality of 

opportunity for all people. Both the playful and the 

athletic-motor dimension, closely interconnected 

with each other, give sport a high educational value.   

Within the motor-sports context we can identify a 

series of strongly educational elements such as: the 

continuous relationship with a reference adult, ie 

the coach; order, discipline, respect for the rules 

and others; teaching / learning of a particular sports 

discipline; the educational value of victory and 

defeat; the will to improve and motivation (Peacock, 

2014).  

The practical experience of sport becomes of crucial 

importance for children with sociocultural and 

linguistic deficits or disadvantages, enriching the 

subjective processes of metacognition and 

generalization. Special Pedagogy must therefore 

focus strongly on sport because this tool, if 

supported by educational intentionality, within its 

planning in the school environment, can become an 

important context both from the point of view of 

values, through the acquisition of all those healthy 

teachings of which sports ethics is rich, and from 

the educational point of view, a fundamental piece 

in relation to the planning of life and Real practice 

of inclusion. Practicing regular motor-sports 

activities, for the person with disabilities, involves a 

series of advantages (Moliterni, 2013).   

On the cognitive level, we improve the knowledge of 

our body, the space that surrounds us, the 

management of time and speed, in relation to 

certain motor acts. On the physical level there are a 

series of benefits that concern the improvement of 

muscle strength, balance, motor coordination 

thanks. On a purely sporting level, technical 

knowledge in relation to the various sports 

disciplines and that of the regulations 

improves. On the psychological level, a sense of 

personal satisfaction is produced that favors 

discipline and training, leading to greater self 

control about emotional states. On the socio-

educational level, levels of personal autonomy 

increase, with subjects who are more 

stimulated to perform acts aimed at a specific 

purpose.   

 



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Sport and Physical Activity as tools for 

inclusion in the pedagogical process  

The real inclusion of students with disabilities at 

school, during motor and sports activity, is still a 

process in development and there are, 

unfortunately, several critical issues that do not 

allow it to be fully realized. Sport and, therefore, 

physical education at school, offer each student the 

opportunity to express themselves and 

communicate through the body, their way of being 

and one's own identity understood as a kind of 

Photography of personal experiences and 

experiences. Sport and physical education can 

unite, to bring people together. Especially These 

benefits concern the so-called sports education, 

that is, the sporting experience that is deviates from 

competitive or professional dynamics because, in 

that case, the risk is to result in the opposite effect 

of that relating to education (Coates & Vickerman, 

2013). The guidelines for physical, motor and 

sports education activities in schools, issued by the 

MIUR in 2019, state that sport requires the person 

to get involved in a total way, stimulating him to 

seek both the tools and the strategies suitable for 

address and overcoming your difficulties. This 

definition does not only refer to able-bodied 

children, but it applies to everyone, even for 

students with disabilities. And it is precisely in this 

direction that the school has the duty to develop the 

sports culture to ensure that students develop 

healthy values, those values that only sport can 

convey and promote constantly.   

Through these values it is possible to improve 

aggregation, integration, and socialization both at 

school and in society (Bergamini et al., 2015). 

Everyone must actively participate in motor-

sports activity, and it is right that disabled 

children are also protagonists of the action and 

not only present in the gym. The practice of sport, 

as previously stated, brings countless benefits. It 

allows, for example, to satisfy a series of typical 

human needs concerning the playful experience, 

the one linked to movement and being in a group, 

all achievable through sport. An extremely 

important factor is the improvement of residual 

potential in all degrees of disability, achievable 

through physical activity (Qi, 2012; Qi, 2018).   

Obviously, in relation to the severity of disability, 

there are improvements of different kinds but, in 

general, there are important effects on the quality 

of life of these subjects. There are also several 

studies that show that the constant practice of 

motor-sports activity has important benefits both 

on learning and on academic performance. The 

model of sport that, over the years, has matured 

thanks to the history of Italian integration, is that 

of "integrated sport for inclusion". The peculiarity 

of this model is certainly to link the concepts of 

sport and inclusive education in an indissoluble 

way. The maturation of this model took place 

within the world of special school pedagogy. 

Special pedagogy has allowed sport to be enriched 

from many points of view, with the aim of building 

an enhancing context that would allow a fair 

comparison between disabled people. Precisely in 

this context, a series of sports are inserted that can 

be traced back to a different model called 

"integrated sport". These particular sports are 

practiced by people with and without disabilities 

through some differentiations that allow everyone 

to play together (Green, 2019). The source of 

inspiration that allowed the birth of these sports is 

attributable precisely to those principles of the 

school integration system, of an all-Italian matrix, 

a system that has allowed people with disabilities 

to access and actively participate in the learning 

process within the classroom (Miola et al., 2021). 

Integrated sport, characterized by a fusion of 

sporting principles with principles related to 

special pedagogy, can be defined through a series 

of key elements: a) centrality of the person; (b) 

participation of persons with different health 

conditions; c) educational peculiarities; (d) roles 

defined on the basis of abilities and not disability; 

(e) flexible rules; f) recognizable and codified 

spaces and times; g) competitive spirit and healthy 

competition; (h) active participation and equal 

opportunities for all.  The evaluation, through 

motor tests of what the subject can actually do at 

the motor level, is the basis of the attribution of 



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roles that takes place by differentiation not 

changing the structure of the game, but managing 

to meet the needs of the individual with activities 

that are at their level and that push him to try to 

improve himself (Koh, 2021). Also in this case, we 

can find a parallel with Special  

Pedagogy. Inclusion is achieved when the pupil 

with disabilities is not removed from the classroom, 

but when he willingly accepts a task specially 

created for him and can also make his contribution 

by working in groups, within a serene atmosphere 

where he is respected and considered. In integrated 

sport everyone trains following personal schemes 

but does so to give life, during the game, to a team 

game that will allow everyone to achieve success 

through the contribution of all. In summary, 

therefore, integrated sport is a set of organized 

motor activities, strongly educational and playful, 

which are based on a type of activity that is first of 

all cooperative and that aims to be also competitive 

to keep alive the original idea and the essence of 

sport. Everyone can participate actively and 

competently in this type of activity: people with 

severe disabilities, able-bodied people, men and 

women who, through the appropriate spaces, 

materials appropriate to the abilities and potential 

of each one, can see their abilities enhanced, 

actively participating and on the basis of equal 

opportunities through regulations that are always 

flexible.     

There are therefore three key elements: 

accessibility, active participation and equal 

opportunities, i.e. the guiding principles of an 

inclusive society. An example of an integrated 

sport is Baskin (Inclusive Basketball).  

1. The Inclusive Didactic Approach  

Inclusive teaching is the teaching of all, which is 

based on personalization and individualization 

through active, participatory, constructive, and 

affective methodologies. The quality of inclusive 

teaching is determined by educational reflexivity and 

intentionality, by the search for alternative 

motivations and hypotheses, by the ability to change 

perspectives of meaning and to produce 

transformative learning (DeMatthews, Serafini, & 

Watson, 2021).  

As Pennac (2010) argues, "Each student plays his 

own instrument, there is nothing to be done. The 

difficult thing is to get to know our musicians well and 

find harmony. A good class is not a regiment 

marching in step, it is an orchestra playing the same 

symphony."   

Inclusive teaching is, therefore, a teaching conceived, 

designed and planned, from the beginning, based on 

individual variability, capable of being accessible for 

all students and not only for some with special 

educational needs. Designing in an inclusive way 

means thinking, whatever the content to be conveyed, 

of personalized, multi-modal, and multilevel forms of 

teaching, because each student faces learning at 

different levels and ways, thus avoiding "path 

emergencies" that force, a posteriori, to modify what 

has been designed for an "ideal class", thus avoiding 

loss of effectiveness of the teaching action itself. 

Poorly designed and poorly conducted teaching can 

run the risk of creating barriers to learning itself 

(Graham, 2020). Inclusive teaching is therefore an 

innovative and flexible teaching "style" that facilitates 

the participation, enhancement, and educational 

success of all students.  

Inclusive teaching challenges teachers to develop a 

wide repertoire of teaching strategies that are 

considered effective, not only for pupils with special 

needs, but for everyone. This means that every 

teacher can improve their effectiveness, first of all by 

knowing and then using, monitoring and evaluating 

the best strategy, so as to help students become more 

effective learners themselves. There is a lot of 

research that shows how meta-cognitive, cooperative 

strategies, the strengthening of social and emotional 

skills, as well as the creation of a positive classroom 

climate, are essential for inclusive teaching. 

Developing a broad repertoire of effective strategies 

is essential as long as they reflect knowledge of the 

characteristics, needs of students and environmental 

circumstances, as well as teachers' professional and 

personal knowledge and skills (Garg, & Sharma, 

2020; Sleeter, & Zavala, 2020).  



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In addition to the dimension of effectiveness with 

respect to methodological-didactic choices and 

actions to be made, an inclusive teacher cannot forget 

the importance of relational and emotional skills. 

Numerous studies show that teachers' appropriate 

mental attitude, emotional closeness, and ability to 

give appropriate and positive feedback to students 

are decisive elements for their academic success and 

the creation of a good classroom climate. The training 

of teachers with respect to their social and emotional 

skills, in an inclusive school context, certainly cannot 

be underestimated. The quality of the classroom 

climate (made up of relationships and emotional 

experiences) is crucial for the success of students, 

who learn best when they are in an emotionally safe 

and predictable environment, which motivates them 

and stimulates them towards positive and inclusive 

goals (Demchenko, Maksymchuk, Bilan, 

Maksymchuk, & Kalynovska, 2021).  

The concept of inclusivity in contemporary schools 

goes beyond disability, learning disorders, explicit 

difficulties in integration and behavior and concerns 

all pupils with respect to whom it is necessary to give 

different answers for their educational needs. The 

goal of inclusive teaching is, in fact, to make all 

students reach the highest possible degree of learning 

and social participation, enhancing the differences 

present in the class. UNESCO's Guidelines for 

Integration Policies in Education (2009) emphasize 

that: "Inclusive schooling is a process of 

strengthening the capacities of the education system 

to reach all students. [...]. An inclusive school system 

can only be created if mainstream schools become 

more inclusive." In other words, if they become better 

at educating all the children in their community. For 

pupils with certified disabilities, on the other hand, 

Legislative Decree No. 66 of 13 April 2017 lays down 

specific rules for the promotion of their full school 

integration. In particular, it refers to the so-called 

Plan for Inclusion that each school must prepare to 

overcome all those factors that may hinder its 

implementation, for the coordinated use of resources 

and to design specific improvement interventions. 

The Inclusion Plan must include an analysis of 

strengths and weaknesses, objectives to increase 

inclusiveness for the following school year, resources 

(support teachers, assistants, contact persons), 

methodologies, methods of involving families, 

relations with local social and health services that are 

intended to be activated, actions for the acquisition 

and distribution of additional resources for the 

implementation of inclusion projects,  the 

preparation of interventions for entry into the school 

system, continuity between the different levels of 

school and future integration into the world of work 

(Ciyer, 2010).  

The inclusive school, therefore, equips itself in a 

synergistic way to propose multiple educational and 

didactic strategies, according to a holistic approach, 

which considers the student as a complex and 

multidimensional person with his or her own socio-

cultural and biological characteristics, and aims at 

the overall development of the potential and skills of 

each one for the achievement of the highest possible 

level of learning and socialization. To achieve this, 

however, schools must have the courage to renounce 

the standardization of teaching (Kinsella, 2020). It 

must allow all its members to feel part of a 

community in which the same educational ideals are 

shared, the individuality of all its members is 

respected, each with his or her own interests, needs 

and talents, and offers multiple possibilities and 

formative opportunities, so that each one can realize 

his or her aspirations. Fundamental to this new vision 

of the school is respect for the right to self-

determination and to the construction of future life 

projects adapted to the potential of each and every 

one, to the aspirations of families and to the new 

demands of society and culture. The school intends to 

achieve these important educational objectives with 

the collaboration of families with whom it is 

necessary to share, in respect of roles and specific 

responsibilities, objectives, goals and strategies for 

the healthy growth of young people. An inclusive 

systemic vision must also consider the contributions 

that can come from collaboration with other public 

and private entities, and from associations operating 

in the area and that are able to contribute to ensuring 

the educational success of students (Kim, Yi, & Hong, 



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2021; Miller et al., 2022; Stinken-Rösner et al., 

2020).   

In the process of individualization of teaching, 

activities are provided for disabled pupils so that it is 

possible to achieve knowledge and skills common to 

the rest of the class. Common objectives, therefore, to 

the class group, but different, individualized 

methodologies, which consider the potential, skills, 

and personal abilities of the disabled student, which 

become a resource, trying to eliminate the factors that 

originate or maintain the difficulty.  

Personalized teaching, on the other hand, provides 

for the achievement of objectives that are different 

from those of the class, because they are built ad hoc 

on the disability of the individual student, enhancing 

his or her strengths. In this way, by specifically 

considering the different ability of the pupil as a 

peculiarity of his own, the pupil will be given the 

opportunity to develop his full potential and give him 

the opportunity to transmit his different ability to 

others (Väyrynen, & Akunyili, 2020).  

To interpret inclusion as a "day-to-day" way of 

managing classrooms, training must be aimed at both 

support teachers and all curriculum teachers. 

Indications and Guidelines remind us that diversity 

poses a great challenge to didactic and educational 

action, such as being able to face it, having adequate 

skills in inclusive teaching strategies, in order to 

respond adequately not only to the needs of disabled 

pupils or with Specific Learning Disorders, with other 

difficulties or developmental disorders and with 

social and cultural disadvantage, but also 

emphasizing the quality of learning of all pupils 

(Sturm, 2019).  

A key aspect is also that of "taking charge" of the 

student, which must be carried out by the entire 

"educating community", avoiding processes of 

delegation to the support teacher alone. Hence, 

therefore, the need for targeted, specific, modular 

training interventions that consider the different 

starting levels of those who access training and, above 

all, based on a participatory vision of inclusion and 

oriented towards cooperation and cooperative 

teaching (Mihajlovic, 2020).  

Nevertheless, the school, which for over forty years 

has been trying to be a welcoming and inclusive 

context, today feels it must oppose the adverse 

pressures that come from the outside with a decisive 

and constructive commitment to inclusion. These 

educational ideals are expressed through pedagogical 

challenges from which the school cannot move away. 

Learning and teaching practices can guide inclusive 

actions in the classrooms, through participation, 

cooperation, interdependence, and laboratory 

methodology.  

2. Physical Education as a means of 

inclusion  

The stimulating encounter between physical activity 

and the world of disability takes place starting from 

the origins of school inclusion. Physical education, in 

fact, is one of the school disciplines that contributes 

decisively to the formation of one's bodily identity, 

personality and the acquisition of communicative-

relational skills (Demchenko, Maksymchuk, Bilan, 

Maksymchuk, & Kalynovska, 2021).  It is considered 

fundamental for the harmonious development of the 

personality and for the formation of citizens capable 

of expressing themselves and relating in today's 

world, so much so that it has been defined as a "hinge 

discipline between the scientific, communicative and 

expressive, relational and citizenship fields" (MIUR, 

2018). Physical education promotes self-knowledge 

and one's potential in a constant relationship with the 

environment, others, and objects. It also contributes 

to the formation of the student's personality through 

the knowledge and awareness of one's own bodily 

identity, as well as the continuous need for movement 

as a constant care of one's person and well-being. 

Motor activities provide students with opportunities 

to reflect on the changes in their bodies, to accept 

them and live them serenely as an expression of each 

person's growth and maturation process (Sánchez, de 

Haro-Rodríguez, & Martínez, 2019). They also offer 

opportunities to reflect on the significance of self-

image in comparison with peers. The primary 

objective of physical education is, in fact, to promote 

the growth of physically educated people through the 

acquisition of skills, such as motor skills, knowledge, 

socio-affective behaviors and motivations such that 



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they are urged to adopt healthy and physically active 

lifestyles based on awareness of the bodily (Haegele, 

2019). This orientation frames the discipline in a 

holistic approach, which identifies among its main 

purposes the physical, cognitive, and social 

development of children, together with the 

promotion of a healthy lifestyle, assigning it the role 

of a privileged tool for the structuring of personality, 

social relationships and for the acquisition of the 

necessary life skills throughout life. It is for this 

reason that physical education is proposed as an 

essential element for integrated growth. It follows 

that, through a conscious pedagogical orientation 

aimed at proposing significant motor experiences 

and the acquisition of new skills, it is necessary to 

promote an adequate motor planning that correlates 

with a coherent pedagogical intentionality, in order to 

adequately define motor action and to attribute a fair 

value to it. Therefore, education through the body 

and movement cannot be linked to didactic strategies 

linked only to doing but must also and above all be 

realized in a condition linked to the deepest meaning 

of being a person acting in the environment (Hutzler, 

Meier, Reuker, & Zitomer, 2019).   

Starting from these assumptions, the school must, 

therefore, become the ideal setting in which to build 

a didactic of motor and sports activities that looks at 

the educational conception of the body and 

movement understood as a factor of promotion not 

only of the aspects of self-construction but also as an 

educational exercise for the acquisition of healthy 

lifestyles that allow to improve the well-being and 

health of the individual. In this sense, it becomes 

necessary to integrate in the teaching practice both 

the purely physical and the socio-relational aspects, 

in order to allow a global taking charge of the 

psychophysical health of the subject.  

Physical education must, therefore, necessarily 

become essential to the formation of young people. In 

fact, it contributes to their growth both in structural 

terms and to the formation of the Self that concerns 

the body, its potential and its limits, its position in 

physical space, its perception in relation to others, its 

image. It also plays a crucial role in directing 

motivation to improve one's individual skills and self-

determination in achieving psycho-physical well-

being. Therefore, it not only has the educational value 

that contributes to the development of motor skills, 

abilities, and competences, but also and above all the 

value of all those activities that, through movement, 

contribute to the structuring of identity and 

awareness of the potential of one's own body (Rekaa, 

Hanisch, & Ytterhus, 2019).   

Physical education conceived and experimented in 

this way puts into practice a didactic that becomes a 

tool for the metacognitive development of the body 

and mind, in a framework in which the subjects can 

recognize themselves in body and movement. The 

education of the body and movement is therefore 

aimed at a training process capable of allowing 

learners to achieve an ever-greater awareness of their 

body in movement in order to obtain that intrinsic 

pleasure and the achievement of cultural, social and 

expressive factors that identify the value aspect of 

motor activities (Vilchez, Kruse, Puffer, & Dudovitz, 

2021). It follows that the educational process 

represents the tool through which the individual 

gives shape to his or her personal identity, integrating 

all those knowledge, skills and competencies that 

allow him or her to live and mature an increasingly 

complete self-awareness. The body and movement 

are, therefore, two fundamental elements of the 

individual and social dimension in the personal 

development of the individual, it follows that physical 

activities provide a special contribution to the 

creation and strengthening of skills that can be used 

in other contexts of life. Within the didactic path of 

motor and sports education, due to the specific 

experiential characteristics of the discipline, the 

curriculum helps to develop transversal skills capable 

of making students capable of transforming the 

knowledge, attitudes and values acquired into real 

skills, such as "what to do" and "how to do it" in every 

circumstance of life (Nilholm, 2021).   

This type of offer characterized by a multiplicity of 

accessible, interdisciplinary, situated, and immersive 

learning opportunities, based on plural and 

differentiated didactic mediations in their 

complementarity, represents the methodological 

framework within which the knowledge and skills 



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acquired through physical, and sports education can 

contribute to the development of educational and 

social equity.  

3. Physical education as a perspective for 

the development of individual potential  

Physical education unquestionably assumes an 

educational value for everyone, able bodied and 

disabled; For the latter, play, movement, and sport 

take on an added value by giving visibility to their 

physical and cognitive abilities. Every form of 

educational intervention stems from the teacher's 

ability to remove "obstacles", focusing on functional 

abilities and hypothesizing suitable, not adapted, 

educational proposals (Kirk, 2019).   

The presence of a person with disabilities within a 

group changes relationships, relationships, balances, 

emotions on an intra and interpersonal level: there 

begins to be more collaboration, sharing and there is 

a tendency to face any obstacle in order to resolve the 

various conflicts. Disability also produces advantages 

for able-bodied people to the extent that they are in 

an inclusive dimension that is not limited only to 

welcoming diversity. Various didactic and 

educational strategies must be put in place in order to 

create a learning community, a community that 

manifests solidarity and sensitivity.   

Everyone should perceive difference as a value or 

resource and not as a threat precisely because, when 

an individual meet someone "different" from 

yourself, you create a greater awareness of your 

identity. It is necessary to create a new educational 

paradigm, it is necessary to educate to the difference, 

to the other and to the different to create those 

effective conditions in which the subject can express 

his potential and the most hidden reactions (Sulasmi, 

& Akrim, 2019).   

It becomes necessary to identify the skills of the most 

"fragile" in order to enhance their abilities within the 

class group. The resulting didactic proposal will have 

to respond to the needs of the students, taking into 

account the conditions of extreme heterogeneity of 

the classes, aiming at the discovery of their own body 

and their motor and communication skills to increase 

self-esteem and self-confidence. Starting from the 

assumption that every student needs, indifferently, 

appropriate educational proposals and that whatever 

the "difficulty", the educator will have to create the 

conditions of welcome and collaboration such as to 

allow adequate participation in the activity, Motor 

and Sports Education could intervene as a facilitator 

of school learning in subjects with special educational 

needs.  

The person, the goal, and the context (rules and 

people) are the factors that unite the world of play 

and sport and the world of disability: everyone 

indiscriminately uses their skills and determination 

to achieve the same goal, that is, to reach the limit of 

their limits by overcoming obstacles. From this point 

of view, it is important to be able to train the teachers 

themselves in order to make them understand the 

real and personal needs of the students in order to 

create inclusive actions that can make the disabled 

person feel the protagonist of their own life project 

and no longer a simple spectator in which others play 

their game (Opstoel et al., 2020).   

Physical education, in fact, becomes effective when 

the focus is on the student and not on sport, when the 

teacher is able to motivate the student and create a 

positive teacher learner relationship, making him 

more and more autonomous in his activity and 

personal choices.   

The educational process and the related training 

project require an educational space in which 

motor and sports paths are flexible and 

personalized in relation to the characteristics 

and peculiarities of each subject, which allow not 

only to "overcome" the deficit but also to increase 

in each subject the awareness of his possibilities, 

thus contributing to the formation of his identity. 

It happens, in fact, that every student has special 

needs to be transformed into special desires and 

life prospects, as each subject is unique and 

unrepeatable, with his or her own experience and 

his or her own life project. The line to be taken is, 

therefore, that of "valuing differences in the 

awareness of diversity as an indispensable value" 

in order to confront the diversity of each student 

in a new learning environment that ensures 

convergence and balance between different 



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characteristics and needs and above all is able to 

change flexibly with changing attitudes, 

aspirations, environments, fragility and 

potential of the person (White et al., 2021).  

Looking at the disabled person beyond their 

deficit means considering their life history by 

providing different possibilities for personalized 

and integrated growth. Physical education is well 

suited to this training approach as motor 

activities allow you to "abandon the pressures of 

everyday life, have more bodily contact, be 

cooperative, resolve conflicts, get to know the 

other and, consequently, socialize with all people 

beyond disability" (Juvonen, Lessard, Rastogi, 

Schacter, & Smith, 2019).  

Physical education, as a training process, 

therefore, represents a real breaking down of 

social barriers, a tool capable of giving life to an 

innovative and mature paradigm based on the 

promotion of social inclusion. For the disabled 

person sharing the same experience, the same 

spaces and the same moments with others 

represents an opportunity for growth and social 

integration. Physical education should be 

considered as a method of intervention in the 

difficult educational path and integration of the 

disabled person. The motor and sports field, in 

fact, is a favorable context for the development 

and consolidation of fundamental cognitive skills 

and, at the same time, the body, motor activity, 

games and recreational activities aimed at 

integration, become concrete and coherent 

educational tools for the affirmation of this 

paradigm.   

Through motor activities, exploiting a 

psychoeducational intervention model that 

integrates the educational aspect with the 

psychological and relational one, it is possible to 

create the conditions for the subject with 

disabilities to benefit from a learning context, 

understood as growth and structuring of the 

personality (search for autonomy). This means, 

first of all, valuing the diversity of the student: 

difference is to be considered a resource and a 

richness and, in this sense, collaboration and 

teamwork are essential for everyone's growth 

(Pangrazi, & Beighle, 2019).   

Sport and play, in addition to spreading the 

values of solidarity, loyalty, respect for the 

person and the rules, which are the founding 

principles of any healthy society, are 

extraordinary tools for building skills that can be 

transferred to other contexts of life. The 

organization of a competition, the definition of 

roles, the determination of timing, game 

strategies, are real intellectual skills that can be 

transferred to any context of life and represent 

skills that everyone should be able to put into 

practice when they must make decisions or 

prepare a program of action. Movement 

activities are opportunities to privilege creativity 

and emotional investment because the 

educational perspective is to support the 

processes that lead to autonomy, the growth of 

self-esteem, the ability to initiative and self-

awareness at various levels, physical and 

emotional.  

Conclusions  

Educating the person to become himself, also by 

concentrating on his bodily realization, means 

helping him to become aware of his being a whole 

person, which is expressed and fulfilled through 

movement, action. This means accompanying 

the subject to read the body not only as a set of 

muscle bundles to be controlled as such and 

therefore a mere expression of coordinative and 

conditional capacities, but to ensure that it 

grasps itself integrally in its total corporeality, 

which also involves relating to others. The body, 

as a co-builder of knowledge and self-knowledge, 

in its being "in situation", is correlated with 

motivation, with the intentionality that each 



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subject puts into his action and not only with his 

mechanical action of a merely reproductive 

model.  

Physical education, conducted in formal, non-

formal and informal educational systems, calls 

for the acquisition of the person's awareness of 

his transformation as a bodily identity, in his 

existence, acting and perfecting himself. In this 

sense, pedagogical intentionality has as its 

peculiarity the feeling and becoming of bodies, 

embodied and embodied actions that give 

meaning and significance to the person's 

experience, including those who may show 

deficits and disabilities. Physical education has, 

in essence, the purpose of allowing each and 

every one to develop their own personal life 

project according to an eco-systemic approach, 

using a multi-perspective vision in relation to the 

contribution that the different motor activities 

can offer in order to achieve a "formative" design.  

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