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The Reflective Educator

One of the most pertinent aspects regarding the development of an individual who has been entrusted to a sports educator is the latter’s ability to help their protegees make choices that are both informed and durable and that are not based merely on the emotion of the given moment.
The concept of the reflective, or, as some scholars define it, “mature” athlete, implies that the student acts autonomously with an objective that has an educational aim, even within a context that is linked to sport. In effect, respecting the student’s autonomy is nowadays held up to be a fundamental necessity by the educator in order to establish an appropriate pedagogical approach for young people in general, but it is also considered to be one of the basic principles of educating adults. In this respect, it is precisely this relationship between a sports educator and a young athlete that can have a significant impact on the young person and their overall development.
The recipient of the schooling is the student, whom the adult educator accompanies on his or her educational journey. It is therefore logical for the theory of the existence of a causal link between the educator’s way of feeling/thinking/acting and the young person’s way of feeling/thinking/acting to materialize. Following this hypothesis, it appears evident that increased reflection on behalf of the educators can facilitate the meta-cognitive maturity of the individual receiving the training, benefiting his or her entire educational performance. What then makes the sporting context truly unique in educational terms are the conditions under which these sporting practices can be conducted, enabling the individuals who practice them to be fully engaged and mobilize their specific skill sets in such a way that the experience helps to construct and shape their personality. This pedagogical model, which is conducive to producing a ‘mature athlete’, interprets the relationship between educator and athlete (both while training and during competitions) as an ongoing process where the same principles upon which adult education is based apply. With this pedagogical approach, coaching is not regarded as a set of compulsory, oppressive and repetitive schemas, but rather as an individual and at the same time community-oriented learning process that is both liberal and flexible, because it is “accompanied” at all times by an instructor who assumes the characteristic role of the educational “facilitator”.
The training curriculum for sports educators should therefore aim to develop the generic profile of a “REFLECTIVE EDUCATOR”, that is to say, someone equipped with the kind of knowledge that encourages systematically drawing upon one’s own experiences and practices in order to better understand them and thus effectively bring about personal change. The shared experience of training and competing places both athlete and coach in a situation of mutual influence and dependence on a daily, ongoing basis, and this needs to be knowingly and comprehensively put into practice by the trainer.
This therefore is when the perspective of the reflective coach appears to best reflect that which is also characteristic of the Ignatian tradition. During training, the coach also establishes methods and procedures that enable him to connect with the athlete, and systematically encourage him or her to follow the ideals of “Magis” more closely. Mere experience is no longer enough. Transforming experience into conscious knowledge necessitates learning to reflect during one’s actions and on one’s actions. In this manner, the “on-site” educator can learn while performing his actions and learn while reflecting, at the same time as being able to process theories and continue on course, while immersing himself in a learning process which also affords further re-processing, reflection and revision of what lies behind the readily observable effects of his actions, etc.
The development and learning process of the reflective educator need to take place on a continuous basis, following a course of personal change that requires both method and discipline. In doing so, one embarks upon a journey which embodies the perspectives and modes of formation that embrace many of the approaches that are typical of Ignatian Pedagogy.

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