20.500.12556/RUL-185664 Athletics coaches experiencing cooperative learning for the first time a qualitative study As cooperative learning (CL) is not yet well researched and widely used in competitive youth sport, we aimed to gather coaches’ experiences of CL to evaluate and promote its suitability for use in kids’ athletics. Four track-and-field coaches from Slovenia who coached mixed youth athletics groups were interviewed after conducting 30 training sessions with CL according to the experimental programme. In addition, the coaches wrote a reflective analysis after each session. The coaches’ responses from the interview and the reflections were analysed using thematic analysis and constant comparison. Three themes were identified: (a) roles in the pedagogical process, (b) interpersonal and small-group skills, and (c) transition to CL and related challenges. The coaches developed very positive attitude towards CL and group work in general. They reported that children acquired various interpersonal and small-group skills, which helped them in peer teaching and learning. The most difficult part was the beginning, as the children were not able to cooperate with their peers. Later on, the athletes were active learners and very confident in taking on different roles, including the role of the tutor. Because of this, the coaches’ role changed tremendously. Nevertheless, the coaches felt important in guiding the learners to the desired knowledge. CL is very effective in improving children’s learning in kids’ athletics and is also well accepted by Slovenian track-and-field coaches. However, we would suggest combining it with other pedagogical models. In addition, coaches would need additional training in CL to be able to decide which learning objectives should be targeted with which approach. sport pedagogical model roles peer teaching autonomy youth sport šport pedagoški model vloge vrstniško poučevanje avtonomija mladi true false true Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Podatek o licenci CC BY-NC 4.0 je naveden na pristajalni strani članka (glej zgoraj izvorni URL). (Datum opombe: 17. 8. 2026) Članek v reviji 2026-08-17 10:39:36 2026-08-17 10:39:38 2026-08-18 04:04:45 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2025 0 0 Str. 74-82 no. 1 Vol. 57 2025 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova NiDoloceno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 796.01-053.6 1848-638X 10.26582/k.57.1.8 236904707 32905_Zeleznik.pdf 32905_Zeleznik.pdf 1 F89B991CCAA947D05CF860536B960DD7 bcbe576de8ae534caf55615a3a86c6d4593f206e0c966aae09cddae65d37b92f 66b2994a-9a17-11f1-9b0d-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=244417 https://ojs.srce.hr/kinesiology/article/view/32905 0 8ab762fc-9a17-11f1-9b0d-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=244418 Fakulteta za šport 0 0 0