Sports is part of the compulsory primary school curriculum and attends to the harmonious physical and mental development of students, relaxation and relief, a positive experience of sports and the formation of a genuine, respectful, emotional and cultural attitude towards the nature and the environment. In this school subject, teachers in all primary educational programmes encounter content which is related to hiking. Primary schools teachers teaching on an adapted educational programme with lower educational standards must adapt hiking to the individual needs of each student. In addition to the walking activity itself, students must also acquire some theoretical background related to the rules of safe walking, nature protection and appropriate equipment for hiking, and at the same time strengthen the awareness of preserving cultural and natural heritage. Due to the specific needs of people with mild intellectual disabilities, teachers need to adapt this content and present it in a comprehensive way for their students.
In this master's thesis, we wanted to gain insight into the implementation of hiking at a selected primary school as part of the compulsory programme of sport subject sports in the adapted educational programme with lower educational standards. As a research instrument, an interview with a sports teacher was conducted which explored the process of hike planning, the challenges and problems faced by the teacher in planning and implementing hiking and the success of self-orientation of students with mild intellectual disabilities. Three more interviews were held with students to gain insight into their personal experiences of hiking, their wishes and suggestions of hiking implementation, their understanding of potential hiking effects on the human body, their awareness of the importance of appropriate hiking equipment, and their awareness of environmental protection and their knowledge of orienteering equipment.
We found that differentiation and individualization are the biggest challenges for sports teachers when planning hiking for students with mild intellectual disabilities. The teacher adapts the duration, the length and the route of the hike to the students according to their abilities, and also plans hiking sports events in the spring months. When planning a hike, the sports teacher most often encounters problems such as an inadequate student equipment, a poor physical fitness of students or teachers, and an inadequate nutrition of students during the hike. He solves implementation problems with preventive endurance training in sports and prior students’ awareness of appropriate hiking equipment and nutrition during the hike. Students need a supervision of an accompanying teacher when doing orienteering outdoors, and they do also not use any aids due to poor prior knowledge. We also found that students feel good on hiking sports days. The interviewees are aware of the positive impact of hiking on the human body and know the importance of appropriate hiking equipment. Students see their own contribution to nature protection mainly in waste collection and the protection of plants and animals.
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