Game in Physical Education, Physical Activities and Sport of Children and Youth: Researches – Best Practices – Situation

Why a monothematic volume on the Game, referring to the areas of physical education, motor activities and the introduction to sport? First of all, we wanted to celebrate a significant anniversary: the FIEPS –Fédération Internationale d’Éducation Physique et Sportive – is 100 years old! In 100 years (1923-2023) Physical Education has been enriched with scien tific contributions, it has changed on the epistemological and methodological level and FIEPS has followed this evolution and transformation in many coun tries and continents. Numerous international conferences, seminars and work shops have been systematically held, numerous volumes and articles have been published which have made it possible to promote and disseminate interpreta tions, models, research and good practice on a school curricular and scientific field full of links and interconnections. Numerous authors (98) from 36 countries have participated sharing (not on ly after the COVID pandemic) with an interdisciplinary connecting theme: the Game. The Game promotes the learning of the child, emotional development, in terpersonal relationship, socio-cultural inclusion and structure the assumptions of civil coexistence and sports practice for each individual. Other reasons have conditioned the choice to deepen the study of the Game from various scientific and methodological approaches: 1. The complexity that goes through every educational context (where) and learning environment (what to learn and how to learn), including the body motor field, requires a constant reference to a red thread that connects the human experience in different ages and this is represented by the Game, stud ied from various scientific and methodological perspectives; 2. The relationship between Health Literacy (HL) and Physical Literacy (PL): in this trajectory are necessary reflections and institutional-professional actions. HL and PL are learning constructs deemed essential and unavoidable to en able all individuals, regardless of geographical location, to acquire, maintain and develop active, healthy and sustainable lifestyles. Game represents the basis of the PL and is the prerequisites for the transition to Sport Literacy (SL). The PL is a multidimensional concept that expresses the prerequisites for understanding the benefits of physical activity throughout life. It involves the acquisition and mastery of basic motor skills, the understanding of the principles of physical fitness, the rules of games and sports, and the ability to make informed decisions about physical activity in various contexts. Scientif ic evidence has underlined the educational and pedagogical role of the Game and motor activities as «accelerator of processes» for the physical, cognitive,emotional-relational, and social development of the child and the Game is not only the constant, but also it is content, scope, scenario. PL has gained popularity in recent years and worldwide has acquired a progressive impor tance, helping to define research paths, internal and external projects to schools, ties and interconnections with sport and other contexts. The PL has been described as a gatewayto permanent participation in physical activity in different educational contexts, school, sport, leisure and health for the pre vention of various diseases and the educational process; 3. The decline of the Game and the transition from the Game to Sport: unfor tunately, the Game is still confused with the Sport proper. It overlaps with it and more and more frequently the timing of the spontaneous Game is re duced-deconstructed, while begins a structured and anticipated sports expe rience packaged by adults (adultization). Individual differences and special educational needs require, on the contrary, bodily-motor experiences rich in meanings and values for the growth of the person and the civil coexistence promoted by Game; 4. The relationships between Real Game and Virtual Game: nowadays, tech nologies, software, videogames, artificial intelligence characterize every learn ing but often the emotional and perceptive-motor experience is limited. Vir tual Games are still limiting the children’s emotional alphabet and the educa tional values implicit in the playful experience. In fact, the foundations of civil cohabitation education can be found in the Game, in Sport and in the experiences lived according to an Embodied Cognition approach, that is, on the close interconnections mind-body-emotions-relationships-lived experi ence. It emerges the conviction, more and more frequent, to have been over whelmed by the excessive use of technologies and to be faced with an evident and marked process of adultization that has shortened, to the point of flatten ing, giving up slow and personalized didactics in different fields of knowl edge; 5. The places of teaching-learning, both scholastic and out-of-school, have in creased, multiplied but frequently are not interconnected in terms of the val ues to be taught-learn or in terms of methodology and teaching proposals. The Game is the denominator of every learning because it mobilizes all the functions-abilities of the person, at every moment of the day and in different training contexts.