E-tutorship and dual-career of student-athletes : a pedagogical conceptualization from the results of an Italian case study

Abstract

Nowadays tutorship is a key factor for the success of university courses for dual career studentathletes. An effective tutorship system for the athletes has to motivate and help them solve the problems they face as university students in completing the tasks they are required to carry out. Mentors and tutors have to positively influence the student-athlete to personal motivation and selfencouragement, providing advice and sharing knowledge and experiences with her/him. Through the mentor’s and tutor’s help, student-athletes have to experience a comfortable learning environment based on low pressure and self-discovery. Tutorship systems for the student-athlete have to be the result of a systemic interaction among different agencies and strategies oriented towards the empowerment of specific, adaptable, flexible and personalized learning environments based on effective education models. These learning environments have to help the student-athlete develop problem-solving skills, and discover how to better understand things, learning autonomously and in a critical way. The new learning and tutoring tools provided by the Web 2.0 allow mentors and tutors of student-athletes to share knowledge and open contents with them, and to create learning communities that foster interpersonal communication and give them support. In light of this background, we have analyzed a specific case study of two groups of student-athletes who are following a bachelor’s degree course in sport sciences in an Italian university, utilizing qualitative and quantitative research tools to collect data (mainly survey and interview). One of the two groups has been provided with a tutorship environment rich in support and help from online learning and tutoring tools. The second group was used as a control group and provided with poor online and based-on-web tutoring, but just a face-to-face support. The results of our study have shown that the student-athletes provided with a tutoring environment based on Web-based communication and e-learning tools were more satisfied and enjoyed the course and its e-tutorship system more than those who were not provided with the same online support and assistance. In conclusion, we have stressed the the necessity to rethink and re-conceptualize the tutorship for the dual career of student-athletes in light of a new pedagogical model capable of utilizing and transforming all new forms of mobile, tablets and social network learning into effective e-tutoring environments.