The aim of this paper is to carry out a theoretical transposition of the principles of the ecological dynamic approach in the field of physical and sports education, aimed at defining educational approaches capable of promoting an effective acquisition of cognitive skills, through the practice of physical activity and sport. Physical education, according to an ecological dynamics perspective, considers the performer a complex adaptive system, which interacts with the environments in a functionally integrated way, underlining the interrelationship between motor processes, cognitive and perceptive functions. The cognitive area of Life Skills (Cognitive Life Skills, CLS), divided by the WHO, into decision making, problem solving, creative thinking and critical thinking processes, can be framed as an intrinsic part of goal-directed behaviour influenced by functional constraints determined by individual-environment interaction. Therefore, physical and sport activity practiced according to the principles of the ecological dynamic approach can be configured as an elective tool to promote the development of cognitive skills. In this article, the relevant theories of ecological dynamics are discussed and recent empirical data on the perceptual-cognitive processes which are activated through the practice of physical education and sport are described to underline the potential of such practices for the development of cognitive skills. The development of this specific theoretical transposition represents a starting point for the definition and experimentation of ecological dynamic interventions designed with the aim of investigating the effects of physical and sporting activity on the development of cognitive skills for life.

Several studies in recent decades have investigated the relationship between physical activity and learning, emphasising the role of corporeality as an effective tool for embodying knowledge, as well as skills, motor skills, and life. The aim of this exploratory study is to analyse and interpret the correlations existing between motor competence and school performance in all the disciplines included in the curriculum of primary school. Through non-probability sampling, a sample of 120 Italian children aged 6–10 years was involved. The TGMD-3 test was used to assess gross motor competence, while academic achievement was assessed based on the children’s GPA (grade point average) evaluation. Additional information on extracurricular sports practice was acquired through a questionnaire completed by parents. The Spearman correlation conducted between the children’s TGMD-3 scores (Gross Motor Index, Locomotion, and Ball scaled scores) and the academic achievement showed weak intensity and no statistical significance. In the analysis by sex, only weak and non-significant correlations, mostly of a negative type, were revealed in the group of males. In the group of females, on the other hand, positive, mostly moderate, and statistically significant correlations emerged between GMI and the scaled Ball scores with the learning assessments, except for Physical Education. The results suggest the need to expand studies investigating the quantity and quality of physical education and sports in the formal school context to understand whether, in sharing the educational project, it can promote better school performance and, more generally, more harmonious development of cognitive, motor, and social skills.

The World Health Organization identifies creative thinking as a key life skill essential for health promotion, personal development, and well-being. In line with recent perspectives on motor learning within the ecological dynamics approach, this study highlights the importance of self-organization, free initiative, and divergent thinking as processes that are deeply connected to individual emotional, experiential, and bodily engagement within dynamic environments. With this quasi-experimental study, conducted in Italy, we aimed to examine the impact of a physical education program, designed according to the principles of ecological dynamics, on the development of creative thinking in children. The sample included 107 primary school students (58 girls, 49 boys; mean age = 7.51 ± 0.50 years) who were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (n = 57) or a control group (n = 50). Creative thinking was assessed before and after the intervention using the WCR test. The WCR (Widening, Connecting, and Reorganizing) test assesses three core components of creative thinking through age-appropriate visual and verbal tasks. The results showed that there was a significant improvement (p < 0.05) in cognitive widening for the experimental group compared with the control group. The findings of this study suggest that physical education grounded in the ecological dynamics framework promotes the generation of ideas, cognitive flexibility, and motor adaptability, allowing children to explore original and self-determined movement solutions. Such programs may play a crucial role in supporting creativity and holistic development in educational contexts.

The didactic-performative experience at a distance, centred on the body in action of the training laboratories activated at the University of Study Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan and the University of Study Suor Orsola Benincasa of Naples, encouraged, through the exercise of ‘simplex property’ of the separation of functions, the crossing of borders of ‘presence/distance’, using Didactics at Distance (DAD) as an opportunity to search in everyone the potential patrimony of the action, able to go beyond the classical meanings of interaction, relationship, experience, emotion, through an effort of imagination and simulation, which even interaction with the machine can stimulate. The research work recalls the ambivalence and the plurality of interpretative keys of the teaching experience and includes its analogies with the performing arts. Starting from the ‘stage presence’, as a scenic ‘bios’ and source of energy, a third energetic space has been investigated, which can amplify the relational dimension. A space which the biologist Sheldrake defines as ‘morphogenetic field’ is the one in which it is possible, through the activation of an empathic climate, to make all the processes of emotional sharing, expressive rediscovery and acquisition of awareness sprout, making the experience of DAD a formative and transformative one.

Cognitive sciences and neuroscientific landings allow to support the existence of a circular dialogue between perception, action, emotion and cognition and their ability to influence and strengthen each other in the process of knowledge. These considerations are unavoidable, so they can and must have many impacts on teacher training. In particular, the training of support teachers requires cognitive reflections that are closely linked to experiential content, information, and body representations, that are capable of narrating effective and inclusive interpersonal relationships. After a description of the Embodied based constructs, that formed the basis of the training model, this contribution discusses about the treatment of the literature in support of the use of video both as an embodied training tool, designed to promote the centrality of the body in the processes of observation and simulation of inclusive strategies; and as a means of “narration” of effective and real inclusive processes, capable of having a positive impact on the perception of disability and its functioning. The undertaking of experiential and emotional body dimensions in training is an essential element, in order to promote, the construction of crossmodal skills of the teacher (corporeal-emotional-empathic) for the structuring of real inclusive processes and contexts in the classroom.