New project for training future primary Physical Education teachers on bullying

Physical Education can be a tool for bullying detection and prevention, but future teachers lack preparation

Bullying is a global issue present in schools, where teachers do not always have the necessary training and preparation to address situations that can have a significant impact on children's mental health and lives. Previous studies, involving team members (Ríos et al., 2022), highlight the need to include this topic in teacher training curricula to improve case detection and management.

Although the Physical Education subject can, in some cases, foster bullying situations, with proper classroom management and an appropriate teaching style, it can become a key environment for detecting cases and working on their prevention. Despite this, trainee teachers often feel unprepared to face such situations.

This project aims to develop and implement a training capsule on bullying, aimed at future primary education PE teachers. The goal is to provide effective knowledge and strategies to detect and intervene in bullying situations within this educational context.

The specific objectives of the project are:

• Design a training capsule on bullying in the field of Physical Education.
• Implement the capsule in three universities: the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, the University of Seville, and INEFC Barcelona.
• Evaluate the implementation of the capsule using the model proposed by Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick (2016).

The project is funded through the UAB 2024 Pre-Competitive Projects Call (Emerging Leaderships). The research team includes: Carles Ventura (INEFC Barcelona), Maria Prat (IRE-UAB), Gonzalo Flores (University of Seville), and Marta Borrueco (IRE-UAB), under the direction of Xènia Rios (UAB-IRE).

Additionally, the project seeks to strengthen synergies between university teams that are part of the Bullying and Sport Network (funded by the CSD), promoting knowledge exchange through short-term research stays and evaluating opportunities to continue developing this line of research.