Dr Queralt Prat presented and defended her doctoral thesis in the Hall of Honour at INEFC Lleida before a panel of Professors José Ignacio Alonso, Eloísa Lorente Catalán and Francesc Busca Bonet.

The thesis, Towards Collaborative and Emotional Physical Education Through Information and Communication Technologies, was supervised by Professors Pere Lavega and Oleguer Camerino.

Schools and physical education (PE) are undergoing changes, including larger classes and the use of personal learning environments (PLEs). Teaching methods and the roles of teachers and students need to adapt. The use of PLEs in collaborative teaching is becoming more prominent. It creates new interpersonal relationships and supports emotional education: students need to recognise their emotional states in different motor situations and learn to manage and regulate them when acting alone or in a team, supporting personal and social well-being. The study examined a collaborative teaching intervention using information and communication technology in PE. It assessed the development of teamwork skills across the RUTE model’s dimensions of identity, communication, execution and student regulation, as well as the emotions the intervention elicited.

Collaborative work strengthened positive interdependence. Using PLEs encouraged students to develop their communication skills, supported conflict management and prompted students to assess their own learning as they worked towards the objective. The study also confirmed that emotional awareness supported well-being during the different stages of collaborative work.