Here you can find the research projects of the Primary Physical Education department.
Research Projects
Project completed
Research Projects Physical activity and (public) space– Using the vicinity in PE (Bewegung und Raum – Raumnutzung im Schulsport) Project completedApplicants Project manager Project launch 01/06/2018 End of project 31/12/2018 Collaborators Project description School sports, a conglomeration of lessons, schooling, and school life, is in practice predominantly organised as formal learning. Educational processes are limited to the school as an institution, obligatory, and goal-oriented. They have a high degree of standardisation concerning educational opportunities, and performance measurement (cf. OVERWIEN, 2006). However, education is not limited to formal education, but also takes place informally through unplanned, unintended processes. Informal learning processes in school sports have the potential to enhance traditional sports with new perspectives, new attitudes, and original practices, as well as to shape sporting activities in a self-organised way. This may not require a gym or schoolyard (cf. BINDEL/BALZ, 2014). At this point, the idea is to provide formally organised school sports with the space for an informal approach. In the context of school sports, the term space must be more than just the idea of a gym. School must be understood as a shapeable/malleable space (cf. LEHRPLAN GRUNDSCHULE SPORT SACHSEN, 2009, VIII). As a central didactic principle, it is suggested that physical education should take place outdoors as often as possible (cf. ibid., 3). Thus, school sports have the extended task of enabling learners to independently explore spaces suitable for physical activity, and sports outside the standardised gymnasiums. The project will survey physical education teachers at public primary schools in the Free State of Saxony to determine the status quo of the use of different (public) spaces for physical education. The aim is to show where physical education takes place at primary schools, to what extent these spaces are used, and how the participants actively organise or shape them themselves respectively. |
Project completed
Variety of Diversity. Aesthetic Learning in Language, Play, Physical Activity, and Art (Varieté der Vielfalt. Ästhetisches Lernen in Sprache, Spiel, Bewegung und Kunst) Project completedApplicants Project manager Project launch 01/10/2017 End of project 30/09/2018 Project website Variety of Diversity Parent project LaborUniversity Project description In the arts, the variety is an entertaining, and convivial event based on the principle “unity of diversity” that lives precisely from the variety of its performances. Likewise, teaching-learning processes are increasingly geared towards diversity and heterogeneity, and are oriented towards the guidelines of inclusive pedagogy and didactics. In terms of teacher education, not only the school, but also institutions of higher education themselves are central fields of action for dealing with fundamental questions, concepts, and conditions concerning the success of diversity in practice. An interdisciplinary engagement with forms/methods of aesthetic, and group-related learning that have proven particularly suitable in research and practice for working on the common subject seems necessary. However, the interdisciplinary and cross-curricular perspective on the resulting questions necessary for the sustainable acquisition of skills/competencies, as well as the systematic linkage of theory and practice, are still scarcely reflected in the curriculum of the University of Leipzig. This is to be amended by the ongoing development of a module anchored in the supplementary studies of the ZLS, and consisting of a lecture series and four related practical courses. In "Variety of Diversity", experts from different disciplines provide insights into "Aesthetic Learning in Language, Play, Physical Activity, and Art", and point out ways to both, a sound scientific and artistic concept of lived diversity/diversity in practice. The focus is on subject-specific forms of aesthetic learning as well as overarching topics such as linguistic and cultural heterogeneity or approaches to music, theater, physical activity, and art education.
In addition to the lecture series, students attend one of the four accompanying seminars (language, games, physical activity, art) that were adapted for the programme. These practical modules enable students to have their own aesthetic experiences, but also specifically build up personal, social, and professional skills as part of the students’ professionalization. In addition, the students are encouraged to attempt teaching aesthetic forms of learning in group processes. The results of the theory component, i.e. the lecture series, are published in an anthology; the results of the practical components are presented in a performance that is open to all University members, and reinforces the university as a cultural place. |
Project completed
Evaluation of the talent schools of the German Gymnastics Association Project completedProject manager: Collaborators: Funding: Federal Institute of Sport Science Duration: 01/01/2009 - 31/12/2011 Project description: The talent schools form the first stage of deliberate talent development in the competitive sports concept of the German Gymnastics Federation (DTB). Talented children between the ages of 5 and 10 are to be discovered, and nurtured, at an early stage. They are to be given a broad basic education, and should be enabled to start a competitive sporting career in one of the Olympic Sports in the DTB (Deutscher Turner-Bund, n. d.). The awarding of the "Talent School" certificate is regulated by criteria relating to the qualification of coaches, the supervision ratio, the equipment, etc. (ibid.). In the few years since its introduction, more than 100 locations in Germany have obtained the certificate. The task of the present project is to evaluate these institutions. |
Project completed
MoKiS-Study – Motor performance of children in Saxony Project completedProject management: Funding: Third-party funding from the State Ministry for Social Affairs of Saxony Duration: 01/01/2011 – 31/12/2012 Project description: The project, funded by the State Ministry of Social Affairs of Saxony, is based on an analysis of the motor skills of children between the ages of 3 and 6 carried out in 2008. The project aims to provide further training for nursery school teachers, and child minders in the area of movement and play as a means of holistic nurturing. For this purpose, a training concept was developed, and 32 multipliers were trained. In 2011, 26 training events were organised and carried out. The post-study was conducted in 2012. Its purpose was the evaluation of the effects of the training events. |
Project completed
optiSTART – an optimal start to the school carreer Project completedProject management: Collaborators: Funding: Third-party funding from the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV) Duration: 01/06/2006 - 31/08/2011 Description: The optiSTART project, funded by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, was carried out at schools and day-care centres in the city of Leipzig from June 2006 to July 2009. The results achieved in the project led to an extension of the project's duration by another 2 years until August 2011. The follow-up project focused on the stabilisation as well as the warranty of the sustainability of the trainings. For this purpose, a larger number of schools were involved, and the transition of the project idea into school (all-day) programmes was supported. 22 schools were involved in 2011. To support the implementation of the modules, 12 didactic handouts were developed for teachers. A comprehensive final report is available. The four-year longitudinal study on the motor skills of primary school children was statistically processed and evaluated. The results were published in 2012. |