Identifying best practice across physical education teacher education programmes: A European perspective Erasmus Project

Project Title

Identifying best practice across physical education teacher education programmes: A European perspective

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Quality and Relevance of Higher Education in Partner Countries; Pedagogy and didactics; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

According to available data, EU population lead a sedentary lifestyle (EU Physical Activity Guidelines, 2008), so leading an inactive life has been defined as one of the major problems in EU member countries. Qualified PE teachers at schools can be an essential tool to enhance the physical activity levels of individuals and to resolve this negation. Therefore, Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) is a significant issue which needs to be addressed by the experts in the field. When it is a need to examine PETE in EU countries, the source to be applied first is The Eurydice Network, which provides information on EU education systems. However, there is no detailed information on comparative PETE systems in EU countries neither on the Eurydice Network nor in the PETE literature. For this reason, there was a need for transnational studies which examine and compare the PETE programmes in EU countries with a view to exploring other PETE programmes and sharing good practices. This project has been designed to address this issue.

With the above mentioned problems in mind, the aim of this project was to find an answer to research question “In what ways can the professional profile of these responsible for training physical educators be strenghtened?” by exploring and understanding PETE curricula in Erasmus+ programme countries. This included initial, induction and continuing professional development (CPD)/in-service phases of PETE.

This project was carried out under the coordination of Uludag University and within the partnership of Limerick University-Ireland, Liberec Technical University- Czech Republic, Padova University-Italy, Sport Science Association-Turkiye and Bursa Physical Edutaion Teachers’ Association-Turkiye. In addition, two associations working on PETE in Europe, AIESEP and FIEP were the stakeholders of the project.
56 academicians from the partner institutions and 25 PETE experts/academicians from 33 Erasmus+ programme countries, a total of 81 people at C1, C2, C3 LTT activities directly benefited from this project. Also, around 400 academicians in PETE by the target groups’ sharing with their colleagues got benefit from this project as final beneficiaries.

The main activities of the project consisted of C1, C2 and C3 trainings, which were held with the participation of experts from 33 programme countries. During these trainings, each expert made their presentations about the PETE practices in their countries and they had the opportunity to learn about good examples and practices in other countries. These trainings were planned during M1, M2 and M3 transnational meetings. After each training session, the data obtained was compiled in the book form and the compiled data was turned into congress presentations, articles and finally a book as intellectual outputs. The outputs were shared with PETE people at a conference in Istanbul, Turkey as the multiplier event.

At the end of this project (1) PETE curricula in Erasmus+ programme countries in terms of initial, induction and in-service/CPD have been examined, experts in PE field compared and contrasted various and new model and practices in PETE. (2) Easily accessible reference resources in the field of PETE such as a book, articles and online resources have been created (3) Erasmus+ partnership agreements between the institutions in the field of PETE have been promoted by strengthening the cooperation among programme countries and therefore learning and staff mobility has been enhanced. (4) People working in the field of PE became more aware of PE, sports and EU values and the recognition of Turkiye among around people working in the field of PE and sports in Europe has been promoted.

People interested in PETE can visit the following accounts of the project:

https://www.eupete.com
Tweets by EU_PETE
https://www.researchgate.net/project/Identifying-Best-Practice-Across-Physical-Education-Teacher-Education-Programmes-A-European-Perspective-EU-PETE
https://www.facebook.com/groups/193610947639060/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 247689 Eur

Project Coordinator

ULUDAG UNIVERSITESI & Country: TR

Project Partners

• Bursa Beden Egitimi Ögretmenleri Dernegi
• TECHNICKA UNIVERZITA V LIBERCI
• HACETTEPE UNIVERSITESI
• Spor Bilimleri Dernegi
• UNIVERSITY OF LIMERICK
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA