SportPsychoMovies Erasmus Project

Project Title

SportPsychoMovies

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 Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Open and distance learning; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The target group of the project „SportPsychoMovies“ were six-form students of three European schools (Germany, England and Finland) who are interested in psychology and sports as well as teachers who want to improve the quality of their lessons by using new media.
The methodological and didactic goal was to organise and evaluate web-based lessons with European partners. Therefore, the participants acquired the skills and tools in the first year of the project by taking part in three student-workshops. These skills and tools enabled them to implement the online lessons and to cooperate with regard to the chosen content. In the first workshop called „Slides that win – how to give convincing presentations“ (Germany) the participants prepared slides in „PowerPoint“ which were informative, purposeful and convincing. Scaffolding was offered that included criteria and frames for designing slides in a presentation.
The aim of the second workshop „Professional Presentorics (Presentation+Rhetorics)- a seminar on rhetorics for the successful“ (Finland) was the professional, self-confident and competent appearance of the presenter. Finally, the students gained insight in editing videos. In the workshop „Editing Videos“ (England), the students created videos and edited them afterwards with a suitable tool. The workshops were organised and applied in a peer-to-peer approach by the hosts. The focus of the cooperation was teaching content with the help of presentations, practical exercises in multinational groups as well as exchanging experiences. Specific products such as PowerPoint-slides, edited videoclips, and brief presentations were the basis for evaluating the workshops. Additionally, language courses (English, Swedish, German) were offered for the participants. Thus, the students were able to improve their communicative and intercultural skills in everyday situations. The hosts (students and teachers and/or families) organised excursions in the afternoons.
The content goal of the project’s second year was a vivid and sustainable acquisition of basic knowledge in sport psychology. In three film projects, which lasted several weeks, different core topics such as motivation, anxiety and stress, concentration, team cohesion, leadership, self-talk, relaxation and mental training were dealt with at the three participating schools. Each homogeneous group within a school worked on one chapter of a handbook (Weinberg R./ Gould D., Foundations of Sport & Exercise Psychology) and developed a presentation to give insight to the respective topic. These presentations were presented online to all participants as a webinar and were discussed afterwards. After that, one film that is particularly linked to these theoretical concepts and models (e.g. “Billy Elliot”) was shown in the partner schools. By analysing the film, the different groups which presented the respective theory used film scenes to support and illustrate the theoretical background.There were subsequent discussions (online, chatroom, e-mail) and students worked together in mixed groups to complete different tasks that show whether they are able to apply the contents on different situations and problems. This collaboration across national borders was controlled and documented by the German participants on the moodle platform of the German school. They also translated the materials and tasks into English and made them accessible for the other participants.
The experiences they gained and their impressions during the project were deepened in the second year with the help of two teachers workshops (“Working with films“, “The good Webinar“) with the aim of implementing these methods on a permanent basis in the lessons in the participating schools. In the first workshop “Working with films” (England), an expert presented possibilities to use films in class. Experiences with working with films in class were discussed in the three countries. Taking the film “Bend It Like Beckham” as an example, existing materials were evaluated and new materials created to be used during the project. In the workshop “The good webinar” (Germany), an expert presented the software AdobeConnect and created tasks for the participating teachers. Together, the teachers of all countries worked on a list of criteria for a good webinar and practiced the usage of the tool. A frame for using webinars as a tool for future web-based lessons was established as a result of the workshop. This frame should be of help for teachers who want to use webinars in their future lessons. Lectures at the University of the Saarland and the teacher training and in-house training institution offered a glimpse at the future of digital education and prepared the teachers for further projects.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 64475 Eur

Project Coordinator

Gymnasium am Rotenbühl & Country: DE

Project Partners

• Pargas stad
• Boston Grammar School