€1.5 million has been secured for a 36-month Erasmus+ Teacher Academy project that is being led by colleagues at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Norway. AIESEP and the University of Limerick (an institutional member of the AIESEP Board of Directors) are named partners in the project.
PhysEd-Academy will directly address current challenges in school physical education (PE) and PE teacher education by improving four imperative quality factors: the purposes and content of PE; school teaching; teacher education; and continuous professional development (CPD). These will be achieved through mobility initiatives between PE teacher education institutions and PE teachers. PE is the one subject with the potential to provide young people with the skills, attitudes, knowledge, and understanding for a lifelong commitment to a physically active lifestyle and good health. In this way PE contributes to the global priority of decreasing the prevalence of physical inactivity by 15% in 2030. Yet, it fails in its current form. PE is built on old and inefficient traditions that are far from current recommended practices and policies, resulting in PE and teacher education having little or no impact on children and youth. By directly addressing the four quality factors and based on current evidence in PE and teacher education research, practice, and theory, PhysEd-Academy will develop and test innovative strategies and programs for initial PE teacher education and teachers’ ongoing CPD across Europe. This will lead to the development of a set of ‘signature pedagogies’ for learning across different PE teacher education programs, carrying the potential to improve the quality of PE and PE teacher education. The signature pedagogies will be tested by PhysEd-Academy partners in their respective initial teacher education and CPD programs subsequently boosting the attractiveness of the PE teaching profession. PhysEd-Academy is committed to becoming a key actor in improving PE and PE teacher education and will benefit local, regional, and international school PE and teacher education programs – with the ultimate aim of improving public health.
Higher education partners: Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Norway (Lead); University of Limerick, Ireland; Hacettepe University, Turkey; Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, Sweden; Oviedo University, Spain; University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg; University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Partner schools: Haugerud Skole, Norway; Viksjöskolan, Sweden; Canakkale Sehitleri Ortaokulu, Turkey; Colegio La Inmaculada, Spain. Organisations: AIESEP; EUPEA.
