Over the past more than 25 years the Willibald Gebhardt Institute has been involved in numerous international projects and established an extensive network of international partnerships and collaborations. Many WGI projects have been funded through the various EU programs like Erasmus+, Interreg or dierectly from the European Parliament. To this day, all WGI departments keep building their network of international partnerships. One of the most recent international research collaborations established has been the successful bid for an EU Tender on EU Sports Policy. Currently, WGI is part of the Erasmus + project EduPASS and TBrainBoost.
EduPASS: Education for Physical Activity and Sport: Informal and Non-Formal Settings
The WGI is a project partner in the Erasmus+ project EduPASS, which was launched in 2022 and pursues the overarching goal of sustainably improving the quality and effectiveness of physical activity programmes for children and young people. As part of this project, a comprehensive skills profile and a modular qualification programme for Early Childhood Educators and Youth Sport Coaches will be developed. These measures are intended to help train professionals in a targeted manner and strengthen their skills in the area of physical activity promotion.
Another central component of the project is the creation of an innovative Online Teaching Platform. This Online Teaching Platform represents a modular qualification programme for both professional profiles, which enables the exchange and further development of country-specific training programmes. New methods, approaches and focal points in the training of educators and youth trainers should emphasise the need to promote physical activity among children and young people.
In addition, an evaluation tool for the quality assurance of physical activity offers and programmes for children and young people was developed. This instrument is intended to ensure that the programmes meet the highest standards and thus support the holistic development of the young participants.
The Erasmus+ project runs until the end of October 2024 and ends with 5 National Mutliplier Events (NME) and an International Mutliplier Event (IME) to discuss the project results with universities, sports clubs, sports and educators’ associations and other institutional organisations in order to achieve a sustainable improvement in the promotion of physical activity in early childhood and in the youth sector.
Events:
- As part of the EduPASS project, a 5-day teaching-learning training week (LTT) was organised in Dublin and Luxembourg. The aim of the LTTs was to try out and experience the modular qualification programme for the two profiles. The close-meshed evaluation allowed the results to flow into the further development of the modules for the Teaching Platform.
- The LTT week took place in Dublin in September 2023. The focus was on the Youth Sport Coaches, where students and learners from the project countries were able to experience the various modules theoretically and, above all, practically. The content was evaluated after each unit.
- For the Early Childhood Educators, the 5-day LTT week took place in Luxembourg in January 2024. Here, too, the focus was on a good mix of theory, practice and reflection on the modules.
Both weeks were dedicated to international exchange and a look at other training and qualification programmes for Early Childhood Educators and Youth Sport Coaches.
Project Results:
TBrainBoost
International exchange in the TBrainBoost project (EU project)
The main objective of TBrainBoost is to promote international and cross-sector mobility and to improve links between science, industry and society in the field of healthy ageing. Until now, European research organisations and companies have worked independently, with universities focusing on basic research and the training of future scientists, while companies have driven innovation. However, this separation is no longer in line with the European Commission’s vision for competitive sustainability. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for close collaboration between academia and industry to address urgent challenges in the field of healthy ageing. TBrainBoost promotes this collaboration through secondments of scientists to companies and various educational activities that support the exchange of knowledge and experience as well as skills development.
Next Events:
In the project, the WGI will host six scientists in Münster for a research exchange and organise a 3-day project workshop in the context of the DVS Hochschultag in Münster in September 2025.
ERA TALENTS FOR BOOSTING AND BALANCING BRAIN CIRCULATION
‘Talents’ from Slovenia/Malta will be sent to the WGI and the University of Münster (also in the Netherlands and Belgium) to participate in business and research projects. These ‘experiences’ are structurally integrated into their own careers in order to work together internationally in the future.
TBrainBoost Summer School 2.0
“European Conference on Physical Education and School Sport”
The conference “European Conference on Physical Education and School Sport”, which in the year of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the WGI formed one of the main events for the affiliate-institute of the WWU Münster, focused on three main topics: 1) the effects of the Corona pandemic on physical activity behavior and school sports; 2) quality and monitoring of physical activity behavior and school sports; 3) quality of physical education in Europe.
You can download the conference flyer here.
Here you can find the international experts’ presentations held at the European Conference in October 2022 in Münster.
Roland Naul: 30 years of Willibald Gebhardt Institute
Arja Sääkslahti: The focus of PE on physical activity and health in Finland
Tamas Csanyi: Development and current status of the daily PE hour in Hungary
Patrizia Tortella: Frühkindliche Leibeserziehung in Italien
Gregor Jurak: How PE and School Sport survived COVID-19 pandemic in Slovenia
Claude Scheuer: ERASMUS+ Projekte zum Schulsport in Europa
Roland Naul: The CEREPS consensus statement on recovery of physical education and school sport in Europe
Erica Gobbi: COVID-19 studies on PE teachers in Italy
More information and relevant downloads can be found by accessing the respective project section on this website.