Project Aim: Our main project horizontal priority is supporting teachers. Specifically, we aim to support physical education (PE) teachers in elementary and secondary schools. Our main horizontal aim leads to several additional areas such as supporting individuals in acquiring and developing basic skills and key competences and strengthening the profiles of the teaching professions. Our partnership is providing support for the acquisition and development of the key competency of teaching fundamental movement and sport skills in a way to maximise moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in PE class. The main horizontal priority and associated secondary aims supports several European priorities. Those are (1) Health and Wellbeing; (2) Innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; and (3) Strategic Partnerships supporting innovation. Background: For decades, physical inactivity has been at epidemic levels. The health and wellbeing of Europe let alone the world suffers in production and growth resulting in an enormous financial burden as the result of physical inactivity across an inactive person's lifetime. Children and youth are key to the future thriving communities, countries, and nations. Intellectual Output: Our partnership is developing an innovative product to arm PE teachers and other such professionals (e.g., teachers supervising recess periods, sport club coaches) to combat physical inactivity levels in our partner countries with the aim of European dissemination and eventual international dissemination. Partners: Our partnership is composed of leading international experts with extensive country-based PE contacts and support from top-level stakeholders (e.g., Olympic bodies and government ministries). The partners for this proposal are the University of Tartu (Estonia), LIKES (Finland), Vilnius University and Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania), and the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). The specific staff at each partner university or centre are world-renowned in reputation with their extensive publications, presentations, and grant activities. Implementation, Dissemination, and Sustainability: Given each partner’s reputation and extensive networks implementation and dissemination across each partner country of our innovative product will occur. Sustainability of the product and continued use is expected. Two products will be developed, digital and print. Both will be 100% freely available. Each partner will ensure the continued use of the product. Our overall desire is the spread of our product across the EU and eventually internationally.
Our main objective was to build an open-source research-based product with research-based games/exercises in at least 10-minute blocks that maximize MVPA minutes when teaching fundamental sport skills across a variety of traditional European sports as well as lifetime physical activities. Our secondary objective was to increase awareness of the developed product and expand each partner country's existing networks. Our specific target was the training of physical educators, coaches, and such professionals in maximizing MVPA minutes in PA environments such as physical education class, sports club training, and recess.
Different intervention strategies regarding overall wellness of people should target the development of skills and competences necessary to establish good physical health in childhood. The development of such skills and the awareness of physical activity (PA) should begin in childhood through the acquisition and development of health-enhancing PA (HEPA). In scientific literature, moderate-to-vigorous (MVPA) has proven to be the level of most effective intensity for decreasing relative risks of different diseases (including mental diseases), and for premature mortality. Unfortunately, PA rates are low across all parts of our world. In the medium and long-term, the EU will face a critical need for people who will have higher quality of healthy years and will be active on the work beyond their seventies. This need brings the importance of lifelong PA to mental and physical wellness across the EU. Hence, increasing the percentage of children meeting the recommended 60-minutes of MVPA is a European as well as global problem of significant importance. With the sustainable development goals, it is also focused by EU that the physical inactivity should be reduced by 10% by 2025 and 15% by 2035. With the current project we focused on providing support for PE teachers and sport coaches with the materials and methods in working with kids to learn new skills with enjoyment and in a health enhancing intensity zone.