Report on the annual conference of the DGfE Sports Education Commission

From 14 to 16 November 2024, the 47th annual conference of the Sport Pedagogy Commission of the German Society for Educational Science (DGfE) took place in Oldenburg Castle. The conference was organised by Prof Dr Jan Erhorn and his team from the Department of Sport and Education at the University of Oldenburg. The event was supported by funding from zukunft.niedersachsen.

With the conference topic "Sports teacher training - university didactics in the mirror of research", the university educational context moved more into focus. Three keynote speeches were the main stimulus for the intensive professional discussion among the approximately 60 participants.

Professional learning cores for effective teaching?

The keynote lecture by Prof. Dr Horst Biedermann (Rector of the University of Teacher Education St. Gallen) addressed the demands placed on teachers to successfully initiate learning processes for pupils while taking individual needs into account. Horst Biedermann emphasises the challenges of the unpredictability and complexity of teaching and presents the university didactic concept of "professional learning cores", which is based on the scientifically supported reflection of unsuccessful teaching sequences. The aim is to strengthen the connection between theory and practice through hybrid spaces, whereby teacher educators have to take on different roles such as researchers and practitioners in order to fulfil the requirements of teacher education. Horst Biedermann invited participants to take a courageous look at the topic of ruptures and irritations in the context of professionalisation and thus stimulated an intensive discussion.

What are suitable learning tasks for sports students? (Alternatively: What is the centre of sports pedagogy?)

The keynote lecture by Prof. Dr Roland Messmer (University of Teacher Education Northwestern Switzerland) addressed gaps in the training of sports teachers, both in terms of content and methodology. While deficits in the professional knowledge of prospective teachers have been recognised, there is a lack of empirical data on the effectiveness of sports didactics teaching. In his presentation, Roland Messmer provides insights into his EPiC-PE study and critically emphasises that little professional knowledge is apparently required for successful PE teaching. The usual distinction between pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and content knowledge (CK) can hardly be substantiated in the field of sports didactics. The lecture questions which learning tasks and central competences sports students need in order to be trained in a practice-oriented manner and to differentiate their training from the requirement profile of trainers or social pedagogues.

How can specialised practical training be further developed?

Prof Dr Claudia Steinberg (German Sport University Cologne) gave an insight into the possibility of further developing specialist practical training using the design-based research approach in her keynote speech. University teaching in the field of sports and physical activity is facing profound challenges that are characterised by social, pandemic-related and economic changes. The keynote lecture will shed light on how innovative teaching concepts - such as the use of digital media, interactive methods and AI-based tools - can enrich and further develop teaching. A particular focus will be on design-based research as an approach to promoting teaching innovations and on empirical studies that analyse the opportunities and limitations of these approaches. Claudia Steinberg presents examples of projects at the German Sport University Cologne that are supported by programmes such as "Fellowships for Innovation in University Teaching". The role of teachers as central designers of the learning environment is particularly emphasised.

The breadth of sports education research in higher education didactics became clear in eleven other specialist presentations. An overview of the article titles and authors can be found here: https://uol.de/sport/veranstaltungen/jahrestagung-2024-dgfe-kommission-sportpaedagogik/programm-1