The development of competence is a prime objective of modern PE lessons (“competence-oriented PE”). As was already stated in publications by the Tübingen School around Ommo Grupe (e.g. Kurz, 1977), PE should integrate various pedagogical perspectives. Our research looks at the implementation of lesson sequences from the perspectives health and performance. The focus is on conceptual questions of teaching, diagnostic approaches to measuring individual facets of competence (e.g. health-related knowledge about fitness) as well as providing evidence of effectiveness based on interventional studies.
- Health is a very traditional perspective of PE, which has moved even further into the focus of attention given the increasing lack of physical activity in modern societies. Since an effective health promotion through physical activity should already start with children and adolescents, PE lessons at school offer a promising setting. From the perspective “health”, our focal topic 1 deals with the conception and evaluation of lesson sequences for PE. Based on theoretical considerations from the perspectives of sport psychology, sport pedagogy and exercise science, and with an analysis of empirical research, several development programmes were designed. These were evaluated in large-scale interventional studies conducted in PE lessons and include programmes such as HealthyPEP (“Health Promotion Physical Education Programme“) or – in co-operation with other departments – gekos (“Förderung bewegungsbezogener Gesundheitskompetenz im Sportunterricht“ meaning Promotion of Physical Activity-Related Health Competence in Physical Education).
- Performance is a very own dimension of sport. In PE, it is important to make use of the striving for performance and its pedagogical potential. Simultaneously, however, one has to encourage a reflected way of dealing with the acquisition, demonstration and grading of performance. From the perspective “performance“, our focal topic 2 deals with the organisation/implementation of developing competence in sports games. The competence-oriented teaching of sports games required in the curriculum poses an enormous challenge to teachers. This is because traditional teaching models for sports games do not aim at the development of competence explicitly. We tackle this problem, among other things, by the development of a competence acquisition model for sports games. A scientific basis for this is provided by linking the concepts of competence-oriented PE with established games-oriented teaching concepts, such as the Tactical Games Approach.
