Concept and application

The conception, establishment and scientific support of the Teaching and Learning Laboratory for Sports Education at the Institute of Sport and Sport Science has been carried out since 2019 as part of ^PRONET2 (Professionalization through Networking - Quality Offensive Teacher Education; 2019-2023). The IfSS sub-project provides for teaching-relevant topics to be pedagogically prepared, didactically tested and individually reflected on during the laboratory studies at university and school learning locations. This is linked to the objective of supporting student teachers in the development of their pedagogical professionalism through an authentic and complexity-reduced learning environment. The focus is on active, self-directed learning processes in which the participants analyze and reflect on teaching practice - real and/or in the form of (video) case work - from a research-based approach.

As part of UKS_digi (University of Kassel digital: redesigning university teaching; 2021-2024), further events in laboratory format will be developed and offered in the sports education sub-project. The focus is on reflective, video-supported case work, which is carried out and evaluated in various blended learning formats.

Figure 1 illustrates the work process and the theoretical reference points of the teaching-learning lab. A central point of reference is the components of professional competence of teachers, which Terhart (1991) already fundamentally divided into the three dimensions of Research, Will and Action in the early 1990s. For further concretization, the areas of pedagogical knowledge (e.g. Baumert & Kunter, 2006) are distinguished with regard to university teacher training and the quality dimensions of good (sports) teaching (e.g. Herrmann, Seiler & Niederkofler, 2016) are taken into account with regard to schools.

The events in the lab are characterized by a close integration of theory and practice. This allows theory-based discourse to take place with reference to practical cases. In this context, the professional view of teachers' actions can be trained in a special way, for example through video case work or lesson observation. The objective of professionalism through reflexivity is also linked to the aim of further developing one's own personality as a teacher. In this way, prospective teachers can be prepared for everyday professional life and gain confidence in dealing with teaching situations.

The portfolio-based course concepts, which aim to sustainably promote the ability of PE students to reflect, use, among other things, specially produced video sequences from PE lessons (see section "ViSpo video database for PE lessons").

The topics covered so far in the sports education laboratory work (one- and two-semester courses) include heterogeneity and differentiation, active subject teaching, inclusive physical education and the various dimensions of teaching quality. As part of UKS_digi, various blended learning formats are also being tested and evaluated in this context.

Figure 2 shows an example of the concept of a two-semester project seminar. In the spirit of research-based learning, the sports students initially work in working groups to explore issues relating to teaching quality, heterogeneity and differentiation as well as teaching research. Based on this theoretical and conceptual knowledge, this is followed by topic-related observation phases with reflection tasks. In the second semester, the working groups observe and analyze a heterogeneous learning group in order to plan and implement well-founded lessons with differentiating measures. The observations of these sports lessons are then evaluated and reflected upon.