Human Movement, School and Sport

Professorship

The professorship of Human Movement, School and Sport conducts and supervises research into how people move and do sports, especially at school and at their sports club. 

The issues addressed include the following: How do children learn how to move, and how can we improve the way they learn motor skills? What’s the role and significance of sport to society? How do sports clubs and physical education relate to one another? Can they reinforce one another? What are the effects upon society of a certain sports policy?

Exercise and sport

About this research

Within the professorship, the following two research lines determine the central focus: 

  • Learning of motor skills. In recent years, in close cooperation with schools and other research institutes, research in this research line has mainly been carried out on the use of innovative technology in PE classes, as in the projects Digitization in the PE class (Raak publiek), Looking Back with a Tablet, The yields of the PE class (NRO) and Smart Sports Exercises (ZonMw)
  • School and Sport. Within this research line, research has been conducted in the past few years on sports projects and on the relationship between physical education, (school) sports and school environment. Examples include the project Sport for Participation (Raak publiek), a PhD dissertation on the Socially binding significance of (school) sport (in collaboration with the Mulier Institute), Capacity for sports (with Utrecht municipality), Smart Moves (with VU, VUMC), and Physical Literacy (in collaboration with KVLO, Research Centre for Sport and other professorships).

Human Movement School and Sport Research

Smart Sports Exercises

The research project SSE is funded by ZonMw. The project researches LED floor technology and the potential contribution of this technology to making volleyball training 'smarter'. Roughly, the LED technology we work with has two interesting applications: sensing and projecting. Besides adding information to a training session and manipulating the practice environment through LED floor technology, the floor is able to ' feel ' the players and their actions. Through game designs, sensing and projecting must come together for insights into future training applications. In addition to Windesheim University of Applied Sciences, the University of Twente, Innosport Lab, and Sportservice Veenendaal are partners in this research.    

Sport for participation

In various places, sport is used to promote social participation of people in social care, detention and through probation. The lectorate of Human Movement, School and Sport conducts research, in collaboration with Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, the Life Goals Foundation, the Salvation Army, the Judicial Institutions Department and Netherlands Probation Services, into the question of how sport can be used successfully to promote social participation of these target groups. We try to find answers to questions such as: what is the most appropriate environment for setting up sports activities for the different target groups, what guidance is needed to achieve the desired effects and how can you make those effects 'visible'? But also how cooperation between professionals and volunteers from different sectors can best be organized.

Learning Self Regulation

Self-regulating learning contributes to sustainable participation of pupils in physical exercises. The development of self-regulation should therefore have an important place in physical education. On the other hand, self-regulating learning and promoting of motor skills has hardly been investigated. This research therefore focuses on the way in which self-regulating learning can become visible in physical education. It shows which underlying personal and context variables play a role in successful self-regulating learning. It examines how this method of learning affects the quality of learning outcomes and how physical educators can stimulate the development of self-regulating learning.

Publications

Our researchers have published several articles in a wide variety of journals, for example about different topics related to school and sport such as 'digitization in gym lessons' and 'the value and necessity of gym lessons'. You can also find the inaugural address by Dr Ivo van Hilvoorde in our list of publications.

Look at all the publications

Related to the Calo

The professor and the other members of the research circle are closely related to the education provided in Calo (Human Movement, Sports and Health Care), especially in the Master’s programmes of Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy.
This learning assignment is part of the Meaningful Movement professorship of Windesheim University of Applied Sciences in Zwolle.