Complex health enhancing physical activity challenge: “Understanding the changes of the human body and the impact of nutrition and physical activity on adults (40-59 years)”

This teaching resource for the higher education and vocational sector has been developed by three of the partners of the EU funded Sport Physical Education and Coaching in Health (SPEACH) project (2015-2017). Canterbury Christ Church University led the development and worked with project partners from the International Council for Coaching Excellence and the University of Southern Denmark. This teaching resource was quality assured as part of the project.

In the first phase of the project, a needs analysis was conducted and included collecting data on the content knowledge, interest and attitudes of future sport coach and physical educators, the students, in relation to Health Enhancing Physical Activity (HEPA) as part of their education and/or (further) training. This was done via a digital survey distributed among selected groups of students from 21 institutions covering 7 European countries. This phase led to the conclusion that the developed modules and teaching resources should be thematic and integrated in nature, meaning that several content themes need to be included in each module. Regarding the didactics/ pedagogy, it was recommended that a mixed method should be applied including problem based learning, training, internship, group and classroom based teaching. Finally, for the purpose of the SPEACH project, the modules were expected to provide flexibility and offer differentiated levels so that modules can be implemented at vocational, bachelor as well as master level.

This teaching resource is being disseminated to encourage and support curricular and pedagogical innovation.