Environmental Attunement In Sport And Physical Activity

Participate in an investigation of the scientific and pedagogical practice and understand why and how health, sport and physical activity relate and reflect environmental sensibilities!

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CIVIS focus area
Society, culture, heritage
Open to
  • Bachelor's
  • Master's
Field of studies
  • Social Science and humanities
  • Environmental sciences, Urbanism, Geography
Type
  • Blended Intensive Programmes (BIP)
Course dates
8 January - 8 March 2024

The course offers knowledge and skills on environmental attunement, as environmental education through sport and physical activity, that is an investigation of the scientific and pedagogical practice which is necessary for understanding why and how health, sport and physical activity relate and reflect environmental sensibilities; environmental attunement in urban environments becomes especially pertinent to connect to self, place, space, community and nature and thus guarantee responsible citizenship.

The course is a teaching and disciplinary co-operation established by sport physiology, environmental and social sciences faculty staff members at three universities (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, Aix-Marseille Université, France, and Sapienza Università di Roma, Italia). The consortium is carefully set up by partners located in CIVIS partner universities, experts in the fields of environmental science, sport and physical activity physiology and sport pedagogy. All partners will use a multidisciplinary perspective to explore the potential for sensitizing students to engage in lifestyle sport and physical activity via developing environmental and ecological perception and awareness for this purpose, promoting outdoor education and sustainability and understanding the environment as an integrated, complex system, where the training process should be contextualized. While all disciplines could be linked to environmental attunement, sport and physical activity offer a unique intersection of multidisciplinary learning through environmental pedagogies. Thus, the present course aims at introducing environmental attunement as a concept that expands possibilities of ‘leaning in’ the environment to embodied place-based practices and connections.

Main topics addressed

  •  Environmental attunement, sport and physical activity: Pedagogical Implications and Theoretical Frameworks

  • Notions of the environment and ‘nature’ in research and practice

  • Integrating the natural environment to sport and physical activity

  • Possibilities and challenges of translating environment and ‘nature’ from policy to practice

  • Assessing the impact of the state of the local environment/climate to Sport and physical activity

  • Development of a serious game, in the form of a treasure hunt, designed for urban environments as a resource of environmental education

Learning outcomes

The goals of the course are to:

(i) inculcate in students a sensitivity to geographies, landscapes, ontologies of place and land, when engaging with sport and physical activity.

(ii) to make students aware of the environmental and climate conditions that may impose burden to sport and physical activity.

(iii) to trigger, long term behavioural change by training, awareness activities, incentives and feedback with regard to their use of resources and energy.

Moreover, participants will enhance their knowledge about:

  • The connections between environmental conditions and sport/physical activity in the natural and urban environment.
  • The connection between adventure-outdoor and environmental education
  • The interdisciplinary principles of adventure outdoor education
  • How to plan a program of physical/sport activity in outdoor environment settings
  • How to act and take initiatives for the benefit of natural environment, promoting critical thinking for the protection of the environment

 

Dates: 8 January - 8 March 2024 Language: English (Β2)
Location: Athens, Greece ECTS: 3
Format: Blended Workload: 90 hours
Contact: adania@phed.uoa.gr  

Recognition of ECTS depends on your home university. 

Physical mobility

The physical mobility part will be running from 4 to 8 March 2024 in Department of Physics, at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. 

Moreover, the on-site part of the course includes:

DAY 1: Analysis of the Course

• Short presentation of the participants, their expectations and experiences from the virtual component

• Introduction to CIVIS Call supporting innovation in the field of Environmental education: overview of the physical mobility objectives and priorities, supported activities, criteria and rules of engagement and learning.

• Reference to documents and tools that will be used during the physical mobility sessions.

DAY 2: Presentation of the Course Theoretical Framework

• Keynote Presentation: Environmental attunement, sport and physical activity

• Project Work – 1st group activity on the generation of innovative project ideas: participants are clustered in groups, according to the chosen topic/priority and target groups they want to address in the proposal, to generate innovative project ideas.

• Presentation of project ideas by the groups.

• Interactive session to provide feedback and guidance to participants.

DAY 3: Notions of the environment and ‘nature’ in research and practice

• Keynote Presentation: Integrating the natural environment to sport and physical activity

• Project Work – 2nd group activity on the production of the project work assignment: the groups will produce a detailed program plan based on the project ideas generated in day 2.

• Presentation of produced work by the groups.

• Interactive session to provide feedback and guidance to participants.

• (Optional) treasure hunt game design– adventure education

• Introduction with an environmental challenge: Outdoor physical-sports activities in the natural environment will also take place (these can include, hiking, cycling, rock climbing, etc.)

DAY 4: Possibilities and challenges of translating environment and ‘nature’ from policy to practice

• Keynote Presentation: Assessing the impact of the state of the local environment/climate to Sport and physical activity

• Project Work – 3rd group activity on the production of the project work assignment: the groups will finalize their ideas generated in day 3.

• Presentation by each group to provide solutions and initiatives on how to act for the benefit of natural environment, promoting critical thinking for the protection of the environment

• Interactive session to provide feedback and guidance to participants.

DAY 5: Financial Aspects and Project Management

• Analysis of the impact of the course, and desired impact at local, national European level: tips for successful Dissemination and use of results.

• Project Work – 4th group activity on course impact, dissemination and use of projects’ results

• Final Q&A session and end of the course.

Virtual part

The virtual part will be running from 8 January to 3 March 2024.

The purpose of the virtual component will be to increase awareness concerning the concept of environmental attunement when engaging in sport and physical activity in natural or built environments. Therefore, an event strategy will be used to organize the virtual component of the course.

An event strategy is a plan that outlines the goals, objectives, and tactics for a specific event. It helps in the planning and execution of successful events, whether in person, virtual, or a combination of both. Particularly, the planned elements/features of the virtual component will include:

  • A Virtual platform: A Miro platform will be developed to host and virtual and hybrid activities. The Miro space will be customized to fit the needs of the Course by including features such as virtual classrooms, networking areas, and breakout rooms. Prerecorded lectures, videos and interactive presentations will be used to support students in developing an awareness of the concept of environmental attunement.
  • Engagement tools: Engagement tools such as polls, gamification, and social media app integrations will be used to engage students and encourage interaction
  • Webinars: Prerecorded webinars of invited speakers and experts will be presented via the Miro platform and connected to the MOODLE online space.

Requirements

This course is open to Bachelor and Master students at CIVIS member universities enrolled in the following fields of study: Environment Education, Environmental Policy, Health and Well-Being, Outdoor Physical Activity and Sport, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Humanities,Teaching and Pedagogy of Physical Activity and Sport, or any other fields related.

A level B2 in English is required and an interest and motivation to engage in pedagogical efforts for bringing a paradigm-change in enviromental education and sport pedagogy is also desirable.

NB: Visiting Students - Erasmus Funding Eligibility

To be eligible for your selected CIVIS programme, you must be a fully enrolled student at your CIVIS home university at the time you will be undertaking the programme. Click here to learn more about the eligibility criteria.

 

Students from CIVIS’ strategic partner universities in Africa cannot apply for participation in this course.

Application process

Interested students should apply by filling in the online application form by 7 November 2023. 

Students will be selected based on the following criteria: 

  • Motivation letter
  • Level of English language competence (B2) 

Students from CIVIS member universities should send their application and a motivation letter indicating their expectations from attending the course.

All applications will be accepted based on their relevance to the call and their submission within the deadline.

Apply here

Assessment

The methodology of the course is highly practical with hands-on approach and comprises of case studies, group assignments and discussion. Thus, the working methods that will be used within the course will aim at mutual learning and cooperation among participants.

Before the mobility activities, participants will be encouraged to spend time at their university to familiarize with the scope of the Course, its learning objectives and expected outcomes. With the facilitation of Faculty staff at each participating University, students will complete short task assignments based on the online/virtual learning material.

During the mobility activities collaborative teaching and learning techniques will be implemented to enable participants to experience the value of the social dimension in learning/training. These will involve group discussion, collective knowledge building, peer review and evaluation activities.

Overall, online quizzes and gamification assignments,  E-portfolio of project-based evaluation activities will be used as tools to evaluate learning and interaction that will take place within the course.

Blended Intensive Programme

This CIVIS course is a Blended Intensive Programme (BIP): a new format of Erasmus+ mobility which combines online teaching with a short trip to another campus to learn alongside students and professors across Europe. Click here to learn more about CIVIS BIPs.

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Constantinos Cartalis is a Professor and Director of the Laboratory of Environmental Physics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA). He is a Member of the Subsidiary Body of UNFCCC for the Implementation of the Paris Agreement, Principal Investigator for the European Space Agency for Climate Change, Member of the expert group of the European Commission for Climate Change and Cultural Heritage as well as of the Mission Assembly for Climate Neutral cities. He is responsible for NKUA for the project “National Network for Climate Change and its effects”, while he participates in the Center of Excellence “Climate Change – Adaptation and Mitigation” of NKUA.

Aspasia Dania, is an Assistant Professor in Physical Education Teacher Education, at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. She has an extensive record of research publications in the areas of physical education and sport pedagogy, and her research interests focus on innovative pedagogies and qualitative research with a principal focus on equity, equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Margarita Asimakopoulou is an Associate Professor at the Department of Environmental Physics, at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. She is the Head of the Group of Building Environmental Research and Director of the Laboratory for the Measurements of the Indoor Environment. Her research interests focus on Advanced Energy Technology, Carbon & Energy Reduction Solution, Sustainable Renovation for the construction and operation of buildings, Development of educational material for Environmental Quality.

Vasileios Paschalis is an Associate Professor in Exercise Physiology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. His research interests focus on Eccentric exercise and exercise induced muscle damage, Oxidative stress and eccentric exercise, Eccentric exercise, nutritional supplements and exercise induced adaptations.

Maria Antonietta Impedovo is an Associate Professor in Teacher Education at the Aix-Marseille Université in France. Her research interests focus on Collaborative learning, Teacher Professional Development, Blended Learning and Innovative Pedagogies.

Olivier Vors is a Senior Lecturer at the Aix-Marseille Université in France. His research interests focus on Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy. He is a member of the Association pour la Recherche sur l’Interventation en Sport, France.

Veronica Lo Presti is an Associate Professor at the Department of Communication and Social Research, CORIS, at Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy. Her research interests focus on social innovation and teaching practice, didactics and sociology of education.

Maria Chiara Gallota is an Associate Professor, at Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy. Her research interests focus on athletic performance, Sports Science, Physical Activity Assessment, Exercise Physiology, Physical Education and Sport.