SLOfit data are used to determine global fitness trends and health risk

The SLOfit research team participates in several international research groups and projects. 

The SLOfit research team participates in several international research groups and ongoing projects. Data from the SLOfit database has been disseminated across many forums, from newspaper articles, TV and radio reports in the national media, in addition to international scientific articles published in the highest-ranking journals. Some key projects are outlined below for those interested in the scope of SLOfit’s research interests. 

Ongoing international cooperation summary 

We have been actively involved in the World Federation of Physical Education Teachers (FIEP) since 1985, and in the European Federation of Physical Education Teachers (EUPEA since 2012). In both federations, we advocate for systematic regulation of physical education in the school system. Examples of good practices from Slovenia are often highlighted. Since 2007, the SLOfit team has been working with the Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI, World Health Organization) on obesity monitoring. Also using SLOfit data, the World Health Organization has taken an important step in its fight against childhood obesity by launching the Commission to End Childhood Obesity, which has produced a final report that places greater emphasis on physical fitness, physical activity, and physical performance based on best practices for monitoring children's physical activity development. 

We have been actively involved in the World Federation of Physical Education Teachers (FIEP) since 1985, and in the European Federation of Physical Education Teachers (EUPEA since 2012). In both federations, we advocate for systematic regulation of physical education in the school system. Examples of good practices from Slovenia are often highlighted. Since 2007, the SLOfit team has been working with the Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI, World Health Organization) on obesity monitoring. Also using SLOfit data, the World Health Organization has taken an important step in its fight against childhood obesity by launching the Commission to End Childhood Obesity, which has produced a final report that places greater emphasis on physical fitness, physical activity, and physical performance based on best practices for monitoring children's physical activity development. 

Since 2014, we are part of the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration research group under the auspices of the Imperial College of London, with whom we jointly publish influential global public health statistics.  
 
In 2015, we joined the international research group Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance, which today includes over 57 participating countries from around the world. This group aims to improve conditions for active lifestyles among children and adolescents on a global scale by producing national analyses of children's physical activity in different regions, globally.  

Since 2020, we have been coordinating the international network FITBACK, which supports the development of physical fitness monitoring systems on the school, municipality, regional, and country level using an effective top-down and bottom-up approach.  

Between 2012-2016, we have been participating in global forums on physical education GoFPEP, which discusses the challenges and possible solutions for increasing children's physical activity. Slovenian examples of good practices, (especially SLOfit), often evoke many questions and quiet admiration or surprise among the many forum participants. 

In 2008, the World Health Organization invited SLOfit researchers to join the HEALTH walking and cycling working group, which developed an online tool to assess the economic value of mortality reduced by regular walking and cycling. Today, this tool is used around the world to calculate the feasibility of building public infrastructure for walking and cycling. 

For two years (2002-2003) we participated as curriculum consultants to UNICEF  regardingUNICEF regarding  the renovation of the schooling system in Kosovo; this collaboration led the elaboration of curricula for physical education in primary and secondary schools. As consultants in the field of physical education at the Council of Europe, we participated in the evaluation of the situation of physical education in Lithuania and in the elaboration of the Declaration on Physical Education adopted at the Ministerial Conference in Warsaw in 2002. 

Current projects 

FitBack4Literacy (2023-2025) 

FitBack4Literacy is Erasmus + Sport project coordinated by SLOfit team. It will bring together 10 partnering institutions across Europe, alongside several associated international organisations, in an effort to expand the Fitback network across research, educational and sport sectors. The overarching aim of FitBack4Literacy is to design and test an open, transnational fitness monitoring webtool to deliver pertinent feedback to educators, children, youth, and their parents as a means of directly enhancing Physical Literacy (PL) development for all. PL is a concept that includes the physical, social, cognitive, and emotional understanding that people develop to maintain physical activity at an appropriate, healthy level throughout their life. FitBack4Literacy will focus its activities at the local level (e.g., schools, sport clubs) to accelerate paediatric PL development via: 1) Involving teachers and coaches in a co-design process to upgrade the existing Fitback system by constructing a PL toolkit containing group reports and learning materials, 2) Leveraging the support of several international sport and physical education associations in engaging stakeholders in an attempt to reduce stigma, and support a positive experience around physical fitness testing, and 3) Evaluating the upgraded FitBack reporting system, including a novel, multi-lingual PL toolkit, which will be tested across eight European-wide sites to determine its feasibility and effectiveness in improving PL. All these activities will be conducted across varied sectors, socio-cultural environments, and child fitness levels. Through the main output of the project, an open, multilingual fitness reporting webtool, FitBack4Literacy will provide a novel tool to assist teachers, coaches and youth across Europe in the process of improving PL. In this way, FitBack4Literacy targets multiple UN Sustainable Development goals in its endeavour to disseminate fitness expertise across multiple sectors, supporting fostering long-term, positive health outcomes in youth. 

QualiTePE (2022-2024) 

In this KA2 Erasmus+ project, experts from different European countries are working on a common understanding of high-quality PE teaching and developing the so-called QualiTePE framework concept, which will determine and describe the central teaching dimensions and characteristics in PE. However, the question of what can be described as high-quality PE teaching depends on what educational goals and subject-didactic concepts are followed in national contexts in PE. For this purpose, we will initiate a Delphi survey with HEI instructors in the ten partner countries in an effort to achieve a general consensus on the matter. The QualiTePE framework concept to be developed in the project can then complement or transform teacher education in the European partner countries, thus contributing to a standardization and an increase in quality in the particular countries and throughout Europe. Taking the QualiTePE framework concept as a starting point, we will operationalize the formulated characteristics and dimensions of good PE teaching and develop the digital QualiTePE evaluation instrument. Teaching quality will be described via the assessment of (a) teachers, (b) observers, and (c) students on concrete teaching characteristics. On the basis of available questionnaire instruments and empirical studies, the QualiTePE evaluation instrument will be discussed by the partner countries in a circular process, validated consensually by the experts, tested in practice in several loops, and gradually revised. The criteria-based and multi-perspective assessment of teaching quality can form the precondition for a self-guided further development of teachers, for the development of a professional feedback culture, and for a corresponding instructional development. In addition, it can be used in effectiveness studies. The QualiTePE evaluation instrument thus can benefit the education and further training of teachers in PE, making the characteristics of good PE teaching “visible” and systematically improving mid- and long-term teaching quality.  

PhysEd-Academy (2022-2025) 

PhysEd-Academy will directly address current challenges in school physical education (PE) and PE teacher education by improving four imperative quality factors: the purposes and content of PE; school teaching; teacher education; and continuous professional development (CPD). These will be achieved through mobility initiatives between PE teacher education institutions and PE teachers. PE is the one subject with the potential to provide young people with the skills, attitudes, knowledge, and understanding for a lifelong commitment to a physically active lifestyle and good health. In this way PE contributes to the global priority of decreasing the prevalence of physical inactivity by 15% in 2030. Yet, it fails in its current form. PE is built on old and inefficient traditions that are far from current recommended practices and policies, resulting in PE and teacher education having little or no impact on children and youth. By directly addressing the four quality factors and based on current evidence in PE and teacher education research, practice, and theory, PhysEd-Academy will develop and test innovative strategies and programs for initial PE teacher education and teachers’ ongoing CPD across Europe. This will lead to the development of a set of ‘signature pedagogies’ for learning across different PE teacher education programs, carrying the potential to improv the quality of PE and PE teacher education. The signature pedagogies will be tested by PhysEd-Academy partners in their respective initial teacher education and CPD programs subsequently boosting the attractiveness of the PE teaching profession. PhysEd-Academy is committed to becoming a key actor in improving PE and PE teacher education and will benefit local, regional, and international school PE and teacher education programs - with the ultimate aim of improving public health.