Department of Movement and Sports Sciences

Current Research Projects

Education


- Optimizing teacher induction support among early career secondary education teachers
- Essays on choice-based assessment in economics education
- The Role of Motivational Strategies in the Formation and Maintenance of Exercise Habits among University Students in a Cross-Cultural Context

Sport

- Moral Identity of Athletes and Staff
- Prevention of interpersonal violence in sports: the interaction between different motivational and demotivational coaching styles.
- Safe Football Allies: creating safe and supportive environments in elite youth football academies in Belgium
- "What’s common isn’t always normal… an in-depth investigation into the normalization of controlling coaching"
- Empowering the empowerers: Investigating how learner-centered education shapes autonomy-supportive coaching.     

Health

- Understanding and optimizing (de)motivating interaction styles of healthcare professionals

International collaborators

- Im­prov­ing mo­tiv­at­ing styles: To­ward a com­plex dy­nam­ical sys­tems ap­proach (Moti­StyleS­port)

Realized projects

Education

- Motivating assessment in physical education: The effects of goal clarification and process feedback on students’ motivation
- The Physical Education teacher as a motivating coach: Developing an online evidence-based tool 
- Personal and social goals in primary school physical education in The Netherlands. 
- Teaching methodology: Stimulating (through cooperative learning) and measuring social skills within the secondary educational courses economics and physical education.
- ‘Help, my teacher and parents are pressuring me!’ Antecedents and consequences of children and adolescents’ coping responses to controlling behavior

Sport

- Everybody is a winner: overestimation of one’s competence as a predictor of dropout from sports?
- Motivating and demotivating parenting and coaching in youth sports
- Bidirectional influences in coach-athlete relationships and team dynamics 
- Organizational effectiveness in sports clubs: identifying and strengthening quintessential management processes and motivating styles board members rely on 
- SafeSport project: Pushing boundaries or crossing lines? Defining the grey zone and developing interventions to prevent interpersonal violence in sports.
- Coachen met Consensus: Creating a safe and motivating sport climate in Flemish sport clubs

Health

- Can optimizing competence development lead to more effective and continuous workplace learning in healthcare education?

Education

Optimizing teacher induction support among early career secondary education teachers

Early career teachers are quickly exposed to various challenges such as classroom management, dealing with disruptive behaviour from pupils, communicating with parents, collaborating with colleagues, stress and work pressure, etc.
These challenges lead to a high percentage of early career secondary school teachers quitting teaching within the first five years. More research is needed into this early dropout, which is a contemporary social concern.
Studies into the causes, needs and effective support for early career teachers are also lacking. 
Furthermore, the role of effective guidance within the social network of early career teachers has not yet been sufficiently researched. Most studies focus on the role of the mentor, but school leaders, subject colleagues and pedagogical supervisors can also offer added value in this area. 
 
The general objective of this research project is to map and optimise the induction support and general well-being of early career teachers. We aim to achieve this by:

  • investigating the specific needs of early career teachers
  • examining the extent to which the various actors within the social network of early career teachers support or hinder their basic psychological needs
  • examining the influence of social network support on the motivation and turnover intentions of early career teachers over the course of one full school year
  • setting up a pilot study in which both early career teachers and their social network test the Staring Strong Together package over the course of one full school year. 

 Contact: Silke Hellebaut

Relevant publications: 

Essays on choice-based assessment in economics education

Many students experience a certain amount of stress before tests and exams. However, for some students the pressure to perform well and the stress of being tested can be so intense that they exhibit debilitating test anxiety. Test anxiety is a fundamental educational challenge as it is not only associated with lower well-being, but it is also a powerful barrier for student learning and performance. 
This research investigates how students in secondary economics education can be evaluated in a motivating way in order to reduce students’ test anxiety and increase their performance.
The focus is on both the preparation phase and the test itself. More specifically, we examine whether and how teachers’ classroom communication and offering students a choice between (test) questions has an effect on students’ test anxiety.
 
Contact: Stefanie De Jonge

Relevant publications

The Role of Motivational Strategies in the Formation and Maintenance of Exercise Habits among University Students in a Cross-Cultural Context

Many university students intend to be active but struggle to act. Traditional behavior-change programs can trigger a start but rarely last because they do not turn motivation into everyday, automatic habits. Once a habit forms, behavior becomes more automatic and can be maintained with less willpower. Yet research on PA habits is mostly short term, weighted toward initiation, and often overlooks motivation quality. To address this gap, the study integrates Self-Determination Theory with habit-formation models. Goal Content Theory answers the “why”: compared with extrinsic aims, intrinsic goals build higher-quality autonomous motivation, stronger adherence, and may speed the shift from repetition to automaticity. Habit models answer the “how”: frequent, successful practice in stable contexts links behavior to cues and builds automatic control. University PE teachers are well placed to create these conditions. They control time and space, shape peer norms and classroom climate, and can embed consistent cues with immediate feedback and light environmental restructuring so the active option becomes the default. Finally, because much evidence on PA habits comes from single cultural settings, these mechanisms need to be tested across cultures.
The project has two general objectives:

  • to determine how university PE teachers can use motivational strategies grounded in Goal Content Theory to help students initiate and form exercise habits that endure.
  • to integrate Self-Determination Theory with habit formation models and test cultural generalizability across two sites. 


Contact: Xinyi Liu

Sport

Moral Identity of Athletes and Staff

Corruption and fraud represent major threats to sport itself and to those involved. To counteract this issue, the PrOFS research project investigate the problem on different levels and domains.  On the individual level, Moral Identity is studied as a protective buffer against the enactment of fraudulent behavior through a combination of surveys and field experiments.
A final objective is to develop and evaluate a prototype of a Moral Education Workshop for athletes to inform about the necessity of preventing fraud and to train how to recognize and react on fraudulent behaviour.

Contact: Tassilo Tissot

Relevant publications: 


Prevention of interpersonal violence in sports: the interaction between different motivational and demotivational coaching styles.

Sports coaches often employ a controlling coaching style, putting pressure on their athletes in the hope of getting them to perform at their best. Although many coaches are convinced of the effectiveness of this approach, research based on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) shows that using this style has negative consequences for athletes, such as feelings of pressure and competition anxiety, as well as reduced performance.
The question of whether these negative effects are universal or may differ between athletes has not yet been addressed. In this project, we want to investigate whether the impact of a controlling style depends on the athlete's personal characteristics, such as the way athletes cope with pressure. In addition, a pilot study by our group shows that a controlling coaching style is closely related to the prevention of psychologically interpersonal violence (IV).
We want to study the relationship between the two and bring together the literature on controlling coaching from ZDT with the literature on psychological IV by the coach. More specifically, the coaching styles distinguished within ZDT allow us to identify risk coach profiles for psychological IV, and we can also investigate which athlete factors reinforce or weaken the impact of psychological IV. 
The primary objective of this doctoral research is to investigate how different coping mechanisms mediate the effects of controlling coaching behavior (objective 1) and psychological GoG (objective 2). The third objective is to identify possible risk profiles based on coaching styles and link them to psychological GoG (objective 3).

Contact: Elisa Lefever

Relevant publication:

Safe Football Allies: creating safe and supportive environments in elite youth football academies in Belgium

Safe Football Allies transforms safeguarding from a compliance requirement into an integrated part of everyday practice in youth academies. We recognize that player wellbeing and performance are interconnected: young athletes thrive when they feel safe and supported.
We are developing a season-long educational program for three key actors:

  • coaches,
  • academy managers,
  • safeguarding officers (APIs/RVS).

Developed and tested in close collaboration with stakeholders, the program ensures practical relevance alongside scientific rigor.
We position the academy manager as the pivotal figure in embedding safeguarding culture. Our tools equip managers to prioritize safeguarding in daily operations, support all academy members, and ensure it remains a visible priority throughout the season.
For coaches, we provide practical tools (on-pitch exercises, team discussions, and check-in protocols) that integrate safeguarding naturally into their coaching practice rather than treating it as a separate activity.
For safeguarding officers, our tools aim to optimize visibility and accessibility so they can fulfill their role to its full potential.
By empowering the entire academy community (players, coaches, staff, and parents), we create shared responsibility for player welfare.
This shared responsibility results in a culture where safeguarding becomes normalized as part of high-performance football, and academies foster environments where talent can develop safely.

Contact: Otis Brouwers

"What’s common isn’t always normal… an in-depth investigation into the normalization of controlling coaching"

Sport holds undeniable value for both individuals and society. It promotes physical and mental health, strengthens community bonds, and offers meaning and identity. For many, sport is more than just an activity — it is a way of life. However, the sustainability and legitimacy of organized sport depend on one crucial condition: its ability to safeguard the well-being and safety of athletes.
In practice, this promise is often not fulfilled, particularly within the demanding context of (sub-)elite youth sport (Gervis & Dunn, 2004; Willson et al., 2022).

Research has shown that psychological boundary-crossing behavior is a significant and widespread issue in sport. In this study, we examine at a multilevel perspective how the normalization of controlling coaching influences both controlling coaching behavior and the athlete’s well-being.

Therefore, this research also focuses on the organizational dimension. Specifically, we investigate whether the normalization of controlling coaching behavior at the governance level contributes to the emergence and persistence of psychological boundary-crossing behavior. By including this broader institutional context, we aim to gain deeper insight into the mechanisms that legitimize and perpetuate such harmful practices in sport.

Contact: Tuur De Waele

Empowering the empowerers: Investigating how learner-centered education shapes autonomy-supportive coaching.     

This project aims to investigate whether and how learner-centred teaching in national sport federations coach education programmes influences the development of autonomy-supportive coaching among graduates. The research aspires to develop empirical and practical insights that can be used to improve pedagogical practices within national sports federations, thus consequently promoting motivational sporting environments that are in line with self-determination theory.
The main hypothesis is that higher exposure to learner-centred teaching during coach education is positively associated with the adoption of autonomy-supportive coaching behaviors in real-world coaching practice.
Research questions include:

  • To what extent is learner-centred teaching implemented across coach education programmes?
  • How graduates' exposure to learner-centred teaching relate to their current autonomy-supportive coaching behaviours?
  • How can coach education be redesigned to promote lasting autonomy-supportive behaviours after graduation?


Contact: Nicolas Struhàr

Health

Understanding and optimizing (de)motivating interaction styles of healthcare professionals

Half of the population in Europe, regardless of age, gender, or socio-economic status, have followed or will follow therapy at some point in their life.
However, recent research shows that one in three patients is not motivated to follow physiotherapy and that half of patients' complaints relate to communication with their therapist. These factors can lead to reduced therapy outcomes and higher healthcare costs. This highlights the importance of gaining more insight into the motivational processes of patients and the role of the healthcare provider within this therapeutic process.
To better understand these processes, Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is used as a theoretical framework.

The general objective of this doctoral project is to understand and optimize the interaction styles of healthcare providers.
We aim to achieve this by:

  • exploring experiences of patients of occupational therapists and physiotherapists;
  • mapping relations and antecedents of interaction styles among healthcare providers (nursing and midwifery students, physiotherapy students, physiotherapists, and occupational therapists);
  • evaluating an SDT-based course module among physiotherapy students.

The results of this research have the potential guide professional development of healthcare providers and to inform healthcare training programs, ultimately enhancing patient experiences and optimizing therapy outcomes.

Contact: Laura Hesters

Relevant publications:

International collaborations

Im­prov­ing mo­tiv­at­ing styles: To­ward a com­plex dy­nam­ical sys­tems ap­proach (Moti­StyleS­port)

Motivational interaction style among physical education teachers, as well as professionals involved in physical activity (PA) counseling and coaching influences outcomes in their target groups, e.g. increase PA and decrease dropout intentions from sports. An empowering and dialogical interaction style has been shown to result in more beneficial outcomes than a controlling interaction style.
Although it is possible to change one’s style, current research literature falls short of explaining how this can be done efficiently and sustainably.
This project investigates how to enhance professionals’ training to improve their interaction styles. We will examine comprehensively what pathways professionals take to change their interaction style, and how feasible and acceptable interaction style trainings are face-to-face and online.

Contact: Melina Puolamäki, Elina Renko, and Matti Heino (University of Helsinki - Faculty of Social Sciences, Social Psychology)

Relevant publication: 

Realized projects

Education

Motivating assessment in physical education: The effects of goal clarification and process feedback on students’ motivation

Performance grading in Physical Education (PE) often negatively affects students’ feelings of competence and interest and love of learning (i.e., autonomous motivation; Ryan & Weinstein, 2009).
Therefore, these types of assessments might not contribute to autonomous motivation in PE. This project examines whether two other aspects of assessment, that is goal clarification and process feedback, may positively impact students’ autonomous motivation in PE.
Goal clarification and process feedback are known as two key teaching strategies of ‘Assessment for Learning’(AfL; provides students with insight into their learning process so they can build towards higher standards; Wiliam, 2011).
As such, two bodies of literature will be linked throughout this project: AfL and Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000). 

The overarching objective of the PhD was to investigate the effects of different forms and quality aspects of assessment on students’ motivational functioning in PE.
A first more specific goal of the PhD was to gain more insight in students’ perceived need satisfaction and frustration, quality of motivation and fear during different types of assessment.
A second more specific goal of the PhD was to (experimentally) test, based on the gained insights, the impact of goal clarification and process feedback on students’ need-based experiences.  

More info:  (PhD thesis of Christina Krijgsman) 

Relevant publications:

The Physical Education teacher as a motivating coach: Developing an online evidence-based tool 

Physical Education (PE) teachers who adopt a motivating style fuel students’ autonomous motivation, stimulating students to be physically active. Previous research has shown that PE teachers can optimize their motivating style by following a one-day workshop.
In the current project, we investigate whether PE teachers can improve their motivating style  by using an evidence-based online learning environment with video-annotation (https://vobserver.sportamundi.com/).
On the website, teachers

  • complete a validated questionnaire to determine their own motivating style, 
  • reflect on their own lessons by annotating classroom videos,
  • formulate concrete strategies to improve their motivating style.

In this project, teaching style is assessed by the teachers themselves, by their students, and by experts (who watch video footage).

Arne Bouten focuses primarily on teacher outcomes (e.g., motivating teaching style) and Nele Van Doren focuses on student outcomes (e.g., motivation and physical activity).  

Personalized profile of a PE teacher’s motivating style

Relevant publications:

Personal and social goals in primary school physical education in The Netherlands

In the Netherlands, the main objective of physical education (PE) in primary school is to help children get acquainted with the movement culture so that they will remain intrinsically motivated to participate in sports now and later on in life (Kerndoelen Primair Onderwijs, 2006).
To do so, the subject of PE is shaped by two categories of goals:

  • First, children should learn the basic forms of movement (also referred to as fundamental movement skills) and games in order to participate in the movement culture in a safe and liable way.
  • Second, children should learn how to cooperate in a respectful way, how to arrange their learning process and how to assess and consider their individual possibilities (referred to as personal and social goals).

 With regard to the second goal, 9 sub goals were formulated (see ‘het Basisdocument’; Mooij et al., 2011). However, neither research nor practice has provided the evidence-based knowledge necessary for guiding children effectively in their personal and social development. 

The aims of this project is to

  • provide an overview of the existing literature on school-aged children’s and youth’s (i.e. 6- to 18-year-olds) personal and social development within the context of physical education and sports;
  • to Investigate how expert PE teachers perceive, interpret and implement personal and social goals in their current practice;
  • to develop and evaluate a professional development initiative aimed at supporting novice and experienced PE teachers to include personal and social goals more efficiently in their lessons.  

Relevant publication:

More information:

Teaching methodology: Stimulating (through cooperative learning) and measuring social skills within the secondary educational courses economics and physical education.

Technology is changing the nature of work and, subsequently, is changing what employers require from recent accounting and economics graduates. The focus in the workplace is no longer merely placed on hard (i.e., cognitive, job-specific, economic and financial) skills, but also increasingly on soft social skills. This shift has created a skills gap between what employers consider important, and what competences graduates truly possess when entering the job market, with employers pointing out the importance of teamwork, communication, leadership, and critical thinking skills. 

Education plays an important role in developing these social skills graduates need to possess. Given that the current literature on social skills in accounting and economics education has predominantly focused on higher education, we will answer to the call of scholars and, since the recent flood of educational reforms, to the call of policymakers to foster these skills incrementally from secondary to higher education, by stimulating social skills already in secondary education. 
The aims of this doctoral research are quadruple: 

  • to develop an evidence-based curriculum for the (Business) economics course, based on the teaching method of collaborative learning, that allows teachers to stimulate both students’ hard, cognitive, economic skills, and their soft, social skills; 
  • to develop course-specific ((Business) Economics and Physical Education) evaluation methods for evaluating students’ social skills in secondary education; 
  • to develop a valid and reliable measuring instrument to measure social skills across disciplines; and 
  • to investigate, both within (Business) Economics and Physical Education, the effects of collaborative learning on the stimulation of course-specific and social skills.

Relevant publications:


‘Help, my teacher and parents are pressuring me!’ Antecedents and consequences of children and adolescents’ coping responses to controlling behavior

The study of adaptive functioning of adolescents - both in general and at school - often focuses on the quality of the parenting style and the teacher’s teaching style.
Research based on self-determination theory shows that a controlling style leads to frustration of the basic psychological needs, which in turn undermines adolescents’ well-being, motivation and engagement.

Current research, however, aims to get insight into the active role of adolescents in interacting with their parents and teachers.
This project focuses on how adolescents deal with a controlling parenting or teaching style.

  • First, we want to investigate why adolescents react differently when confronted with a controlling parent or teacher. Herein, we examine the role of temperament and the extent to which the adolescent is raised in an autonomy-supportive environment.
  • Secondly, this project aims to investigate whether coping plays a moderating role in the relationship between a controlling style and adaptive functioning in adolescents. In particular, we aim to explore whether the effects of a controlling style on maladaptive functioning decrease when an adaptive coping strategy is used or, on the contrary, is magnified when adolescents rely on a maladaptive coping strategy.

Relevant publications: 

Sport

Everybody is a winner: overestimation of one’s competence as a predictor of dropout from sports?

Physical inactivity is one of the major health risks associated with the global epidemic of obesity and chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. The increasing number of young people and children who are not active is discouraging. It is therefore essential to gain a better understanding of the underlying factors that cause dropout from sports.
Research shows that children's perceptions of their motor skills play an important role in function of their physical activity. The current project therefore investigates:

  • the role of overestimation of one’s personal motor competence in the prediction of persistence in, versus dropout from sports
  • the psychological and contextual precursors of this overestimation.

Relevant publication:

Motivating and demotivating parenting and coaching in youth sports

Both parents and coaches play an important role in the sport experience of youth athletes. Within this project, we want to examine which (combinations of) (de)motivating behaviors of coaches and parents are associated with the consequences for the well-being, motivation, and performance of youth athletes. Moreover, we also look at what motivates sports coaches to adopt a motivating or just demotivating coaching style.
More specifically, we want to look at how this depends on the climate within the sports club, and/or the extent to which coaches let their self-worth depend on the successes and failures of their athletes.  

Relevant publications: 


Bidirectional influences in coach-athlete relationships and team dynamics 

In sports, a bidirectional exchange between coaches and athletes is at play. However, in research the bidirectional nature of the relationship between coaches and athletes or coaches and teams is not always considered.
In this project we will explore, apply and adapt different statistical models in order to obtain a more complete understanding of the coach-athlete relationship and team dynamics. While doing so, we will focus on the motivational and emotional experiences of both coaches and athletes. 

Relevant publication:

Organizational effectiveness in sports clubs: identifying and strengthening quintessential management processes and motivating styles board members rely on 

Many sports clubs are confronted with a decrease in the number of coaches, volunteers, members and in finances, which may threaten the existence of the organization. These evolutions are partly due to environmental changes such as decreasing governmental subsidies, demographic change and increasing competition of commercial sport providers (Wicker & Breuer, 2013). Yet, there are also processes within the context of the sport organization that board members, who are responsible for managing the organization's activities, can rely on to enhance the sports club's management.
This project focuses specifically on management processes and the motivating style board members adopt while implementing these management processes, hereby relying on the Competing Values Framework (Quin & Rohrbaugh, 1981) and Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000) respectively.  

The project has three aims.

  • The first aim is to identify effective management processes and motivating styles board members of sports clubs can rely on.
  • The second aim is to develop and evaluate an intervention to strengthen effective management processes and board members' motivating styles.
  • The third aim is to investigate the effect of this intervention on the sport club's management, the behaviour and attitudes of important internal stakeholders such as coaches, volunteers and members, and the sports club's human and financial resources. 

Relevant publications:

SafeSport project: Pushing boundaries or crossing lines? Defining the grey zone and developing interventions to prevent interpersonal violence in sports

Interpersonal violence towards children and adolescents has reached epidemic proportions. Given its far-reaching negative consequences, it is regarded as a major public health concern worldwide. Sport is not immune to this issue.
Within this project, we aimed to gain a better understanding of “behavior in the grey zone”. In addition, interpersonal violence was studied within a broader framework by mapping different actors as well as risk and protective factors. The ultimate goal was to explore how athletes’ physical and psychological boundaries can be pushed in a health way, without crossing lines.

Check out the research reports and factsheets on this website: https://www.sport.vlaanderen/veilig-sportklimaat/laat-je-inspireren/ (in durch) 

Read this paper: 

Coachen met Consensus: Creating a safe and motivating sport climate in Flemish sport clubs

Over the past years, extensive knowledge and insights have been developed on topics such as interpersonal violence, bystander reactions, the coach-athlete relationship, and coaching behaviors. Several research projects have already led to practical tools and interventions, such as workshops for coaches and clubs (via Sportieq or M-factor vzw), updates to courses within the Flemish Coaching School, and an online evaluation of the motivating style of board members in clubs within the Flemish Sport Federation.
Unfortunately, these valuable tools and interventions do not always make their way into everyday practice. This project therefore sought solutions to ensure more efficient and effective use of these resources.
The goal of this project was to promote a safe and motivational sport climate in Flanders. This by developing a position paper with policy recommendations and an inspiration guide for building an integrity policy, an individualized support trajectory for club development officers, and a clear overview of available tools for clubs.

More information:
Position paper and inspiration document, contact kics@sport.vlaanderen 
Club support trajectory, contact info@sportieq.be 
Overview tools, check out (in dutch)

Health

Can optimizing competence development lead to more effective and continuous workplace learning in healthcare education?

To deliver qualitative patient care, the education of qualitative healthcare professionals is essential. Within these educational programs, students spend a large amount of their time at the workplace to develop their competencies. Also, after graduation, maintaining and optimizing these competencies is crucial. To optimally develop competencies, continuity within the educational program but also after graduation is needed.
On top of the currently missing continuity, there is a poor agreement between different educational programs hindering interprofessional collaboration. To overcome these problems, the involvement of all important stakeholders is indispensable but often lacking in the development of healthcare educational programs.
This project focuses on competence development within undergraduate healthcare education, during the program but also after graduation, investigating some tools for the optimalization of competence development e.g., ePortfolio, competence frameworks, feedback-supporting tool. 
Furthermore, there is a focus on one specific competency namely interprofessional communication. Effective interprofessional  communication ensures better patient care and is therefore a global priority. Therefore, it is essential to map this competency correctly. Researcher Oona will take the first steps in developing an indicator list to observe and assess interprofessional communication in healthcare. 

Relevant publication: