For an initial period of four years in 2021, the Graduate Center (FGZ) of the Department of Sport and Health Sciences at TUM has joined forces with the sports science institutions of the University of Bern, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the University of Tübingen to jointly train and support doctoral students under the title "Problem-Oriented Sports Science". The central element of this doctoral program is summer schools, which are conducted jointly. After the virtual kick-off at the University of Bern last year, the first Summer School took place in Karlsruhe at the end of June 2022. 70 PhD students and 15 professors and post-docs participated. In addition to the managing director of the FGZ, PD Dr. Felix Ehrlenspiel, a total of 14 doctoral students from the Department traveled to Karlsruhe.
Three keynote lectures were held under the title "Methodological Diversity in Sports Science". Prof. Dr. Margit Schreier from Jacobs University Bremen spoke about "Qualitative content analysis: qualitative and quantitative elements". From the University of Stuttgart, Prof. Dr. Susanne Vogl spoke about "Mixed Methods Research: Research Designs, Objectives and Stumbling Blocks". Prof. em. Dr. Werner W. Wittmann from the University of Mannheim presented the "Brunswik symmetry and the concept of five data boxes, a framework for quantitative research strategies".
In addition, two workshops were held on "Grounded Theory" (Dr. David Jaitner, Technical University of Braunschweig) and the statistical program R (Janis Fiedler, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology & Carina Nigg, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology/University of Bern). Within the framework of a total of four working groups, each doctoral student had to present his/her own research topic. A panel discussion, where the position paper on the philosophy of the PhD program "Problem-Oriented Sport Science" was discussed, rounded off the diverse program.
"The Summer School offered great opportunities to present one's own doctoral project in working groups and to reflect on one's own reflections in addition to gaining experience in presenting in the context of a scientific event," explains PD Dr. Ehrlenspiel, who served as a tutor in one working group. "In addition, the extensive and varied program away from science could be used for 'networking'." In the future, smaller activities such as symposia will also be organized from these "networks" within the program and independently of the Summer Schools.
"This year's Summer School in Karlsruhe was an absolutely successful event, both on a professional and personal level," sums up Jan Kern, PhD student speaker and Research Associate at the Chair of Human Movement Science. "In addition to the exciting keynotes and the interdisciplinary working groups, I found the personal exchange with the doctoral students from the other universities especially enriching."
PhD speaker Steffen Lang, Research Associate at the Chair of Performance Analysis and Sports Informatics, was also enthusiastic about the event: "In my opinion, the Summer School at KIT was a complete success for all participants. It was a great opportunity to exchange ideas with PhD students from the University of Bern, the University of Tübingen, KIT, and TUM, to get a taste of other sports disciplines, and to make new contacts. I particularly like the fact that this Summer School was titled 'Problem-Oriented Sports Science' and dealt with the question of how sports science fits in and has to position itself between the rest of the scientific disciplines."
In 2023, the Summer School of the four participating universities will then take place at TUM.
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e-mail: fgz(at)sg.tum.de
Text: Romy Schwaiger
Photo: private