Department of Movement and Sports Sciences /
Sport Pedagogy
Leen Haerens is Associate Professor in Physical Education and Sports Pedagogy at the Department of Movement and Sports Sciences. In her Phd (2003-2007), she developed and evaluated a school based intervention aimed at promoting healthy eating and physical activity in secondary school students. After one year of postdoctoral studies, funded by the Flemish research foundation, she started to build up a research line in physical education and sports pedagogy. Starting from self-determination theory as the main theoretical framework, her research focuses on motivational dynamics in physical education. One of her major interests of research is built around the question “how the teachers can create classroom environments in which students who lack interest in major sports can get inspired, vitalized and energized towards lifelong physical activity?”. As part of this research topic, a pedagogical model for health-based physical education was developed.