The SpinEd project has progressed considerably over the past eight months. Many colleagues have contributed and continue to contribute to every aspect of these developments. We look forward to the Pre-Olympic Congress in August, when the final report will be presented. This document reports upon the progress to date. It addresses the main elements of the project, namely the work of the case study teams, the questionnaire design and administration and the SpinEd website. It also discusses the issue of language and the somewhat confusing definitions assigned to the term Physical Education and school sport.

The main elements of the project are the case studies. A number of colleagues in, Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania and South America were contacted and invited to participate in the project as members of the fieldwork team for that area. When the six teams were in place, letters were sent to explain the nature of the project, their role and to invite them to decide upon a case study which would identify an example of quality Physical Education and sport in their area, in relation to at least one domain. The five domains identified were physical, intellectual, social and moral, organisational/institutional and sport and lifestyle. Together the case studies include a wide variety of examples of good practice. For instance, the case study being carried out in Columbia focuses on the role of Physical Education as an instrument to develop positive attitudes in the violent and poor communities of the Bogota commune. Two reports for each of the case studies are expected to be submitted by April 2004, one of which will be a formal report aimed at an academic audience and the other a shorter report aimed at a non-academic audience.

Most recently, we were delighted to accept another case study proposal, which will be financed through Canterbury Christ Church University College funds. The case study, which will be directed by Patricia Maude MBE at the University of Cambridge, will examine the implications of enhancing movement observation and analysis skills in order to make a difference to the motor development of children aged 3-7 years. This brings the total number of case studies to seven. The seven case studies are aiming to investigate:

Physical Education and sport as an intervention to prevent crime and moral degradation among young adults (Africa)
The effects of sumo lessons as part of the Physical Education programme in a primary school and school sports club in a secondary school (Asia)
Physical Education and the identification of talent (Europe)
Implications of enhanced movement observation and analysis skills on motor development of children aged 3-7 years (Europe)
The experiences of young girls who take up ice-hockey (North America)
Extending ‘at risk’ students’ participation in school life: a case study within a Specialist Sports School (Oceania)
Physical Education and a new way to live for children in Bogota commune (South America)

From the very beginning, this project has involved as many people from outside the immediate team as possible, especially from other countries. Colleagues from around the world have been asked to comment upon many different aspects of the project, including the questionnaire, the construction of the framework, to suggest relevant source of information from their own country and to offer informal advice as necessary. This has been an invaluable process, and one of the ways that helps make this project unique. More than 40 respondents have offered their support, by advising on different matters and drawing attention to a great number of sources, providing information that would otherwise have been difficult to locate. Together, the sources will form an international annotated bibliography, to be made available around the world.

In order to collect data regarding pupils’ perceptions of the outcomes of Physical Education and sport, a questionnaire was designed, to be administered by each of the case study countries. For the purpose of analysis, the questionnaire had to be the same for each country and for each of the age ranges, 7-10, 11-14 and 15+. The questionnaire was piloted both in England and in Japan and a total of 1066 questionnaires were analysed. Three different questionnaires with the same meaning were designed for the three age groups of Japanese children, because of the way that Japanese is taught in that country. Both England and Japan are planning to publish the results of this pilot study in the near future. Draft questionnaires were also sent to respondents, and valuable feedback was gathered. Following the piloting and necessary amendments, the questionnaire was sent to every continent together with instructions for sampling. The sampling strategy for this questionnaire was chosen in order to ensure that they were completed by a minimum of 300 children per age range and 1000 children per area. For instance, in England this questionnaire is being distributed to 24 schools in 4 different sites, reflecting a wide socio-economic spread. This questionnaire is expected to be completed and analysis started by the end of January 2004.

An additional development of the project was the SpinEd website (http://spined.cant.ac.uk/) that was launched in September. This interactive tool, funded by Canterbury Christ Church University College, was initially set up to act as a point of contact for the fieldwork teams, respondents, schools and children participating in the project. The site reports upon the project itself and each of the case studies, as well as up-to-date news. It hosts a page of links which enable the user to immediately access any other international sites to do with Physical Education and sport. By March, a page containing the academic references will be added to the site and act as an international annotated bibliography. An extra initiative was added in the form of an online guestbook for children around the world, which invites them to comment upon Physical Education in their school and to read what others have written. It is hoped that this will encourage young people to share their experiences of Physical Education in different countries.

More recently, the Yokohama City University has also launched a Japanese version of the website (http://www-user.yokohama-cu.ac.jp/~spined) which displays the same information and will include various extra features.

A project such as this revolves around the sharing of knowledge through constant interaction and communication. A trip to Pretoria for the ICSSPE meeting was made by Professor Bailey in late September, where he presented on the SpinEd project and also made contact with colleagues willing to act as respondents. A further trip was made to Japan in November in order to discuss more about the project with the case study team at Yokohama City University, whilst Professor Bailey presented a lecture on the development of talent in Physical Education. As important as it is to be able to present our work to others in person, there is no doubt that technology in the form of the internet and email systems have served to make a project like this much quicker and easier to organise. Indeed, the postal problems such as the ones that we have been experiencing here in the UK have meant that its success has relied almost totally upon the email system.

As part of the project, a meta-analyse of Physical Education and school sport is currently being produced to attempt to address the confusion that has arisen due to conflicting definitions. This will consist of definitions according to policies, frameworks and individual studies from around the world and will serve to clarify the issue of definitions for the main and final report.

The academic review of literature will be informed by the increasing number of international references we have collected, on a range of topics that relate to the domains. To date, we hold around 500 papers and continue to search for more by applying the cascade approach.

To conclude, there is still much to be done over the next few months, but a great deal has already been achieved, all of which will ensure that the final report will be a valuable and well grounded piece of evidence. Most importantly, it will provide the base-line evidence to demonstrate the value of Physical Education and sport to the education system, which can then be fed back to the policy makers and decision-makers around the world.

To date, the SpinEd team has succeeded in completing the following tasks:

• Carry out analysis on the completed questionnaires and complete by the end of February 2004;
• Complete the full annotated bibliography and publish on the website by March 2004;
• Collect by April 2004 the individual case study reports;
• Begin the writing of the final report to be presented by August at the Pre-Olympic congress.