Specialization in Sports and Ethics in Sport (KI3107)

About the course

An intensive two-month course (mid-August - mid-October) that covers the following topics:

• The coach’s role and athlete development
• Sport leadership
• Athlete development, selection, and consequences
• Children and youth sport, mass and elite sport
• Integrity and corruption in sport
• Athlete moral development
• Understanding the role and ethical guidelines for coaches and sport leaders
• Coaching profession culture in sport

Learning outcomes

By completing the subject, the student has achieved the following learning outcomes:

Knowledge

The student has in-depth knowledge of

• sport leadership, the coach’s role, and different models for a holistic athlete development (k1)
• athlete development, selection and consequences (k2)
• athlete moral development and democratic processes in sport (k3)
• understanding of the role that ethics plays in sports (k4)
• handling of ethical issues in sports (k5)

Skills

The student can

• critically analyze, reflect and discuss relevant issues related to the coach’s role and athlete development in the sport with a starting point in governmental documents, and research- and experience-based knowledge (f1)
• through field work in sport, identify relevant issues related to the coach’s role and democratic processes (participation), and critically analyze, reflect and discuss these in writing and orally (f2)
• identify relevant issues related to the coach-athlete relationship in sport (f3)
• recognize good ethical practices and unethical relationships in sports, and discuss and argue for and against these (f4)

General competence

The student

• can discuss and critically reflect on professional and ethical issues that can arise in sports (g1)
• is aware of and can justify the ethical relationship that underpins practice theory (g2)
• can debate and communicate professional issues, analyze and conclude via the holistic approach to learning and development about work in sports (g3) 

Working and learning methods

Working and learning methods in the course will mainly build on student active work practices, and are a combination of

• Group work and debate
• Self-study
• Seminars
• Supervised work
• Written assignments
• Field work

Lectures 

Mandatory requirements to be approved before the exam can be taken

1. Group observation in sport
2. Written individual reflection paper of 2000 words. The reflection paper shall consist of the following three parts:
   1. Ethical dilemma
   2. Ethical guidelines
   3. Reflection
3. Group planed and delivered half-day seminar on sports with a focus on athlete development, selection, and consequences.

Examination

• 24-hour written individual take-home exam.
• Individual oral examination, based on the reflection paper specified in the mandatory requirements.

In this examination, the written individual take-home exam is assessed with 30% of the total grade and the individual oral exam with 70% of it.

Both exams are evaluated with letter grades from A-F, with E being the lowest pass grade.

It is expected that both parts of the exam are passed for the subject to be considered complete.

Help allowed for the examination

Take-home exam: All (open book)

Oral exam: Reflection paper