“To see what is right, and not to do it, is want of courage” – Confucius

Last Friday the lecture hall of the Minderbroedersberg was filled for the inaugural speech of Hans Savelberg, extraordinary professor and Director of Education Biomedical Sciences at Maastricht University. Just like EDLAB he is on a mission to improve education and, as a supporter of Education That Moves You, the speech was filled with innovative and inspiring ideas on how to make education more dynamic and healthy.

Just like Confucius, Savelberg puts emphasis on courage. At Maastricht University research on health and sitting behaviour is growing quickly. To develop this more, Savelberg has put a new spin on the programme of Biomedical Science, which had debuted a new curriculum this year. Additionally, Savelberg wants health to be part of everyone’s education and put forward the question: if we know how bad our sitting habits are, why do we still sit so much? Time to show courage and practice what you preach.

The first step is knowledge. Research has already shown that sitting less is healthier, makes you more creative and a better collaborator. Now it is time to apply this current knowledge into new projects. This includes the Healthy Elementery School of the Future, collaborative projects as PHIT2LEARN and brand new research opportunities within the university. Future research will look at the benefits shown in practice during Education That Moves You; discussions take longer and have more depth, students learn more, the whiteboard is used more effectively and the group process runs more smoothly. Time to learn why.

As Savelberg concluded, we need to show courage and use recent and future knowledge in a critical way to result in great new innovations.