Sport Education: Concepts and Application

Question 1

what is the background to sport education

Answer 1

• sport education is a pedagogical model designed to provide authentic, educationally rich sport experience for girls and boys in the context of school PE
• conceptualised by Daryl Seidentop in 1980s as a reaction against lack of interest of pupils in many PE programmes
• located and generated from play education
• ‘authentic sporting experience’

Question 2

what are the 6 key features of sport drive the workable model of sport education

Answer 2

1) sport is structured around seasons
- based on a minimum of 12 lessons
- inculcating a greater in depth understanding
2) affiliation
- players are team members who remain with their team throughout
3) formal competition
- seasons are defined by competition interspersed with teacher and student - directed practice sessions
4) cumulating event
- highlights the end of the season and provides goals for players to work towards
5) keeping records
- sport play involves extensive record keeping
6) festivity
- a festive atmosphere pervades the season (especially the cumulating event)

Question 3

what are the 4 immutable aspects of sport education

Answer 3

• the unit of work takes place over an extended period of time
• the idea of a persisting team
• the presence of developmentally appropriate competition consisting of small sided games
• students take on roles and responsibilities other than that of player

Question 4

what are the different roles of students/pupils

Answer 4

• student/pupils ate increasingly responsible for leadership, instruction, assessing and performing
• potential student/pupil roles (all students practice and play in competitions):
  
  • captain
  • statistician
  • fitness instructor
  • manager
  • coach
  • referee
  • player
  • scorekeeper

Question 5

what is appropriate competition (aggerholm et al 2018)

Answer 5

• how we [educators] conceive (understand) and enact competition is important
  
  • when competition is reduced to ‘simply a matter of winning or loosing’ is problematic
• there are diverse ways to think about competition
  
  • from a philosophical standpoint, competition is ‘inherently pleasurable and intrinsically satisfying’
  • etymologically, it implies ‘striving together’
  • why - it provides opportunities to develop moral qualities, such as courage, loyalty/dedication, fair play, respect (for others, for rules), discipline
  • competition is also perceived to be ‘indispensable to the acquisition of skills’
• research on students experience of competition in schools ‘paint a less positive picture’
  
  • inequity and exclusion - if competitive sport, understand as winning at all costs, dominates provision, it can exclude children who have less developed movement competencies… as they cannot ‘thrive’… consider the negative effects on them
  • teacher knowledge - yet the main issue is lack of knowledge on how to design competitive activities for and with students with diverse abilities
• your role as educators: it is imperative for you to question and critically examine your role, your understanding, prevailing assumptions and beliefs…
• central philosophical premises of good competition
  
  • consent - voluntary participation
    
    • ‘sport philosophers would agree that voluntary engagement is a prerequisite for good experiences within competition’
    • but is this possible in the context of compulsory PE? what about sport education?
    • co-depending: you ‘depend on each other for competitive activities to be meaningful. students who hide or in other ways refuse to become involved in the activity directly affect the experience and learning possibilities of everyone else’
    • but you can see how this might lead to negative climate. discrimination, exclusion
• fair opportunities for all
  
  • regulating competition (rankings in leagues and teams) and classifying athletes
  • in PE, classes are heterogeneous - and this is goof from an inclusion point of view

Question 6

what is the role of the teacher

Answer 6

• teachers accommodate a shift from teacher centered to student centered instruction
• teacher must establish a strong managerial system with rules and routines
• feeds into the teacher instructing, guiding, facilitating and assessing student learning

Question 7

how do you return to immutable elements

Answer 7

• a typical season sees students progressing from initial experiences in refining and practicing skills under guidance of a student coach
• through a series of nonconsequential games
• ending with formal competition - aim is to accure points for winning matches whilst showing good sporting behaviour

Question 8

how do you set up the model

Answer 8

• teach students about the roles prior to start of each season
• teacher should conduct mini-workshops for each jobs needed during team practices or another time
• amount of teacher direct instruction will vary depending on grade level (older students get more autonomy)
• make necessary modifications to rules and competition format
• teacher may want to write a ‘job description’ for each role
• equity - all team members get to play the same amount of time
• balance and makeup of teams by gender, ability, behaviour and others
• may preview teams with captains and allow for limited ‘trading’
• identify what skills each team must check off

Question 9

what is learner diversity

Answer 9

• balance and makeup of teams by gender, ability, behaviour and others
• culture, religion, ethnicity, race, socio-economic status, place of birth, gender, sex
• inclusion: ‘an environment that offers affirmation, celebration and appreciation to different approaches, styles, perspectives, and experiences, thus allowing all individuals to express their whole selves and to demonstrate their strengths and capacity

Question 10

what are the benefits of sport education

Answer 10

• allows students to be a part of a team
• captains get to develop leadership skill and experience the role of being a coach
• inclusive learning environment
• more student centered
• better avenue for monitoring and promoting personal growth
• teachers and students enjoy this model

Question 11

what are the limitations of sport education

Answer 11

• class management skills needed
• interpersonal conflict
• doesn’t allow students to focus on what they lack
• introducing model for first time can be difficult to get the ball rolling