What Actually Differs between Traditional Teaching and Sport Education in Students' Learning Outcomes? A Critical Systematic Review

The effect of the Sport Education Model in physical education on student learning attitude: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Evidence indicates that the Sport Education Model (SEM) has demonstrated effectiveness in enhancing students' athletic capabilities and fostering their enthusiasm for sports. Nevertheless, there remains a dearth of comprehensive reviews examining the impact of the SEM on students' attitudes toward physical education learning.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this review is to elucidate the influence of the SEM on students' attitudes toward physical education learning.

METHODS

Employing the preferred reporting items of the Systematic Review and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) statement guidelines, a systematic search of PubMed, SCOPUS, EBSCOhost (SPORTDiscus and CINAHL Plus), and Web of Science databases was conducted in mid-January 2023. A set of keywords associated with the SEM, attitudes toward physical education learning, and students were employed to identify relevant studies. Out of 477 studies, only 13 articles fulfilled all the eligibility criteria and were consequently incorporated into this systematic review. The validated checklist of Downs and Black (1998) was employed for the assessment, and the included studies achieved quality scores ranging from 11 to 13. The ROBINS-I tool was utilized to evaluate the risk of bias in the literature, whereby only one paper exhibited a moderate risk of bias, while the remainder were deemed to have a high risk.

RESULTS

The findings unveiled significant disparities in cognitive aspects (n = 8) and affective components (n = 12) between the SEM intervention and the Traditional Teaching (TT) comparison. Existing evidence suggests that the majority of scholars concur that the SEM yields significantly superior effects in terms of students' affective and cognitive aspects compared to the TT.

CONCLUSIONS

Nonetheless, several issues persist, including a lack of data regarding junior high school students and gender differences, insufficient frequency of weekly interventions, inadequate control of inter-group atmosphere disparities resulting from the same teaching setting, lack of reasonable testing, model fidelity check and consideration for regulating variables, of course, learning content, and unsuitable tools for measuring learning attitudes. In contrast, the SEM proves more effective than the TT in enhancing students' attitudes toward physical learning.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION

( https://inplasy.com/ ) (INPLASY2022100040).

Jumping Rope Improves the Physical Fitness of Preadolescents Aged 10-12 Years: A Meta-Analysis

To systematically review the effects of jumping rope on physical fitness among 10 to 12-year-old preadolescents, and to provide evidence-based support for its use in school physical education curriculum work. The PubMed, Web of Science, SPORTDiscus, ScienceDirect, and CNKI databases were searched for randomized controlled trials that assessed jumping rope and physical fitness among preadolescents aged 10-12 years. Meta-analyses were used to calculate the standardized mean difference (SMD) values and 95% confidence intervals (CI), and subgroup analyses were conducted on intervention duration, frequency and period. A total of 1048 subjects from 15 studies were included. Compared to regular physical education courses, jumping rope did not show a significant advantage in terms of body morphology. In terms of physical function, boys showed greater improvements in vital capacity, and girls showed greater improvements in resting HR. In terms of physical performance, boys showed greater improvements in speed, upper-body strength, lower-body strength, muscular endurance and agility, while girls showed greater improvements in coordination and balance. Boys experienced a minimal improvement in flexibility, while girls did not show a significant difference. Combining the results of the subgroup analyses, the optimal session time, frequency and intervention length of jumping rope for significantly improving the physical fitness of preadolescents were >40 min, 2 times/week and 8-12 weeks, respectively. In conclusion, jumping rope provides small to large benefits over regular physical education for both boys and girls aged 10-12 years in terms of physical function and physical performance indicators other than flexibility, while showing no significant advantage in terms of body morphology. Based on the available research, it is recommended that children aged 10-12 years participate in jump rope sessions for at least 40 minutes once or twice a week for 8-12 weeks to better develop physical fitness.

Could the Hybridization of the SE/TGfU Pedagogical Models Be an Alternative for Learning Sports and Promoting Health? School Context Study

The present study aims to analyze the influence of the Sport Education (SE)/Teaching for understanding (TGfU) hybrid unit on enjoyment, perceived competence, intention to be physically active, skill execution, decision making, performance and game involvement. A short-term (12-lesson) pre-test/post-test quasi-experimental design was conducted in two groups: control (technical approach: 70 students; age = 14.43 ± 0.693; n = 32 female) and experimental (hybrid unit SE-TGfU: 67 students; age = 13.91 ± 0.900; n = 30 female). The coding instrument was based on the Game performance Assessment Instrument. The Enjoyment and Perceived Competence Scale and the Measure of Intentionality to be Physically Active questionnaire were also used. The results of pairwise comparisons between the groups showed higher post-test scores for most dependent variables for boys and girls using the hybrid SE/TGfU unit. Lower post-test scores were found in pairwise comparisons for several dependent variables in both boys and girls. The present study showed that the application of hybrid models SE/TGfU could increase and help facilitate students' game involvement and game performance, enjoyment, perceived competence and intention to be physically active, in both boys and girls. In future studies, it would be necessary to analyze psychological variables in the educational context for a deeper assessment.

Activating Specific Handball’s Defensive Motor Behaviors in Young Female Players: A Non-Linear Approach

Traditional models to train and teach young players in team sports assume that athletes learn as linear systems. However, an actual methodology called Non-Linear Pedagogy (NLP) accounts for the fact that the players and the team are complex dynamic systems. Experiences in handball under this methodology are scarce; due to this, an observational study has been conducted with a follow-up, idiographic and multidimensional design, in which 14 female school handball players belonging to four different local teams in Santiago, Chile (age = 15.55 + 0.51) agreed to participate in three special handball training sessions with the use of the NLP methodology where three different constraints were used. Descriptive analysis with the Chi-squared test showed a total of 252 observations where most of the variables were dependent on the constraints (p ≤ 0.001). Frequency showed that mainly “Defense in Line of progression” and “Proximal contact” were the most activated variables, followed by “Harassment” and “Deterrence” for all constraints. However, only constraint 2 highly activated two collective motor behaviors, while the rest only did it with individual motor behaviors. It is concluded that the constraints used in training seem to be effective in activating a group of defensive handball motor behaviors, specifically those that are basic for female school handball players.

Effects of Chinese Martial Arts on Motor Skills in Children between 5 and 6 Years of Age: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Children’s motor skills can be fully developed only by the appropriate stimulation of physical activities and the environment, and the poor development of motor skills greatly increases the risk of cognitive impairment, obesity, and movement coordination disorder. This study aimed to examine the effects of Chinese martial arts on the motor skills of preschool children aged 5−6 years through a randomized controlled trial. A total of 87 children aged 5−6 years served as participants in a martial arts sensory teaching group (MAST, n = 29), a martial arts traditional teaching group (MATT, n = 29), and a free activity group (FA, n = 29). The interventions were conducted twice weekly for a total of 10 weeks, with each session lasting 30 min. Children’s motor skills were assessed before and after the intervention using the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC-2). The results indicated that the balance index scores in the MAST (p < 0.001) and MATT (p = 0.014) groups were significantly higher than those in the FA and that the MAST score was significantly higher than the MATT (p = 0.004). Meanwhile, the MAST was significantly higher in total scores on motor skills when compared to the FA (p = 0.039), and the MAST showed significantly higher scores on manual dexterity when compared to both the MATT (p = 0.021) and FA (p = 0.011). Chinese martial arts can significantly improve the balance ability of preschool children, and the MAST method was found to be better than that of the MATT. Meanwhile, the MAST had good potential for the development of preschool children’s manual dexterity and their overall level of motor skills.

“Sport and Anatomy”: Teaching, Research, and Assistance at the University of Pisa

Introduction: Over the last decades, the university system has experienced huge growth, facing several challenges. Accordingly, the University of Pisa recognizes the value and opportunities deriving from research and fully supports collaboration with the world of entrepreneurship and industry, as well as local communities. Study programs, teaching methods and technologies, learning environments, quality assurance, programmed student numbers, and research results are key features of the prestige of the scientific community. Aim: In this respect, “Sport and Anatomy”, a brand that includes an academic organization at the University of Pisa, holds two main goals: (i) to offer the top level in both educational and professional fields; and (ii) to optimize the fine-tuning among all these sections, thus becoming a reference point for sports management. Methods and results: Indispensable links between basic and specialist sciences through different Masters’ and schools were created. In addition to didactic activity, research activity, medical assistance, and rehabilitation were coordinated. Two main outcomes emerged from this experience: (i) improved stakeholder performances and (ii) optimized cooperation between university and local communities. Conclusions: “Sport and Anatomy” plays a key role in supervising and accomplishing in an innovative way all the three missions of the university (i.e., teaching, research, and dissemination of knowledge), thus strongly fulfilling the aims of modern university targets.

Training the Social-Emotional Skills of Youth School Students in Physical Education Classes

This study aimed to examine the impact of implementing an innovative Social-Emotional Skills Training Program in physical education classes at youth schools. This study used two surveys: the Schutte Self-Report Inventory (otherwise known as the Emotional Intelligence Scale) and the Social Skills Rating System (student form). The analysis included 104 youth school students (Mage = 16.91; SD = 1.12), who were randomly selected from two youth schools in the Kaunas region. Four classes were randomly assigned into an experimental (n = 49) and a control (n = 55) group. The experimental group participated in the Social-Emotional Skills Training Program. The intervention was targeted at the following social-emotional skills: empathy, cooperation, assertion, self-control, optimism, ability to understand and analyze emotions, appraisal, and utilization of emotions. The modified physical education classes were conducted by the physical education teacher, who was instructed by the researcher. Repeated measures multivariate ANOVA was used to analyze the effects of the Social-Emotional Skills Training Program. During the experiment, the applied training procedures had a statistically significant effect on the social-emotional skills of the experimental group of youth school students. Thus, the findings demonstrate that this program (for enhancing social-emotional skills of youth school students) positively impacted the social-emotional skills of the students. These results highlight the need to consider social-emotional skills training factors when interpreting the level of social-emotional skills among youth school students.

Impact of the MooN Physical Education Program on the Socio-Emotional Competencies of Preadolescents

Few studies have analyzed emotional educational experiences through physical education interventions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects on socio-emotional competencies of a physical education intervention (i.e., the MooN program) based on the instructional model known as the sports education model (SEM), compared to a physical education intervention based on the traditional model of direct instruction (TM-DI) in preadolescents. The sample consisted of 170 students between 10 and 13 years old (mean age: M = 10.76; standard deviation: SD = 0.73). Participants were randomly assigned to the experimental group (SEM; n = 87) and the active control group (TM-DI; n = 83). In the experimental group, the SEM-based intervention was applied, while in the active control group, an intervention based on the TM-DI was developed. A quasi-experimental design with repeated pre-test and post-test measures and an active control group was used. The self-efficacy inventory for multiple intelligences (IAMI-40) was used to assess the children’s socio-emotional competencies. The child perfectionism inventory was applied to evaluate the self-demand perfectionist efforts. The results confirmed that the MooN program (SEM intervention) promoted significant improvements in socio-emotional competencies. These findings support the potential of this physical education instructional model as an emotional education pathway for the socio-emotional improvement of preadolescent students.

Sport Education and Traditional Teaching: Influence on Students’ Empowerment and Self-Confidence in High School Physical Education Classes

Physical Education (PE) is recognized for its value in developing personal and social development. However, the instructional approach adopted by the teacher may affect the achievement of positive outcomes. This study aimed to examine the effects of two different teaching approaches, Traditional Teaching (TT) and the Sport Education (SE) model, on students’ empowerment and self-confidence in high school PE classes. A total of 430 high-school students (66.7% male), aged 14–21 years (M = 16.22, SD = 1.03) enrolled in 10th, 11th and 12th grades, participated in this study. A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was used across 18 classes. Classes met two times a week during a period of 8 weeks for a total of 1080 min. The Psychological Empowerment Instrument was used to measure empowerment. Students’ self-confidence was measured with the self-confidence sub-scale of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2. The findings of the research revealed that only SE was effective in improving high school students’ empowerment and self-confidence. In the TT group, no gains were found, even decreasing over time. These results reinforce the adequacy of SE in PE as a curricular model to be used by teachers, particularly for the development of students’ empowerment and self-confidence.