Sport Education in a Higher Education physical activity course

Abstract

The present research had the purpose to analyze how students perceived a physical activity (PA) course in higher education that used the Sport Education (SE) model. The study addressed: i) Students overall enjoyment; ii) Students’ skill acquisition self-perception; iii) Students’ game rules knowledge self-perception; iv) Students’ instructional preference. Twenty-six students from an American university located in the Southern region attended this course. The Futsal (indoor-soccer) course offered two 75 minutes class per week. Two forms of data collection were used: a five-point Likert-type scale survey and a post-course interview. Students reported to have a very high enjoyment in all six major features of the SE model. In addition, statistical significance was reached when students reported their perceived skill acquisition and game rules knowledge acquisition. Students also reported to prefer SE when comparing to other physical activity courses that used a traditional pedagogy