How to develop autonomy and empathy through sport education

Following a two-year break from physical education due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, students across the globe have suffered from a lack of social interaction with their peers, heavily impacting their wellbeing.

As educators, we feel it is our responsibility to reintegrate students into a more holistic learning environment which promotes inclusivity, engagement, and enjoyment.

We considered ways in which we could develop our curriculum in order to achieve this, meeting the needs of our learners and ensuring they thrive through the best possible experiences within our subject.

The basis of our curriculum development used the Sport Education Model as a platform to incorporate the key principles of both Project Based Learning and Concept Based Learning.

We explored innovative ways in which we could promote collaboration, inclusion, perseverance and respect. Our model therefore allowed learners to undertake a broad range of roles within the sport context, while providing opportunities for them to acquire broader skills such as critical thinking, metacognition, leadership and a greater understanding of our school’s core values: respect, integrity, connectedness, kindness and resilience.

This approach allows students to seek solutions to challenging real-life scenarios within a sport-specific context.

The Sport Education model is based on a mock season, with students working in teams throughout the unit culminating in formal student-led competitions. Students undertake a broad range of sporting roles, for example coach, captain, equipment manager or statistician. We ensured our teams were inclusive by creating groups that were no larger than the number required for sufficient gameplay, which is of course activity dependent.

We simplified the demands of the sport to ensure the content could be delivered by learners to their peers, while also allowing for maximised involvement in gameplay during the formal competition element of the unit. To avoid potential negative experiences and decreased motivation, we as facilitators were also selective with the sports students were encouraged to focus on. The intended outcomes therefore aimed to allow students to become effective planners, decision makers and team players and transform from passive into active learners, as exemplified by previous research.

Students were guided to adopt a ‘think, feel, act’ model, aiming to challenge their preconceptions of how the world works, embedding the key features of our concept and project based learning approach.

For example, we explored the concept of resilience when students were faced with higher order thinking tasks which they were required to perform, reflecting upon what they perceived as challenging obstacles prior to identifying coping strategies to overcome such difficulties.

One of these tasks exposed students to the detailed scheduling of a season where they were required to allocate roles fairly, manage equipment and facility needs, and consider further roles the teams needed, such as a photographer, and the positive impact this could have on the overall event.

A later focus on kindness saw students consider the ways in which their coaching styles and care impacted upon others within their sessions and consider ways in which effective guidance and feedback can improve outcomes.

Gil-Arias and colleagues, in their 2017 paper, reported that a hybrid model combining Teaching Games for Understanding and Sport Education fostered increased motivation, engagement and enjoyment, and that autonomy positively impacted on how competent students felt.

As a result of our approach, we witnessed increased engagement and ample opportunities for learners to undertake all required roles. By providing further opportunities in lessons for students to undertake activities independently with one another, our desired outcomes were achieved: our students were more motivated to remain physically active compared to when lessons were delivered through direct teacher instruction during the pandemic.

We also saw autonomous motivation, where decision making resulted in a greater sense of responsibility, leading them to achieve the unit's outcomes. With students experiencing our school’s core values through this approach, we noticed a wider impact on other situations which they may be exposed to on a daily basis. For example, students demonstrated resilience to overcome challenges faced in other subjects, persevering when attempting to solve an algebraic equation.

They also reflected upon empathy and the importance of considering the needs of others they work with, such as considering their peers' learning capabilities during a group project.

As a continuation of our Sport Education unit, our students also planned and organised tournaments for some of our younger year groups, including primary, providing opportunities for others to gain further positive experiences from sport, while also inspiring them to undertake broader roles within sport themselves.

In addition to the Sport Education approach, we have also incorporated similar practices in mainstream core PE lessons allowing learners to undertake leadership roles, which has provided them with independence and autonomy over their learning.

The resultant feelings of relatedness, which refers to the need to be cared for or to care for others, have helped to further embed our school’s own core values while contributing to a positive culture across our whole community.

 

 

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