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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine middle school students’ recollections of their participation in a significant number of Sport Education seasons over a period of five years.
Thirty-one (18 boys and 13 girls) eighth-grade students (average age at data collection = 13 years) who had all participated in at least 17 Sport Education seasons served as the participants in this study. Autobiographical memory theory guided qualitative data collection, which included surveys, formal interviews, focus group interviews, and autobiographical critical reflections. Student responses were categorized into general events, which had a focus on evaluating, preparation, first season, integrity, competition, and gamesmanship. Descriptive event-specific memories included authenticity and gameplay as most memorable aspects of students’ experiences within multiple Sport Education seasons. The findings suggested that participating in multiple Sport Education seasons leads to better developed student roles and a stronger sense of fair play. More importantly, adherence to the central features of Sport Education and meaningful participation in several iterations of quality Sport Education seasons may be required for students to move closer to achieving the lofty goals of the model for students to become competent, literate, and enthusiastic sportspeople.
Introduction
Sport Education is a pedagogical model designed around ‘play education’ (Siedentop, 1968), aimed at teaching sport, games, and physical education (Siedentop et al., 2011). The overriding objective of Sport Education is to create an authentic sporting experience for students within physical education. The main goals of Sport Education are to effectively enhance students’ competency, literacy, and enthusiasm surrounding sport or activity. In order to reach these objectives, students who participate in Sport Education should not only be competent performers, but they should be able to demonstrate sporting literacy by showing that they value, understand, and appreciate sport. Lastly, students participating in Sport Education should be able to display their enthusiasm for sport by promoting a positive sporting culture (Siedentop et al., 2011).
The objectives and goals of Sport Education are accomplished within the framework of appropriate sporting experiences and with students participating in modified sport seasons, which last longer than traditional physical education units (Hastie, 2000). Formal competition, which typically requires teams to compete in modified games or events, serves as the foundation of such seasons. To ensure a strong sense of team affiliation, students remain on set teams for the duration of the season. In order to make each season authentic and festive, students keep and publicize team and individual statistics, participate in a culminating event, and perform specific roles other than player (e.g. coach, official, reporter, manager) (Siedentop et al., 2011).
Sport Education has been heavily researched since its inception, with two comprehensive literature reviews on the model identifying at least 66 data-driven empirical studies as of 2011 (Hastie et al., 2011; Wallhead and O’Sullivan, 2005). In addition, there have been a number of further studies published since Hastie and colleagues’ (2011) latest review of research on Sport Education (e.g. Hastie et al., 2013, 2014; Pereira et al., 2015; Wahl-Alexander and Curtner-Smith, 2015). Overall, Sport Education researchers have investigated variables related to motor skills competencies and development, tactical knowledge and performance, fitness, personal/social development, student attitudes, values, student motivational responses, and learning how to teach the model.
Despite the vast array of research on the model, one criticism of Sport Education research has been that most of the findings are based on the initial experiences of students or teachers with the model (typically during the course of one or two seasons). This has resulted in a continued call for the use of longitudinal data when investigating variables within Sport Education (Hastie et al., 2011; Siedentop, 1998; Wallhead and O’Sullivan, 2005). In fact, there have been only two studies that employed data collection protocols longer than one season (Perlman, 2012; Sinelnikov and Hastie, 2010a). Specifically, Perlman (2012) examined 33 amotivated students who participated in four consecutive Sport Education seasons in one semester long class. Each of the four seasons in this study lasted for 14 lessons with students meeting three to four times per week for 60-minute lessons. Results of this study demonstrated that amotivated students’ perceptions of a sport-based physical education class could be changed by creating educational and inclusive learning experiences that were enhanced by Sport Education’s features of team affiliation and holistic game play evaluation.
Sinelnikov and Hastie (2010a) investigated the memories of Russian middle school aged students who had participated in three Sport Education seasons over a three-year span. This study of longitudinal participation used an autobiographical memory theoretical framework that allowed the researchers to investigate students’ memories of past experiences during physical education. The results of the study revealed that students, recalling mostly from general and event-specific memories, were able to remember their authentic Sport Education experiences and claimed deeper understanding of a given sport. Moreover, based on the findings of the study, Sinelnikov and Hastie suggested that strong team affiliation, authentic competition, and higher levels of perceived learning lasted beyond the duration of each Sport Education season.
The high levels of interest in Sport Education, evidenced by a large number of research and practitioner articles (Hastie et al., 2011), is also manifested in a number of physical education teachers in the USA and elsewhere using the model almost exclusively as the modus operandi of teaching (Peter Hastie, personal communication, 1 October 2014; Oleg Sinelnikov, personal communication, 27 September 2014). Nonetheless, questions about the experiences of students who participated in a significant number of Sport Education seasons over multiple years still remain unanswered.
Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine middle school students’ recollections of their participation in a significant number of Sport Education seasons as a part of their physical education program over a five-year period. These recollections might enhance our ability to examine whether students, through participation in a substantial number of Sport Education seasons over a prolonged period of time, have developed a sense of themselves as competent, literate, and enthusiastic sportspeople.
Sport pedagogy scholars interested in students’ memories of their experiences in physical education and physical activity settings have just recently begun using the autobiographical memory theory (Casey and Quennerstedt, 2015; Sinelnikov and Hastie, 2010a). While Sinelnikov and Hastie (2010a) were the first scholars to employ the autobiographical memory framework to examine students’ recollections of Sport Education, more recently Casey and Quennerstedt (2015) reported how boys communicated their previous experiences of cultural norms in physical education. Findings of the latter study indicated that a majority of the boys constructed their memories of physical education through participation in sport. Both studies confirmed the usefulness of an autobiographical memory theory framework when investigating episodic memories of students in the physical education settings.
Autobiographical memory theory served as the theoretical framework for this study (Conway and Rubin, 1993). Autobiographical memory is defined as the memory for all of the events that occur in one’s life (Conway and Rubin, 1993). The major difference between autobiographical memory and other kinds of memories is the tenet that autobiographical memories are connected to specific places and times in a person’s life (Tulving, 2002) and consequently are of immense personal significance (Burt, 2008).
Autobiographical memory functions on three different levels of specificity that fluctuate based on duration and specific type of event (Conway and Pleydell-Pearce, 2000). The first level is termed ‘lifetime periods.’ Lifetime periods consist of temporal knowledge about a certain length of time or common features of a specific duration of time. These periods often are grouped together and can last for several years. The second level is ‘general events,’ which can last from a few days to several months. Finally, the ‘event-specific knowledge’ level of autobiographical memory details information is unique to one specific event or instance in time. These specific events are critical because they aid in providing specific concrete details, which are used to demonstrate that the event described did actually occur (Van den Hoven and Eggen, 2008).
Method
Participants and setting
The participants in this study were purposefully chosen based on their prior experiences of participation in Sport Education. In line with this study’s longitudinal and autobiographical research question, only those students who had participated in a minimum of 17 seasons of Sport Education over the last five years were selected as participants. The majority of students who took part in the study completed 18–21 Sport Education seasons. The participants were 31 students (13 girls) from a school in the southeastern portion of the USA. This public school is attended by predominantly African American (49%) or Caucasian (45%) students, with Asian (3%), Hispanic (2%), and other (1%) making up the rest of the student cohorts. These students were from both low and middle income families. At the time of data collection, the students were in the eighth grade (average age = 13.6 years).
All students in this study attended the same elementary and middle school in which Sport Education is used as the main pedagogical model. Between fourth and sixth grades, all students participated in five co-ed Sport Education seasons a year. Students were separated by gender for their seventh- and eighth-grade physical education. To ensure the fidelity of each season, Table 1 includes each season’s descriptors according to Hastie’s (2012) recommendations of the five key aspects that cannot be compromised in order for a unit to be classified as Sport Education.
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Table 1. Sport Education seasons’ fidelity.
Each of the seasons listed in Table 1 were taught by either Amanda1 or John,1 (both pseudonyms) who were the two physical education teachers at this K-8th school, which contained both elementary and middle school aged students. Both physical education teachers use Sport Education as their primary pedagogical model. Several Sport Education seasons were co-taught by these teachers. Amanda was a 29-year-old Caucasian female who had a master’s degree in health and physical education. She was a highly respected teacher who held leadership roles in the state professional organization, and had been teaching using the Sport Education model at the same school for the past seven years. John was 36, Caucasian, and also held a master’s degree in the field. He had taught physical education for 12 years and used Sport Education for the last nine years, teaching over 100 Sport Education seasons.
Data collection
The data regarding the students’ responses to and recollections of Sport Education were collected through surveys, focus group interviews, individual interviews, and autobiographical reflection. Tulving (1983) suggested that memories are easier to retrieve if the physical context during retrieval is identical to the physical context during encoding, which is referred to as the encoding-specific principle. Therefore, following Sinelnikov and Hastie’s (2010a) recommendation of using the encoding-specific principle, data collection took place in the gymnasium where each Sport Education season began and where all notice boards relating to Sport Education have been publically displayed. In order to trigger specific memories from the seasons, a combination of cues were used to increase the chance of retrieving a memory (Baddeley, 1999; Engelkamp, 1998). Students were shown a series of pictures and artifacts prior to focus group interviews. Statistical sheets, previous team posters, fair play sheets, equity board member information, and equipment were demonstrated, all of which provided opportunities for students to enhance memories and trigger personal recollections from previous seasons.
All focus and individual interviews were recorded and transcribed immediately afterward. The researcher’s Institutional Review Board approved this study and participant and parental/guardian approval was secured. The school administration also approved this study, allowing for research to be conducted on the school’s premises. A more detailed description of each method of data collection follows.
Survey
The students were asked to complete a questionnaire about their experiences of participating in Sport Education over the past five school years. Following the protocol of Sinelnikov and Hastie (2010a), two memory cues were used to assist in memory recollection. Each student (a) wrote down everything s/he can remember about Sport Education seasons, and (b) listed five items that s/he remembers the most about Sport Education. Aside from these general directions, students were not given any other prompts or directions to ensure unbiased students’ recollections. This survey took approximately 30 minutes to finish and all students handed in their papers upon completion. To ensure that students were not concerned with privacy, the researcher explained that pseudonyms would be provided to assure confidentiality.
Individual interviews
Individual interviews were utilized in order to focus on the specific experience of each student within the seasons (Creswell, 2007). The research question served as the basis for the interviews, with the interviewer using multiple follow-up prompts and questions to ensure that optimal responses were obtained from the participants (Miles and Huberman, 1984). The initial line of questions focused on basic background information, and general physical education and Sport Education experiences. Following these, more specific questions regarding students’ memories of particular Sport Education seasons, season phases, features of Sport Education seasons, and interactions with other team members were posed. Individual interviews were conducted in the gymnasium, lasted approximately 35–60 minutes, and were audio taped and transcribed verbatim.
Focus group interviews
Student interactions during focus group interviews may stimulate discussion and provide additional information that would not be available during individual interviews. In addition, group interviews may pose a less threatening environment for some students (McQuarrie and McIntyre, 1990). Since group interviews are preferable when the focus is centered on commonly held beliefs, attitudes, interests, and behaviors (McQuarrie and McIntyre, 1990), focus group interviews were deemed an appropriate method of data collection for the study.
Each focus group interview was conducted following the individual interviews, lasting between 30 and 40 minutes and involving three students. The interview questions focused on students’ experiences, memories, attitudes, beliefs, and history in physical education in general and in Sport Education specifically. Some of the questions stemmed from information acquired during the individual interviews (Morgan, 1997). The format of the focus group interview allowed the researcher to present open-ended questions to the group with the particular goal of stimulating recollections of students’ memories and experiences during Sport Education.
Autobiographical critical reflection
Each student was asked to prepare a written essay that served as an autobiographical critical reflection paper. Reflective essay was deemed an appropriate data collection method since ‘(w)here children are literate, it is possible to take advantage of their skills’ (Laws and Mann, 2004: 64). The students were asked to respond to the following prompt: ‘Describe a physical education lesson that was particularly memorable. Explain in detail the events of that lesson, what you did, what you enjoyed or did not enjoy, and what exactly occurred.’ Following the recommendations of Laws and Mann (2004) of supporting children in their reflective process, it was also made clear to them that there was no right answer. In addition, students were encouraged to ask questions about the task at any time; however, answers were provided in private in order not to influence the reflection processes of others. The students were given 40 minutes prior to class to write their essay, following which they submitted it to the researcher.
Data analysis
The data were analyzed inductively using constant comparisons (Lincoln and Guba, 1985) with the purpose of extracting common categories and themes. In addition, analytic induction methods were utilized to identify commonalities (Patton, 1990). The data analysis procedures followed three specific phases. During Phase I all interview transcripts, surveys, and writing samples were read, re-read, and coded. Phase II included categorization of all data into specific levels according to the autobiographical memory theory. During this phase of data analysis each data point was assigned a specific memory recollection level (level 1—lifetime, level 2—general event, level 3—event-specific knowledge). Phase III consisted of grouping quotes or phrases from all transcripts, surveys, or writing samples from each level to form a specific theme. If data did not fit into an existing theme, a new theme was created. Trustworthiness and credibility were verified through a search for negative and discrepant cases (Goetz and LeCompte, 1984) and by triangulating findings from each of the data collection sources.
Results
Students’ levels of recollection within multiple Sport Education seasons
From an analysis of the various data sources, the level of ‘lifetime’ did not appear substantially within the responses. That is, rather than providing general statements about their enjoyment of Sport Education over the past years, the students tended to focus more on specific events, and memories from previous season. The students provided evidence of enjoyment of their physical education during their elementary and middle school years, but the majority of responses in the survey, individual interview, writing sample, and focus group interviews represented general events and event-specific knowledge.
General events: Level of specificity
Five principal themes and four subthemes that were generated from the data could be categorized as belonging within the second level of specificity labeled ‘general events.’ The major themes (Figure 1) were given the following labels: ‘making evaluations,’ ‘preparation,’ ‘the first season,’ ‘gamesmanship,’ and ‘competition.’ The themes of ‘gamesmanship’ and ‘competition’ had two subthemes labeled ‘integrity’ and ‘officiating discrepancies,’ and ‘playing with boys’ and ‘focus,’ respectively.
A majority of the students described their significant and constant involvement in decision-making and evaluative processes in relation to themselves, their peers, and teams throughout various Sport Education seasons. For example, some students described their involvement and responsibility of ‘closely watching the game to ensure the teams were equal’ during the team selection phase of the season and ‘making sure the rules were fair’ when setting up the competition format. If a change needed to take place, ‘the equity officers would meet and discuss how they would proceed. Either by a trade, or make a rule change so people would stop doing a dangerous activity.’ In addition, while working as a captain, students would oftentimes need to ‘decide when people would be going into and out of games.’ Students discussed balancing playing while systematically evaluating gameplay in order to ‘give the class a better experience.’ These evaluative and decision-making responsibilities seemed to be present in all Sport Education season phases, albeit in different forms. One commonality for the majority of students was the aim of such evaluation and decision-making processes, which was centered on a concept of fairness and responsible competition for a better overall experience for all in the season.
The second major theme within the general events level of specificity was ‘preparation.’ Some students recalled initial practices as ‘being weak’ and ‘ineffective’; however, they also described students in leadership positions (e.g. coach and warm-up leaders) being ‘more prepared’ for practices and games in later practices and later seasons. Others remembered specific instances of certain students preparing their teams exceptionally well in class and outside of class. The idea that ‘if we took the time to prepare as a team outside of physical education we would compete better,’ was described as important throughout numerous seasons. One student described ‘one coach taking notes of the other team’s best players, so when we practiced, we were prepared for how they would play.’ While most students remembered being a player and, ‘as a player preparing for gameplay during practices, not just during gym class,’ and ‘giving my coach everything I had, so our team could be the best possible,’ other students embodied the role of a coach:
I had one player on my team who I will always remember as the best coach I have had in a season. He took it so serious, more than everyone. During the game he would be calling out plays, making changes on defense, everything you think of when you think of a coach. He got into it, he really did. (Walt, critical reflection)
When I coach, I take it serious. I make a playbook, I get the headset out, and I make sure we are practicing after school. I take it very seriously. I made this really sweet playbook for flag football, and I gave it to all of my teammates. I was the coach, you know, because that’s what I do so well. And we had, like, a 20-page playbook. (John, interview)
When thinking back upon their experiences in Sport Education, most students remembered their first season very well. For example, students recalled specific instances from that first season, ‘I remember playing my first season. I was the coach of the Memphis Grizzles. We had a good season until the playoffs.’ Or, ‘Rugby was my first. I was captain, and we were undefeated in the pre-season but somehow lost every regular season game. It’s because we always argued. No sportsmanship points.’ Other memories were more generic, but descriptively detailed their first experience:
In the fourth grade, ultimate frisbee that was when we entered the Sport Education world. I don’t remember specifics, but just being out on the field throwing the frisbee with teammates. Those were some good times. I do remember getting our jerseys. I think we were yellow that season. (Clara, individual interview)
Within ‘gamesmanship,’ the subtheme of ‘integrity’ was echoed by a majority of students. They expressed a belief that ‘sportsmanship is most important,’ and that ‘winning isn’t all that matters. It’s more about respecting not only your team but the team you play against.’ Odell explained that, ‘The most important thing I have learned is to have good sportsmanship, be a fair player and to always remember to be a great teammate.’
Yet, not everything was positive and went smoothly during the Sport Education seasons as ‘discrepancies with officials’ was identified as one of the subthemes within ‘gamesmanship.’ Memories of ‘cheating refs,’ ‘bad calls,’ and ‘dishonest, biased referees’ were shared by many students. Problematic refereeing was acknowledged by some students, even when describing themselves in the role of an official:
See, the refereeing was sometimes a problem, depending on who the officials were. Sometimes you get the fair kids in class who are honest, and they call it straight. But other times, like me, sometimes, you know, if my friend is playing, I will shoot him some calls to help him out. Not because I want to be unfair, but because he is my friend. But if I have friends playing against each other, I call it straight. (Donavon, focus group interview)
One of the subthemes within ‘competition’ was termed ‘playing with boys.’ Every female student while recalling her experience within Sport Education had memories of playing with the boys. Recall that in fourth through sixth grades all Sport Education seasons were co-ed, and it was in seventh and eighth grades that students were segregated by gender for several seasons. While some girls expressed positive attitudes toward participating with boys commenting, ‘I [l]oved playing the hockey season with the boys,’ most were nondescript in their episodic memories, recalling ‘playing seasons with the boys’ or ‘I remember playing the speedball season with the guys.’ Notably, there were zero instances of negative Sport Education memories or experiences from seasons voiced by any of the girls in the study. While ‘playing with boys’ was a singular commonality among the female participants when recalling their experiences in Sport Education, not one male student specifically mentioned gender in any of the surveys, writing samples, or interviews.
Another subtheme within ‘competing’ was labeled ‘focused.’ Both the boys and girls recalled specific instances of ‘being so focused.’ For example, Joshua recalled that he really concentrated during a basketball season. He said that, ‘For whatever reason that basketball season I was laser-focused. I wanted to beat his team so bad, that’s all I thought about each day.’ Lindsay recollected ‘being in the zone during the season.’ For her, it was the fourth-grade floor hockey season. She commented, ‘I felt like every time we competed I was on point. I wasn’t always like that.’ This feeling of intense concentration and being focused for the duration of the entire season was described frequently by a significant number of students.
Event-specific knowledge
There were two main themes with subthemes in event-specific knowledge for the students participating in multiple seasons of Sport Education (Figure 2). These two themes were ‘authenticity’ and ‘gameplay.’ The theme of ‘gameplay’ had three subthemes of ‘adversity,’ ‘gut-wrenching losses,’ and ‘champions.’
The theme of ‘authenticity’ referred to students’ recollections of certain memorable events that emulated a professional sporting event atmosphere. Many students remembered assisting and playing in specific all-star games, championship games, and even regular season events, vividly recalling them as being ‘very similar to a real professional game.’ The following excerpts were students’ recollections describing the authenticity of all-star games from previous seasons:
Being an announcer during the basketball all-star game, I will always remember. I got to call the whole game, not just the introductions. I called it like a TV commentator would do in the NBA for the whole game. I had a microphone and everything. We brought in the band; it was dope. I sat at the announcer table and was like, ‘Odell dribbles up court … drives … fade away … YESSSSSS!!! (Matt, focus group interview)
The ‘Speedball Stars’ game was really cool. We had one big field, and the whole grade came and watched. The class picked the top boys and girls on each team to play. I got chosen. I felt like I was playing in front of the big crowd. (Christina, survey)
Other students described analogous memories of being an integral part of authentic competition during formal competition or culminating events such as play-offs, championships, or final performances in Sport Education. Notably, these vibrant and vivid specific memories elucidated the intricacies and minor details within these events; however, the focus of recollections was on the environment and atmosphere of the event and rarely on the outcome. For instance, Lane described a dance championship as being ‘so cool, it was like we were all in the movie— Bring it on.’ ‘I felt like a star on stage in front of the crowd.’ The following are other students’ recollections of their authentic experience:
When we were in the fourth grade, for the hockey championship, we went all out. I don’t even remember if I was in it this year but they had music playing, and people ran out of the locker room, grabbed their sticks. The lights were flashing, everyone was all pumped up. They had a blow horn that played when there was a goal scored. (Wayne, focus group interview)
In the basketball championship we tried to make it super like the NBA. We had music playing, and announcers. The coaches even got dressed up really stylish in suits and coached. It was cool, it made it seem realistic. It was like a real championship game, not just another game in gym. (Walt, survey)
Explicit memories depicting certain events during the multiple seasons contributed to students’ experience within Sport Education. A considerable number of students were able to describe in great detail the instances of facing and overcoming adversity. For example, Mickey described an instance when his team ‘came back from a 16-0 deficit and beat the other team 42-37,’ while others recollected their individual efforts of ‘bringing my team all the way back in the 5th grade speedball championship to win the title.’ In addition, many students offered equally gratifying recollections of the opportunities of working through challenges even without ‘winning championships.’ The mere fact of ‘working hard and overcoming perceived odds’ seemed to be what mattered most and therefore it was what was most remembered. For example, Matt observed that, ‘My team went to the hockey championship, although the odds were 100 to 1. We didn’t end up winning, but our team worked so hard just to get there.’ Others articulated similar memories describing instances when they had faced adversity during pivotal points in the season:
This season in the pro-bowl my team was not supposed to win. In the halls we talked about the chances and what the spread on the game should be. They decided it would be like 21 points or something. We ended up winning on the last play. It was so great to win that game. No one expected us to even come close but we won. (Chris, focus group interview)
In the 5th grade during the rugby season, I had to stay late in my class before gym, so I came late to class. When I got there we were losing 2-0. I had ended up bringing my whole team back and we won 4-2 in that game. (Odell, survey)
The hockey championship for me, that was cool. Our hockey team was really, really bad at the beginning of the season and we did end up winning the championship. I scored a goal in the championship. (Albert, focus group interview)
However, many event-specific memories centered on students’ recollections of their participation and, importantly, winning a culminating event. A majority of the students easily recalled ‘being the champion in softball’ or ‘beating Jessie’s team in tchoukball to win the championship’ and many were very descriptive in their accounts although the events might have taken place 3–4 years ago:
My team won the track and field championship back in sixth grade. That was one of my favorite moments because I was the coach, and my captain didn’t do the best job, so I felt like it was on me to help carry the team. We worked really hard all season, so it all came together winning at the end. (Maggie, focus group interview)
One of the most memorable gym classes I ever had was the championship in the 5th grade. It was a huge badminton tournament, and I made it to the finals. It was the first time I was on a team that got that far. We ended up winning, I think every match we played. (Kim, critical reflection)
While many students recalled successful memories of formal competition, specific gameplay episodes, or culminating events, others reminisced about specific ‘gut-wrenching losses’ they experienced. For example, many students recalled losing close games or ‘games that mattered.’ ‘Games that mattered’ could have been championship games or final performances, games, or events that allowed the teams to progress to play-offs or culminating events, or simply games or performances against individuals or teams considered to be ‘the best in class’:
I wanted to beat Wayne’s team so bad in hockey. Everyone knows he’s the best. This one game late in the season, it may have even been in the playoffs. Well, the game was close the whole time. We lost because he scored with like 2 seconds to go. It still haunts me. (Walt, focus group interview)
Comments like, ‘winning every game, and losing one in the playoffs,’ ‘falling one point shy in speedball,’ or ‘hitting the post with a shot in soccer that would have won us a game’ were recurrent examples of student memories when recalling from event-specific knowledge of Sport Education seasons.
Discussion
A number of authors within sport pedagogy have called for longitudinal research designs when examining Sport Education (Hastie et al., 2011; Perlman, 2012; Siedentop, 1998; Sinelnikov and Hastie, 2010a; Wallhead and O’Sullivan, 2005). This study answers this call and provides an important contribution to our understanding of middle school students’ memories of physical education in such a program, which had been designed and delivered through the exclusive use of Sport Education. This is the only study to date that (a) provides an account of such a program and (b) does so through the examination of students’ most significant memories. Specifically, students’ episodic autobiographical memories of participation in physical education over the period of 5 years were reconstructed through the use of an augmented memory system, cue words, and using an encoding specific principle.
The examination of students’ memories of physical education revealed that students were able to recall their participation in a significant number of Sport Education seasons within general events and event-specific knowledge levels of autobiographical memory. Similar to previous research (Sinelnikov and Hastie, 2010a), most descriptive and vivid student recollections were centered on features of the model that are critical to the structure of Sport Education. This finding is essential in support of the argument for not compromising and not offering a ‘watered down version’ (Curtner-Smith et al., 2008) of Sport Education, since the model ‘has distinct pedagogical features which positively contribute to many of the dimensions of physical literacy’ (Hastie and Wallhead, 2015: 1).
Within the event-specific knowledge level of autobiographical memory, numerous students recalled descriptive accounts of their participation in Sport Education and how their physical education reminded them of organized sports and activities. This result is foundational to the concept of the authentic nature of Sport Education and how authenticity is inherently embedded in the structural features of seasons, affiliation, formal competition, record keeping, festivity, and culminating event (Siedentop et al., 2011). The most memorable recollections for students in this study were specific memories from gameplay, overcoming adversity, winning championships, and gut-wrenching losses. These findings are in line with a plethora of previous research exploring students’ experiences in Sport Education (Hastie and Sinelnikov, 2006; Ko et al., 2006; Mowling et al., 2006; Sinelnikov and Hastie, 2010a).
Students recounted their experiences of preparing for gameplay through a significant number of general event-level memories. A few researchers have voiced concerns over the quality of student-led practices in Sport Education (Hastie, 2000; Hastie et al., 2011; Wallhead and O’Sullivan, 2005). Students who have participated in a significant number of Sport Education seasons found this to be true in the first few seasons and described their team practices led by student coaches during initial seasons as being ‘ineffective’ and ‘weak.’ However, participants also noted increased levels of complexity and effectiveness of team practices, which then led to the development of technique and skill, in later Sport Education seasons. These findings lend support to the notion of Pereira et al. (2015) that to properly train student coaches, ample time is required to ensure that students have developed the required skill set for peer-teaching. Similar to effective teaching (see Rink, 2006), subject matter content, familiarity with progressive instructional strategies related to task presentation, and constant communication with the teacher are essential for exceptional performance from student coaches (Pereira et al., 2015).
Similar to a few initial reports (Hastie and Sinelnikov, 2006; Kinchin et al., 2009; Pereira et al., 2015; Sinelnikov and Hastie, 2008), students in this study identified determination and willingness to practice and prepare individually and as a team for competition and culminating events not only during physical education but outside of class time as well. In addition, students recalled giving maximal effort and understanding the association between preparation and improvement. The latter association, suggesting the development of task-oriented determinants, is particularly notable given the critical nature of creating a mastery-oriented climate during Sport Education seasons (Sinelnikov and Hastie, 2010b).
A distinguishing component of the Sport Education model is an emphasis on students exhibiting positive pro-social behaviors based on the concept of fair play (Siedentop et al., 2011). As Siedentop et al. (2004) wrote, ‘[o]ne goal is for girls and boys to learn fairness, teamwork, and compassion as they participate in sport’ (ix). The absence of harmful behaviors, not arguing with referees, and the presence of pro-social behaviors, such as shaking hands with opponents after the game, are encouraged and rewarded within the structure of the model. Previous research on officiating in Sport Education presents positive student responses to being an official as well as high levels of engagement in officiating tasks (Hastie and Sinelnikov, 2006; Hastie et al., 2011). However, the results of this study raise concerns about student officials’ competency and accuracy, especially during initial Sport Education seasons.
The misunderstanding of students’ conceptions of fair play constructs and pro-social behaviors that accompany these constructs has been reported by a limited number of studies (Brock and Hastie, 2007; Sinelnikov and Hastie, 2008). For example, in some iterations of Sport Education, students justified ‘star players’ participating more frequently in high-pressure situations (Brock and Hastie, 2007). Conversely, in other Sport Education seasons, students were concerned about ‘not giving an advantage to any particular team’ when officiating (Sinelnikov and Hastie, 2008: 217). Since in Sport Education the duty team officials typically carry out the evaluation of other players’ and teams’ conduct (Siedentop et al., 2011), the findings of this study provide further credence to the critical importance of developing literate sportspeople as one of the objectives of Sport Education.
The results of this study uncovered that during initial seasons of Sport Education some students misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misapplied the fair play criteria when making evaluations of others. Furthermore, some students reported overt and covert resistance to notions of fair play during initial Sport Education seasons. This resistance was displayed in the form of making intentional incorrect calls, failing to make officiating decisions, or awarding/deducting points not based on actual fair play behaviors, but rather on the degree of friendship with players. Such intentional decisions of making incorrect calls or rewarding a team because of a friendship with one of the players have not been previously discussed in the literature. It is critical to note, however, that the overt and covert resistance has significantly subsided as students continued their participation in further Sport Education seasons. The students’ understanding of fair play and its critical role in creating positive experiences during physical education has continued to evolve throughout seasons. Ultimately, students in this study interpreted fair play based on and by ‘how well you work with others, being a good teammate, and respecting whatever sports you’re playing.’ This seems to be in concert with Siedentop’s original ideas for student development during Sport Education.
Vidoni and Ward (2009) demonstrated that fair play instruction during Sport Education increases active student participation and decreases the number of harmful behaviors, and the results of this study suggest that it takes significant time and effort to do so. Furthermore, in order for students to become competent, literate, and fair officials, participation in multiple seasons of Sport Education may be necessary. While further research in this area is warranted, findings of this study provide powerful support to the necessity of employing sequential Sport Education seasons in order for students to embrace notions embedded in the concepts of fair play and become ‘literate’ and ‘enthusiastic’ sportspeople. This is especially important given that one function of autobiographical memory is shaping beliefs and prejudices based on remembered experiences (Cohen, 1996). In conclusion, the key findings of this study suggest that students’ recollections of participation in a significant number of seasons reinforce the importance of the adhering to the central features of Sport Education. In addition, meaningful participation in several iterations of quality Sport Education seasons may be required for students to move closer to achieving the lofty goals of the model of becoming competent, literate and enthusiastic sportspeople.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Notes
1.
The names of all participants in this paper are fictitious.
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Author biographies
Zachary Wahl-Alexander is an Assistant Professor in kinesiology and physical education at Northern Illinois University.
Oleg Sinelnikov is an Associate Professor in the Kinesiology Department at the University of Alabama.
Matthew Curtner-Smith is a Professor in the Kinesiology Department at the University of Alabama.