A Teachers' Perceptions of the Sport Education Model as an Alternative for Upper Primary School Physical Education

Abstract

This paper considers the Sport Education model (Siedentop, 1994; Siedentop, Hastie & van der Mars, 2004) as a legitimate alternative for primary school physical education in a South Australian primary school. Physical education curriculum models (such as Sport Education) legitimacy as contexts for teaching appropriately rest on a capacity to facilitate teaching for student realisation of the relevant curriculum framework outcomes and as part of this, their capability to be inclusive and engaging for students. This paper reveals the elements that inhibited and supported a teacher during the implementation of a Sport Education season as an alternative curriculum model. In contrast to findings from other studies, the participation of skilled and athletic students was problematised by the teacher in that Sport Education contained the potential for the realisation of lower grades when students did not adjust to new performance and assessment expectations. The study also suggests that there is the potential for positive transfer of learning from the physical education context to the co curricular context. Further, the interesting prospect for Sport Education to become a deliberate construction for personal and social skill teaching emerges. (Contains 1 figure.)