A Sport Education Intervention
11
of tactics and team strategies. During this phase no formal records were kept of
scrimmage results. The formal competition phase involved 2 lessons and consisted
of teams practicing for a 20-min period and then participating in two competitive
games per lesson. Although during this phase the students had the choice of warm-
up and skill session and were responsible for refereeing and scoring, the introduc-
tion of formal competition could have fostered some elements of an ego-involving
climate (e.g., public and normative evaluations of success).
During each phase of the Sport Education program, the specific responsi-
bilities associated with the roles of coach, referee, captain, and scorer were explic-
itly stated to the students. Students on each team were responsible for selecting
individuals to fulfill each role. In order to create an accountability system for the
student-led selection process, the students signed contracts of role responsibility
designed by the teacher and then returned the contracts to the teacher.
Traditional Approach Group. For the group taught with a traditional style
of teaching, the format of every lesson was similar. Each lesson consisted of a 10-
min warm-up followed by a 20-min skill related practice and ending with a 20-min
round-robin 5-v-5 tournament. The basketball drills and warm-up practices used
in this approach were at the same level of skill development as in the Sport Educa-
tion curriculum model. For the 8 weekly lessons using the traditional style of teach-
ing, most of the decisions on choice of tasks, team structure, and rate of progression
were dictated by the teacher. Instruction was issued to the whole class rather than
to small group settings, and students were not responsible for refereeing, coach-
ing, or scoring in any direct or public way.
Change in Dependent Variables from Pre- to Postintervention
The first research question examined whether the students in the Sport Edu-
cation curriculum group would report a greater increase in enjoyment, perceived
effort, and perceived competence than those in the traditional curriculum group.
Three separate Group (Sport Education vs. Traditional) 3 Time (Pre/Post
intervention) repeated-measures ANOVAs were conducted. The statistic of inter-
est was the attainment of a significant Group 3 Time interaction effect for each
variable—enjoyment, effort, and perceived competence. We made a Bonferroni
adjustment to the alpha level (new p = .01) as a result of conducting multiple
ANOVA tests. To determine any within-group changes in the dependent variables
from pre- to postintervention, we performed paired sample t-tests, i.e., pre/post for
Sport Education and for traditional curriculum. We also carried out independent
sample t-tests, Sport Education vs. traditional, to examine mean differences in the
dependent variables from pre- and postintervention. As a result of the multiple t-
tests being performed during these analyses, we undertook a Bonferroni adjust-
ment to the alpha level (new p = .006).
The second hypothesis postulated that changes in student perceptions of a
task-involving climate, task goal orientation, and perceived autonomy would sig-
nificantly predict the postintervention dependent variables of student enjoyment,
perceived effort, and perceived competence for the Sport Education group. No
such significant effects were hypothesized for ego-involving climate and ego ori-
entation. Three separate backward elimination hierarchical multiple regression
analyses were conducted. Preintervention measures of task and ego achievement
goal orientations, perceptions of task and ego motivational climate, and perceived