Sport Education Model (SEM)
The Sport Education Model (SEM) is an educational approach to physical education developed by Daryl Siedentop, aimed at creating a child-centered learning environment that emphasizes competitive sports. Designed primarily for middle and high school students, SEM introduces them to various sports, including traditional team sports like soccer and baseball, as well as lifetime activities such as tennis and running. The model focuses on engaging students through a structured seasonal format, where classes are organized around a specific sport over a series of lessons, allowing for an in-depth exploration of skills, rules, and teamwork.
Key elements of SEM include the maintenance of team rosters throughout the season, which fosters camaraderie and social skills among students. Roles within the team extend beyond just playing, with students taking on responsibilities such as coaching and refereeing, encouraging ownership of their learning. Competitions are integrated into the curriculum to provide real-world applications of skills learned, while record-keeping allows students to track their progress and set personal goals. The model culminates in a celebratory tournament, reinforcing values like sportsmanship and cooperation, and aiming to instill a lifelong appreciation for physical activity. Overall, SEM seeks to balance the competitive aspects of sports with educational values, promoting personal development and teamwork among students.
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Sport Education Model (SEM)
Daryl Siedentop, a professor emeritus of sport and exercise at the Ohio State University, developed the sport education model (SEM). His instruction model was designed as a child-centered approach, in which students focus on learning and playing competitive sports (baseball, soccer, volleyball, and football) in middle school and then focus on lifetime sports (such as tennis, running, and golf) in high school. Siedentop developed SEM because he thought physical education (PE) classes were teaching skills in insolation rather than as part of the natural learning process that occurs during participation. He argued that students were not getting the benefits of playing on a team and learning the skills of the sport in the context of competition. He also thought that SEM would increase students' physical activity in PE classes. Siedentop published his first book, Sport Education: Quality PE through Positive Sport Experiences, in 1994.
Background
SEM attempts to engage students by teaching sports in the context of a season. To accomplish this, physical education teachers typically spend twelve class periods on one sport. Proponents believe that having twelve full lessons helps students develop an in-depth understanding of the sport, its rules, and the necessary skills. They also believe that it helps students understand what it means to be part of a team and work together.
The goal of SEM is designed so that students become competent, capable, and passionate players of the sport by the end of each unit. During the first lesson, team rosters are developed. Rosters stay the same during the entire unit. This allows students to grow together as teammates, and it helps them learn to support each other and develop skills as a group, much like professional and amateur athletes do during a sports season. Teams are encouraged to show their team spirit by selecting a team color, developing a team cheer, and actively engaging with other teammates. Students are assigned jobs for the twelve-class season. In addition to being players, some of the jobs assigned to students include coach, referee, and scorekeeper.
Students are responsible for taking ownership of their individual roles and successfully implementing them during the unit. At the end of the twelve-class sport season, there is a culminating event. This event is designed to show off the teams' hard work during their season. This event is often a tournament. Teams' standings are considered, and teams are eliminated during the tournament until two teams remain to play in the championship. Siedentop believed this celebration involving team competition provided a fun way for students to remember their experience that would offer both social and physical rewards. It also would provide students with an opportunity to assess themselves on how well they performed in their assigned roles during the twelve-class season.
Overview
There are six main features of SEM: seasons, affiliation, formal competition, record keeping, festivity, and the culminating event. One of the purposes of the seasons design is so that the sport and its skills are introduced gradually to the students. Throughout the season, students engage in basic activities, such as learning the techniques needed for play, before moving to competitions. This system is similar to the way that athletes participate in preseason activities before a season starts.
Affiliation is another key part of the SEM model. Because students remain on the same team throughout a season, they acquire social skills that can only be learned by being part of a group for an extended period. Students must work together to find solutions to problems if they are to succeed. This allows students to take responsibility for their own contributions to the team and to their individual learning experiences. This also allows the teacher to act as more of a facilitator rather than a direct instructor. In addition, teams are often designed so that students of mixed athletic ability are playing together, allowing less adept athletes the chance to learn from their more skilled peers.
In order for students to truly understand a sport, they need to participate in formal competitions. Such competitions will vary according to the sport that is being studied and where the students are in the season. Early in the season, competition might involve smaller groups playing scrimmages as the students are still learning the proper techniques of the game. Later competitions might involve larger groups of students playing against one another.
Record keeping is very important in the SEM model. Records might keep track of points scored in competitive sports or note times and distances covered in lifetime sports. Such statistics are not kept simply to determine who performed the best in each area of achievement; they are also important in helping individual students set goals so they can improve during the course of the season. Record keeping should be done throughout the season so teams and individuals can assess their progress.
Festivity is another aspect of the SEM model. By choosing team colors or designing team logos for uniforms, students come to understand the festive nature of sports and competition. It also provides opportunities to reward hard work and fair play in ways that traditional educational models may not.
As discussed before, the entire unit ends with the culminating event, which is usually a tournament. Although there may be awards for the students who performed the best, this is also a time to celebrate individual progress and good sportsmanship.
Despite the focus on competition, the SEM model is not meant to merely teach students the skills needed to win a game. Siedentop felt that professional sports often focused on economic or political gains that can be achieved through competition rather than the sport itself. Because of this, he believed that SEM should focus on more than just who won and who lost. The model was developed, in part, to teach students about the various rules, roles, and responsibilities within a sport while helping them develop a lifelong appreciation for physical activity.
Bibliography
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