The Sport Education model in a rural school: friendship, responsibility and psychological basic needs

The goal of this study was to examine the impact of a Sport Education season on psychological basic needs satisfaction, responsibility and social relations in Primary Education students. The students belonged to a rural school with multilevel groups, where students, with different ages (8 to 10 years and 10 to 12 years) and maturity levels, coexist in a same class. A quasi-experimental design was used with pre-test/post-test on an experimental group with 24 participants (M age = 10.12, SD 1.29), to which a single treatment level was applied. Psychological basic needs satisfaction (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) were measured by Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise Scale, responsibility through a scale based on the levels proposed in the Personal and Social Responsibility Model (Hellison, 2011), and social relation by a sociometric questionnaire based on friendship scales. Furthermore, the students' perception was analysed by a focus group to assess whether the Sport Education promoted social relations. The students received 18 lessons (each lesson 45 mins) of physical education based on the Sport Education. Special importance was given to the design of the games (rules that allowed students to play together with different levels of development together) and distribution of responsibilities through roles based on the level of development (older students assumed officiating roles). Results showed significant improvements in the competence and relatedness needs, negative friend dimension (decrease) and responsibility level. Furthermore, students ' perception revealed improvements in social relations, which might indicate that the establishment of multilevel relations could enhance the benefits of the model. In conclusion, this study shows the viability and pedagogical potential of Sport Education in a rural and multilevel context.