Effects of Sport Education Model on Cognitive Variables and Motor Skills: A Randomized Controlled Trial

The present study examined the effect of the Sport Education Model (SEM) in physical education (PE) classes on high school students' cognitive variables and motor skills. Furthermore, analyses were conducted by gender and teaching context. A randomized controlled trial was conducted with high school students from federal and private schools, allocated into an experimental group (EG; n = 37) and a control group (CG; n = 31). Students in the EG participated in an SEM season (18 to 20 invasion sports classes). Students assigned to the CG had no changes to their PE classes. We used the Game Performance Assessment Instrument to analyze cognitive variables and motor skills. We used the Generalized Estimation Equations to verify the effects of the intervention on the time and group factors, as well as the time*group interaction. In the overall analysis, SEM showed positive effects over time on support (d = 0.61). SEM showed more benefits for girls, with positive effects on support (d = 0.69) and game performance (d = 0.77). In the private network, the effects of SEM on support were greater than those of CG, which had a large effect size (d = 1.10). The intervention did not show positive effects on decision-making, skill execution, and game involvement. The implementation of SEM has proven beneficial for developing tactical content with high school students in Brazil, especially for girls and in contexts similar to the private education system.