This study examined the perceptions of pre-service teachers on the educational value of the Sport Education model (SEM) by contraposition of their experiences as students during the teacher education program and as pre-service teachers. The participants were 16 senior students of the Master in Teaching Physical Educationin FADEUP. After construct and content validation a semi-structured interview containing open-ended questions was applied. The participants grasped the model as an extremely valuable educational experience that holds the potential for the young students' personal, social, and sports development. Notwithstanding, as pre-service teachers, the participants pictured SEM as highly demanding in the managerial organization of class, students and activities. In future, research should examine more thoroughly the manner by which upcoming teachers learn to teach the SEM curriculum in order to provide benchmarks for enhanced practice and pedagogical capability of novice teachers during early implementation of the model.
Teacher Education; Teaching Models