Effects of a Sport Education Intervention on Students’ Self-Esteem and Sport Confidence in University Badminton Classes

The purpose of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of a sport education curriculum model in improving self-esteem and state sport competency. Students in the sport education group reported significant pre- to post-intervention increases in self-esteem, but not in the state sport competence. The results could be interpreted by Vealey’s (1986) recommendations that the state sport competence is hypothesized to be positively related to performance orientation primarily focused in general college physical activity class, and negatively related to outcome orientation which is a core element of the SEM. However, self-esteem is positively related to outcome orientation (e.g., feelings of success, accomplishment, belongings, team affiliation, and formal competition). Similar to Wallhead and Ntoumanis’ (2004) study, although a primary goal of sport education is to develop competence in sport (Siedentop, 1994), implementation of the course SEM may indirectly affect the SEM’s potential for developing student skill. The lack of significant improvement in the sport education student’s state sport competence might be due to the relatively short duration of the intervention and fewer opportunities for students to practice skills in badminton that is easy to play but hard to master. Further research is required to examine the potential effect on student skill development and perceptions of competence in the sport education courses.