The Sport Education Model is popular among PE teachers as it provides students with an authentic experience of sport. It places students in teams where they compete for the whole term or year. In their teams, students serve in various roles during that time, such as referee, coach, athlete, or scorekeeper.

DCU’s Mika Mannien has collaborated with the University of Georgia to combine and analyse the results of thousands of studies on the effect of the Sport Education Model. The studies covered basic need satisfaction and motivational impact. The team conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis on experimental studies conducted before August 2020 which yielded 6061 articles.

The analyses indicate that the SEM is more supportive and motivating compared to the skill-drill, direct, and traditional instructional styles used in PE. However, there is still a need for further high-quality experimental and comparative trials testing the efficacy of the SEM.