The SEM offers huge benefits to the physical education lesson.
For students:
- The students get to solve authentic problems in groups, build relationships with their teammates, have a say in how they structure their learning experiences, learn about different roles in sports and enjoy their participation in a real sporting competition.
- SEM gives every student a chance to be part of an athletic team and engage them in a developmentally-appropriate sports tournament (Siedentop, 1994).
- Increased investment in physical education, an increased level of learning in games units, and increase opportunities for potentially marginalized students (Hastie, 1998).
- Students become more literate about the sport they are playing. Through the adoption of roles such as statistician, referee, and scorekeeper, students learn more about the non-player roles of play (Hastie, 1998).
- Strong preferences for student coaches over teacher instruction (Carlson & Hastie, 1997).
For teachers:
- Provides opportunities for increased freedom from direct instruction. When teachers are no longer the ringmaster, they are able to attend to specific student needs, assess student work, or emphasize other curricular objectives (such as promoting positive social behaviours through the reduction of poor competitive attitudes during game play).
- Free to focus on student behaviours and motivation. (Hastie, 1998).
- Increased level of students’ enthusiasm towards physical education and the intensity they bring to class.