Sport Education Model and Sixth-Grade Students’ Empowerment and Self-Confidence: A Quasi-Experimental Study at SD Negeri 84 Mangarabombang, Indonesia

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of the Sport Education model compared to Traditional Teaching in enhancing psychological empowerment and self-confidence among sixth-grade students at SD Negeri No. 84 Mangarabombang , East Sinjai , South Sulawesi. The research sought to determine whether Sport Education could foster stronger affective outcomes in primary school physical education and to provide empirical support for more student-centered pedagogical practices. A quasi-experimental pretest– posttest design with a control group was employed, involving 35 students who were assigned to either a Sport Education group or a Traditional Teaching group and participated in physical education lessons over an eight-week period (1,080 minutes in total). Psychological empowerment was measured using the Psychological Empowerment Instrument, encompassing the dimensions of meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact, while self-confidence was assessed using the self-confidence subscale of the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2. The data were analyzed using non-parametric statistics (Mann–Whitney U and Wilcoxon Signed-Rank tests) with effect sizes calculated to assess the magnitude of change. The findings revealed that only the Sport Education group showed significant improvements in both psychological empowerment and self-confidence, with large effect sizes, whereas the Traditional Teaching group showed no significant gains and even slight decreases in both variables. Between-group comparisons at posttest confirmed that students in the Sport Education condition reported significantly higher levels of empowerment and self-confidence than those in the Traditional Teaching condition. These results indicate that the Sport Education model is a more effective curricular approach for promoting psychological empowerment and self-confidence in primary school physical education and supports its broader implementation, accompanied by appropriate teacher training and sufficient instructional time.