*2.4. Intervention Programme*

The physical-sport programme was completed following the sport education model structure [17]: (1) *season*: lengthy didactic units; (2) *membership*: development of a team spirit and cooperation; (3) *regular competition*: showing technical–tactical abilities; (4) *data register*: giving evidence of and analysing the process that has been followed; and (5) *festivity*: a festive atmosphere. This highlighted other important education aspects such as: cooperative learning; autonomy and personal initiative; positive interdependence; and self-management of responsibility roles in conflict resolution (i.e., referee and coach). This helped to make the sport experience more real and positive, including how students transferred responsibilities by means of organisation roles (i.e., referee and scorer), team roles (i.e., coach and physical trainer) and how sport content was modified when adapted to the students [17].

Hastie and Casey's guidelines were followed for the design and validation of the programme [19] (p. 423): (a) thoroughly detailed curricular elements; (b) precise certification of the applied model; and (c) an in-depth explanation of the context of the programme. The intervention programme was implemented in the experimental group following sequencing of content and activities in three stages (initial, intermediate and final) over 16 sessions (Table 2).


**Table 2.** Sequencing of stages and activity sessions in the intervention programme.

This pilot programme was developed to reflect the teaching hours of the physical education subject, which covers 16 55 minute sessions (2–3 sessions per week for 6 weeks). The total duration was considered su fficient to analyse the possible e ffects of the programme on the dependent variables, as indicated by previous research [67].

The educational intervention applied to the experimental group consisted of a didactic unit that used an alternative sport, called ringo [68,69]. Ringo is an alternative, modified and reduced sport of divided court and net. It is played with a hoop (ringo) and a volleyball net. The objective is to score when the ringo falls on the opposite court (Figure 1). In this pilot programme, the application of an alternative sport that was novel and unknown to students meant that everyone started with the same theoretical and practical sports knowledge, and there were few initial di fferences in their levels of technical–tactical sports skill. Alternative sports are characterised by being motivating, cooperative, socialising and adapted to participants' characteristics. The selection and organisation of teams (five teams per classroom) was developed by drawing lots. In addition, di fferent responsibility roles were assigned to participating students: player; referee; coach–captain; physical trainer; person responsible

for statistics and reports; and member of the discipline and organisation committee. An essential rule in the development of the pilot programme was that all students would actively participate in the programme with the assignment of two roles (player role and another responsibility role). The pilot programme also used various learning and curricular resources (self-designed portfolio, worksheets and reports) that had been used by other authors [70].

**Figure 1.** Practical session of the intervention programme.

For the control group, a didactic unit of traditional collective sport with a conventional teaching style was developed [71]. This traditional teaching model aimed to improve students' technical motor skills only. In the teaching–learning process, the teacher assumed a managerial role and the students adopted passive individual roles limited to following the directive instructions of the teacher. This intervention consisted of 12 55 minute sessions (two sessions per week for 6 weeks). The first nine sessions were aimed at learning the technical fundamentals of basketball (pot, dribbling, passing, throwing and receiving) through a task assignment teaching style [71]. These traditional sports sessions were based on a 10 minute warm-up, 40 minute main session that included explanations and basketball practice and a 5-minute warm down in which stretching was performed. During these sessions, all tasks were directed by the teacher without students' participation. The last three sessions were dedicated to team competition.

Two compulsory secondary education teachers, both with advanced degrees in Sports Science participated in this research. The first teacher (with a Master's of Science in Psychology) participated in the design and implementation of the pilot programme. The second teacher developed an intervention based on the traditional model. Both teachers received a 10 hour training course on the specific theoretical and practical aspects of each teaching model. In addition, supervision and tutoring was provided by a researcher expert in the sports education model and a researcher expert in the traditional education model. This tutoring consisted of: (a) session-by-session analysis during the intervention programmes; (b) telephone conversations and emails to resolve doubts, concerns and problems; and (c) weekly visits to the teaching centre. In these visits, the experts visited the centre randomly, without prior notice, with the objectives of: verifying that there were no gaps between what was planned and what was implemented, and checking that the teaching models were applied with all of their characteristics.
