Post‐Intervention Differences in Perceived Soft Skills Following a Sport Education Model‐Based Unit in Secondary Physical Education

Soft skills are increasingly relevant for students' social participation, educational development and future employability. This study examined whether participation in a Sport Education Model (SEM)‐based unit in physical education (PE) was associated with more favourable post‐intervention scores and descriptive pre‐post patterns in students' perceived soft skills and employability‐related competencies. A non‐randomized comparison‐group design with baseline and post‐intervention assessments was conducted with 122 secondary school students (experimental group: n = 58; comparison group: n = 64). Although data were collected at two time points, the primary inferential comparison was between groups at post‐test; pre‐test scores were used to examine baseline comparability. The experimental group participated in a 16‐lesson basketball unit based on SEM principles, including stable teams, formal competition, record keeping, festivity, a culminating event and rotating student roles such as coach, captain, referee, scorer, physical trainer and equipment manager. The comparison group followed a teacher‐directed traditional basketball unit during the same instructional period. Students completed the Soft Skills Self‐evaluation Questionnaire before and after the intervention. Non‐parametric analyses were conducted and false discovery rate adjustment was applied to the set of post‐test between‐group comparisons. At baseline, no statistically significant differences were observed between groups. At post‐test, unadjusted analyses showed higher scores in the experimental group for collaboration, leadership and problem solving. After adjustment for multiple comparisons across the 10 dimensions, leadership and problem solving remained statistically significant, whereas collaboration should be interpreted as a favourable but less robust finding. Effect sizes were small. The findings suggest that SEM may provide favourable conditions for selected perceived soft skills related to employability, particularly leadership and problem solving. However, the results should be interpreted cautiously due to the non‐randomized design, the single‐school convenience sample, the reliance on self‐report measures, the absence of direct behavioural assessment and the small effect sizes. The study contributes preliminary evidence on how role‐based pedagogical models in PE may support intentional work on selected soft skills.