For an effective education, the knowledge, skills and attitudes of the teacher are the most important factors. The more qualified the teacher is about teaching techniques and models, the more efficient teaching can be executed in education process. Therefore, Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) programmes foster their students to learn and use different teaching models in order to gradute qualified teachers. Researching the implications of this opportunity for Pre-service Teachers (PSTs) will provide us with feedback on the efficiency of PETE programs. In this direction understanding of their opinions about their PETE experiences is essential. From this point of view, the purpose of this study was to explore experiences of PSTs on Sport Education Model (SEM) within the tennis course. Drawing on a qualitative phenomenological research methodology, the study was conducted during 2015- 2017 academic years at a public university in Cappadocia region of Turkey. A total of 33 PSTs (9 seniors, 24 sophomores) enrolled in study. Data was collected through weekly observations, field notes, semi-structured interviews and focus groups. All recordings were transcribed, triangulated and analysed using thematic coding of standard qualitative techniques. Four main themes emerged from the data analysis: (1) Learning outcomes of SEM, (2) The challenges of SEM, (3) The conveniences of SEM (4) Future directions of SEM. It can be said that PSTs’ experiences on SEM within the tennis course were similar with each other as being teacher and as being student. PSTs have acquired some personality traits as well as the content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge that a physical education teacher should have. Although they expressed some challenging aspects of the model, they emphasized that they had experienced its facilitating aspects for an effective teaching. It can also be foreseen they would be likely to use this model in their future professional life.

Sport education model, pre-service teachers, tennis