Purpose : Most studies on the sport education model (SEM) have focused on curriculum content and assessed students’ learning outcomes on the basis of teaching units and items. In contrast to the SEM, direct instruction (DI) emphasizes the learning of each unit and involves a shorter learning period. Few empirical studies have explored the moderating effect of elective motivation on the relationship between the SEM and low student performance in PE. Material : The present study employed a nonequivalent pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design with an experimental group, which received education under the SEM, and a control group, which received DI. The experiment was conducted in a university in Taiwan, with 115 students from two badminton classes selected as participants. Results : The results revealed that when the SEM was employed in physical education (PE), students’ elective motivation toward PE courses improved significantly and was significantly higher than that of students receiving DI. The SEM also effectively increased the elective motivation of low-performing students. Conclusions : Students can experience success in a teamwork setting, avoid a sense of loss and helplessness commonly experienced during individual competition-based learning, and change their elective motivation toward PE courses.