Authentic Task Design, Student Engagement, and Competency Development in Project-Based Learning for University Physical Education: A Systematised Literature Review

Project-based learning (PBL) has been increasingly adopted in higher education as a student-centred pedagogy that supports inquiry, collaboration, real-world problem solving, and competency-oriented learning. In university physical education (PE), however, the value of PBL depends strongly on whether project tasks are authentically designed and meaningfully connected to students’ movement experiences, sport contexts, health practices, and future professional or life needs. This systematised literature review examined recent studies published from 2022 onward to explore how authentic task design in PE-related PBL influences student engagement and competency development. A structured search strategy was developed around four core concepts: project-based learning, university physical education, authentic task design, and student engagement or competency development. The review followed transparent stages of identification, screening, eligibility assessment, and thematic synthesis. The findings were organised into four themes: authentic sport-related project contexts, multidimensional student engagement, competency development through applied movement tasks, and implementation challenges in PE PBL. The review suggests that authentic PBL tasks in university PE are most effective when they involve real or simulated sport problems, learner choice, collaborative inquiry, visible performance outcomes, reflective transfer, and assessment criteria aligned with physical, cognitive, social, and affective learning outcomes. The study contributes to PE pedagogy by proposing a task-design framework that links authentic project design with engagement and competency development. It also identifies future research directions, including empirical validation of PE PBL design models, longitudinal studies of competency development, and context-specific research in Asian higher education settings.