Jump In! An Investigation of School Physical Activity Climate, and a Pilot Study Assessing the Acceptability and Feasibility of a Novel Tool to Increase Activity during Learning

Abstract

Physical activity (PA) benefits children’s physical and mental health and enhances academic performance. However, in many nations, PA time in school is decreasing under competing pressures for time during the school day. The present paper argues that PA should not be reduced or seen as incompatible with academic learning. Instead, the authors contend that it is critical to develop tools that incorporate PA into content learning during the school day. To facilitate the development of such tools, the authors conducted 6 focus group discussions with 12 primary school teachers and administrators to better understand the school climate around PA as well as school readiness to embrace PA tools that can be used during academic content learning. In addition, a pilot test of a new health promotion tool, the Jump In! educational response mat, was conducted with 21 second-grade students from one classroom in Northern Colorado in 2013. The results of both studies demonstrated acceptability and feasibility of incorporating PA into classroom learning, and suggested that tools like Jump In! may be effective at overcoming many of the PA barriers at schools. Teachers and administrators valued PA, believed that students were not getting enough PA, and were receptive to the idea of incorporating PA into classroom learning. Students who used Jump In! mats during a math lesson reported more interest in the class material and rated themselves as more alert during the lesson, compared to students who did not use the response mats. In addition, incorporating PA into the lesson did not impair performance on a quiz that assessed learning of the math content. Jump In! mats were successfully integrated into the lesson plan and were well-received by teachers and students. Together, the results of these studies suggest that, given the right tools, incorporating more PA into classroom learning may be beneficial and well-received by students, teachers, and administrators.

Physically active lessons in schools and their impact on physical activity, educational, health and cognition outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…39 44 Supplementary File 1 46 and two in high school 35 47 ( Supplementary File 1). Intervention length ranged from one-off sessions [48][49][50][51][52] to three years 39 44 53 54 . Of studies providing physically active lessons on multiple occasions, total weekly intervention duration ranged from 10 minutes 55 to 180 minutes a day 56 .…”

“…Sample sizes ranged from n=21 49 to n=2,493 53 , with a total of n=12,663 across all included studies.…”

‘You get some very archaic ideas of what teaching is … ’: primary school teachers’ perceptions of the barriers to physically active lessons

“…Importantly, a recent two-year longitudinal study demonstrated that pupils who engaged in physically active lessons were four months ahead in maths and spelling than their peers who only engaged in traditional classroom learning (Mullender-Wijnsma et al 2016). To date, while some literature would argue that physically active lessons have not always led to enhanced academic outcomes (Graham et al 2014), no study has found a negative effect compared to traditional classroom learning (Watson et al 2017).…”

Academic, cognitive and physical outcomes of two strategies to integrate movement in classroom: active lessons and active breaks

“…Los resultados variaron desde la evaluación de la conducta del estudiante en la tarea hasta la valoración de los resultados académicos más orientados hacia el logro y conocimiento. Los resultados fueron mejorados significativamente tras las intervenciones (Donnelly et al, 2009, Mahar et al, 2006, sostenidos en comparación con el grupo control (Grieco et al, 2009) o no fueron diferentes al grupo control (Graham et al, 2014, Helgeson, 2013. Estos datos sugieren que el aprendizaje y la atención pueden mejorar tras episodios de clases físicamente activas, lo que está en consonancia con numerosos estudios previos que encontraron un aumento del aprendizaje tras el ejercicio (Barr-Anderson, Au-Young, Whitt-Glover, Glenn, y Yancey, 2011; Tomporowski et al, 2011).…”

“…(Stewart, Dennison, Kohl, y Doyle, 2004), Move to Improve (Dunn, Venturanza, Walsh, y Nona, 2012), o Move for Thought (Skrade y Vazou, 2013) o las guías de Reed (2009) y de Pangrazi (2009). Por ejemplo, Graham et al (2014) propusieron el programa ¡Jump in! en el que diseñaron colchonetas de respuestas educativas para su uso en las clases de matemáticas.…”