Supporting Positive School Outcomes Through School-Based Physical Activity Intervention: Current Evidence and Resources

Abstract

Research on the relationship between physical activity and academic performance and classroom behavior is in its early stages, and research attempting to examine the relationship within the school context is even scarcer. However, educators have already begun to use strategies such as classroom physical activity breaks. This column discusses research on school-based physical activity practices of classroom movement breaks, integrated physical activity, and recess in order to inform educators’ decisions regarding the use of these strategies. Resources for school-based physical activity interventions in addition to information regarding their effectiveness is also included to support educators in selecting programs.

Keywords

academic attention health strategies intervention(s)

There is a common understanding that physical activity is part of a healthy lifestyle for school-age children (Department of Health and Human Services & Department of Education, 2000). The health benefits of physical activity for school-age children include increased fitness, reduced body fat, and reduced risk for cardiovascular disease and obesity-related medical illnesses. However, there are concerns that children and adolescents in the United States are not engaging in enough physical activity (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008). Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans was published in 2008 and provides guidelines specifically for children and adolescents based on a comprehensive review of physical activity and health research on the level of activity needed to achieve desired health benefits. It is recommended that children and adolescents engage in 60 min or more of physical activity daily, with most of this time being moderate- or vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity. However, according to data from the 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YBRSS), only 27% of American youth in Grades 9 to 12 met the physical activity guidelines for Americans (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2012).

Despite understanding of the importance of physical activity for our children’s health, examination of common education policies and practices suggests that current practices are not supporting students in meeting physical activity recommendations. As of the 2011–2012 school year, only 10% of states in the United States required daily recess at the elementary school level (Institute of Medicine, 2013). The number of students attending physical education (PE) classes daily decreased from 41.6% in 1991 to 29.4% in 2013 (Department of Health and Human Services & Department of Education, 2000). In addition, research shows that many PE classes may be falling short of providing students with opportunities to meet physical activity guidelines. Meta-analyses of studies conducted in both elementary (Fairclough & Stratton, 2006) and middle and high schools (Fairclough & Stratton, 2005) have found that students were engaged in moderate to vigorous physical activity less than half their PE class time. In addition, research from the Center for Educational Policy has found that 20% of schools have decreased recess time since 2001, with an average decrease of 50 min per week. This decrease in recess appears to be unequal, with urban schools or those serving high-minority, high-poverty students more likely not to provide recess time to their students (Center for Educational Policy, 2007). Therefore, current education policies and practices are not supporting students in the fulfillment of the governmental physical activity guidelines.

Although this low level of physical activity is concerning from a physical health standpoint, research has also begun to suggest that this may also have negative impacts for the academic achievement of students. Researchers have recently raised the possibility that physical activity may exert a positive influence on children’s mental abilities and therefore also academic achievement (Etnier, Nowell, Landers, & Sibley, 2006; Fedewa & Soyeon, 2011; Tomporowski, Davis, Miller, & Naglieri, 2008). The route by which physical activity may positively impact academic achievement is likely complex and may involve many variables, such as physical health, cognitive functioning, and numerous psychosocial factors. However, current research results indicate that exercise fosters the development of cognitive functions, particularly, executive functions (Best, 2010). Executive function is an umbrella term for many cognitive processes necessary for goal-directed thinking and behavior, such as working memory, inhibition, and cognitive flexibility (Diamond, 2013). In recent years, executive functioning has received increasing attention from researchers and practitioners due to research evidence that suggests it supports development of academic skills, emotion regulation, and attention regulation (Barkley, 1997; Best, Miller, & Naglieri, 2011; St Clair-Thompson & Gathercole, 2006).

Anecdotal evidence suggests that educators and student support team members may be implementing their own strategies for helping students to engage in more physical activity or movement during the school day. Programs for incorporating physical activity into classrooms or for increasing active time during PE class periods are being created schools (e.g., BrainGym, SPARK), and ideas for movement breaks can be found on websites for teachers (e.g., Pinterest, Edutopia, and Teachers Pay Teachers). Therefore, a review of the existing evidence for physical activity interventions in schools, both overall and for specific programs, is provided to help educators evaluate the current level of evidence for physical activity interventions.

Physical Activity Interventions and Activity-Level Outcomes

Several studies have demonstrated the efficacy of school-based physical activity interventions to improve student physical activity in schools. Overall, interventions that have been successful at increasing physical activity in a school context have included at least one of the following components: (a) brief acute bouts of physical activity, such as teacher-led classroom activity breaks; (b) incorporating physical activity into the classroom lessons, sometimes called “integrated physical activity”; and (c) increasing structured physical activity during recess and/or PE classes (Society of Behavioral Medicine Health Policy Committee, 2014). Teacher classroom activity breaks involve taking 5 to 15 min to engage in light to moderate physical activity, such as doing jumping jacks, yoga, or bicep curls with a textbook. One example of the strategy of integrated physical activity is the cardiac relay from the Texas I-CAN! (Initiatives for Children’s Activity and Nutrition) project, whereby students learn about the structure of the circulatory system through a physically active game. In this lesson, the first child on a team is handed a blue disk that represents an unoxygenated red blood cell. The child begins in the “muscle” and runs through the “heart” to the “lungs,” where he or she “picks up oxygen” by exchanging the blue disk for a red disk. The child then returns through the “heart” to the “muscle,” where the next child begins.

Analysis of policy changes related to increased structured recess and improved PE has shown that it is possible for changes at school to increase the level of physical activity students have during the school day. Research suggests that children can reach up to 40% of their daily physical activity when they are provided with enhanced-quality recess time (Institute of Medicine, 2013). Enhanced-quality recess means recess that uses age-appropriate fitness equipment, organized blacktop and field games, and adult encouragement for engaging in physical activity during recess. Analysis suggests that this type of recess can increase the physical activity time gained during recess by 25 min over a week (Bassett et al., 2013). However, as discussed previously, recess time has become less frequent in the United States and is especially rare outside of the elementary school.

An emerging strategy for increasing daily physical activity involves changes to children’s experiences in the classroom through the implementation of classroom-based physical activity breaks or by incorporating physical activity into academic lessons. Research that supports teachers in including physical activity in their classroom lessons found that on average, children in intervention schools had levels of physical activity that were 13% higher than children in the control schools (Donnelly et al., 2009). In a study where intervention classrooms were supported by incorporating 10-min physical activity breaks (i.e., Instant Recess), significant increases in light (51%) and moderate-intensity (16%) physical activity were seen in the intervention classrooms, whereas control schools did not show significant increases in physical activity intensity (Whitt-Glover, Ham, & Yancey, 2011). Therefore, available research suggests it is possible to enact classroom strategies that will improve the level of physical activity in school-age children.

Research on Physical Activity and Classroom Behavior

Physical activity breaks in the classroom and recess can improve time on task in the classroom. Having at least one daily recess period of greater than 15 min in length has been associated with better teacher ratings of classroom behavior for children in fourth grade (Barros, Silver, & Stein, 2009). Quasiexperimental research also supports the positive impact of physical activity breaks on student classroom behavior. Researchers investigating the impact of classroom-based physical activity programs have shown moderate to large improvements in on-task behavior. In one study, researchers found that third- and fourth-grade students had significantly higher rates of on-task behavior after the Energizers program had been implemented, as measured by structured observation (Mahar et al., 2006). An 8% improvement in on-task behavior was statistically significant, and the difference was moderate (effect size [ES] = 0.60). In addition, the least on-task students increased their time on task by 20%. This improvement had a large effect size (ES = 2.20). In a study on another program using 10-min classroom breaks, time spent in on-task behavior improved by 11% in intervention classrooms. Researchers using the integrated physical activity program I-CAN! found that the active lessons prevented the decreases in time on task seen during typical sedentary academic instruction (Grieco, Jowers, & Bartholomew, 2009). Jarrett et al. (1998) observed the classroom behavior of fourth-grade students’ using structured observations. They found that 60% of the children showed significant decreases in intervals of fidgeting and/or increases in on-task behaviors on the days when they were provided with recess (Jarrett et al., 1998). Although more research in this area is needed, it appears that there is some evidence supporting the use of classroom movement breaks and integrated physical activity to improve on-task behavior.

Research on Physical Activity Interventions for Students With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

The small body of research on the effects of using physical activity as a targeted behavioral intervention for students with ADHD is small but promising. More research exists on the impact on attention and impulsivity as measured by standardized measures than classroom behaviors. For example, greater sustained attention and decreased impulsivity on a continuous performance task was found in a sample of boys diagnosed with ADHD after 30 min of high-intensity aerobic exercise (Medina et al., 2010). Children with ADHD who exercised for 20 min also exhibited greater accuracy on a task of inhibitory control than students who spent the same amount of time seated and reading (Pontifex, Saliba, Raine, Picchietti, & Hillman, 2013). Children in this study also showed significantly improved performance in math and reading comprehension as measured by a standardized achievement test. There is also some emerging evidence of positive impacts on classroom behavior for students with attention difficulties. In the study by Jarrett et al. (1998), all of the students with ADHD in the classroom showed decreases in fidgeting and increases in on-task behavior. Research with 5- to 8-year-olds at risk for ADHD who participated in a before-school physical activity intervention showed reductions in ratings of inattention, hyperactivity, and oppositional/defiant behaviors as well as improvements in ratings of inhibition (Smith et al., 2013).

Research on Physical Activity and Academic Outcomes

The effects of classroom physical activity time on academic performance have primarily been shown to be neutral or positive. Five out of the eight large-scale correlational studies in this area have found at least modest support for a positive relation such that higher levels of physical activity were related to higher academic performance (Dwyer, Sallis, Blizzard, Lazarus, & Dean, 2001; Fox, Barr-Anderson, Neumark-Sztainer, & Wall, 2010; Kantomaa, Tammelin, Demakakos, Ebeling, & Taanila, 2010; Nelson & Gordon-Larsen, 2006; Sigfusdottir, Kristjansson, & Allegrante, 2007). In a review for the CDC (2010), the majority of studies (i.e., eight out of nine) found that offering physical activity breaks during classroom instruction time has favorable outcomes for academic achievement. Academic achievement was measured in a variety of ways in these studies. None of the studies found negative associations between classroom activity breaks and any of the measures. A meta-analysis conducted in 2011 found an overall significant positive effect of physical activity on math, reading, and English/language arts achievement. Studies involving aerobic exercise rather than strength, flexibility, or motor skills exercise showed larger ESs (Fedewa & Soyeon, 2011).

However, it is important to note that the studies with stronger experimental designs in this area are mixed. Researchers implementing the Physical Activity Across the Curriculum program found that training elementary school teachers to incorporate 90 min of moderate- to vigorous-intensity integrated physical activity lessons per week resulted in significantly larger improvements in reading, math, and spelling scores on the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test–II in the intervention group than in the control schools (Donnelly et al., 2009). Research on a program combining 5- to 20-min classroom physical activities, along with structured recess aimed at promoting physical activity, found evidence of academic improvements. Math problem-solving scores, but not reading comprehension scores, of third- and fourth-grade students in the intervention schools improved significantly more than those of students in the control condition. Students in the intervention group who were rated by teachers as having poor adaptive skills improved both their reading and math scores at a significantly greater rate compared to the students with similarly low ratings in the control group (Murray et al., 2008). However, researchers using a slightly different model (i.e., Action Schools! BC) found no change on a standardized measure of achievement in the areas of reading, math, and language arts (Ahamed et al., 2007).

One important difference between the Action Schools! BC (www.actionschoolsbc.ca) program and the other programs (e.g., Take 10!) is that the latter uses physically active academic lessons that incorporate child movement in conjunction with academic material, whereas the Action Schools! BC model uses physical activity breaks separate from academic instruction. Together, the research suggests that although both methods of incorporating physical activity help to improve levels of physical activity and on-task behavior, programs that incorporate physical activity into academic instruction may have more beneficial impacts on academic performance. This may be because time is used efficiently rather than taking time away from instruction or because the positive effects on cardiovascular function that happen during exercise are supporting student brain function as they learn.

Conclusions and Resources

Research on the relations between physical activity, cognitive functioning, academic performance, and behavior is in its early stages. Within this area, research attempting to examine the relationship within the school context is even scarcer. Correlational research strongly supports the relation between physical activity or fitness and academic skills (see Table 1). The amount of intervention-based research is still small, and much of it is semiexperimental in design. However, the existing research does suggest that school-based physical activity practices, such as classroom movement breaks and recess, may have beneficial effects on classroom behavior. These practices may also support academic achievement, particularly when the activity is completed at the same time as academic instruction. In addition, no evidence of negative outcomes on academic achievement or classroom behavior has been found. Therefore, school-based physical activity interventions will promote physical health while also possibly having a positive impact on on-task behavior and academic development.

Table 1.

Resources With Direct Research Support.

Resource	Intervention Details	Evidence	Access to Program
Take 10!	• 10 min • K–5 • Integrated physical activity • Activity cards • International Life Sciences Institute	• Higher physical activity levels • Reduced time off task • Improved reading, math, and spelling (Kibbe et al., 2011)	http://www.take10.net Purchased for each grade level
Energizers	• 10 minutes • K–5 classroom breaks • Middle school integrated physical activity • North Carolina Department of Public Instruction	• Increase daily steps taken by children • Increase time on task (8% overall and 20% for the least on-task students) (Mahar et al., 2006)	http://www.eatsmartmovemorenc.com/Energizers/EnergizersForSchools.html Download for free
Instant Recess	• 10 min • Classroom breaks • Toni Yancey, MD, MPH, codirector of the University of California–Los Angeles Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity at the School of Public Health	• Increased time in light (51%) and moderate-intensity (16%) physical activity • Increased steps taken during the day (by 1,910 steps) • Increased time on task (by 11%) in the classroom (Whitt-Glover, Ham, & Yancey, 2011; Woods, 2011)	http://www.instantrecess.com DVDs and other materials available for purchase

Note: These programs have been evaluated using quasiexperimental or experimental designs.

The implementation of classroom activity breaks and integrated physical activity as well as maintenance of recess time is not to be advised against. However, because evidence is not currently conclusive, school leaders are encouraged to support educators in monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of these strategies for their particular population. School leaders are also encouraged to help educators select programs and resources with stronger research support.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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