Lit Review: EFFECTS OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY ON LEARNING BEHAVIORS

Literature Review: The Effects of Physical Activity on Learning Behaviors in Elementary School

Children: a Randomized Controlled Trial

Eric Aegerter

Professor Weintraub

TED690

24 February 2018
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Abstract

This article examines the relationship between frequent physical activity (PA) during the

school day and learning behavior. Learning behavior is loosely defined as the behaviors students

exhibit in class to increase their likelihood of gaining content knowledge. The authors believe

that physical activity is important in decreasing problem behaviors in students who have been

recognized by their teachers as regularly exhibiting such behaviors. The article also examines the

critics of this idea. Some critics remark that allowing students breaks for physical activity in the

classroom will only make matters worse with regard to student learning behavior.
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In The Effects of physical Activity on Learning Behaviors in Elementary School Children:

a Randomized Controlled Trial, the authors, Susan P. Harvey, Kate Lambourne, Jerry L. Greene,

Cheryl A. Gibson, Jaehoon Lee, and Joseph E. Donnelly, investigated the effect of regular

classroom-level physical activity breaks on student’s learning behavior. In particular, the group

focused on “the impact of classroom-based PA on teacher-rated classroom behaviors of students

with identified learning behavior difficulties” (Harvey et al., 2017, p. 303). The study conducted

was a three-year randomized controlled trial consisting of seventeen schools in Kansas. The

grade levels studied were second and third.

The study did not seek to identify trends based on race or gender. The study was simply

to find out, in general, if “classroom-based PA lessons delivered by classroom teachers could

enhance academic achievement significantly” (p. 305). Of the seventeen elementary schools

under examination, nine of them were to be in the physical activity intervention group and the

other eight were to be in the controlled group that did not receive any physical activity

interventions.

A scale of important behavior characteristics was created. The scale included “15

observable characteristics identified in the literature as being essential to behavioral engagement,

such as effort, work habits, and cooperation skills, and are evaluated separately from academic

performance” (p. 306). Each student who was determined to regularly exhibit problem learning

behaviors was evaluated by their teacher on a scale of 1 to 4, three times per year.

The results were as predicted, perhaps even better, by the authors. It was determined that

“the intervention group of students receiving the classroom-based physical active lessons showed

significant improvements over time in the overall behavior engagement score” (p. 307). It is

worth noting, at this point in the review, that these physical active lessons were aligned with the
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state’s content standards in all areas. On the contrary, “results for the control group showed no

change or a slight degradation over time [in learning behavior” (p. 307). Thus, it was clear that

physical activity helped with learning behavior in students.

The authors concluded the article by having a written discussion about what the results of

this study mean for American education. They began by noting the intense pressure that is on

administrators to increase standardized test scores. Acknowledging that adminstrators are under

pressure, they talked about the interventions that most adminstrators implement in hopes of

raising the scores. Of the interventions, the authors found that “well-intentioned interventions

often aim to address intrapersonal and interpersonal factors of struggling students in (e.g.,

academic, social, and personal problems) in order to address behavioral engagement” (p. 308).

The authors hint that, because of the immense pressure on them, adminstrators overlook

interventions that, on the surface, seem to be counterproductive. The intervention in this case

being physical activity breaks. The authors go on to stress the importance of adminstrators

seeking their alternative intervention by stating that “these individual-level interventions may

isolate a student by pulling them from their classroom or singling them out during classroom

activities” (p. 308.).

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References

Harvey, Susan P., Lambourne, Kate, Green, Jerry L., Gibson, Cheryl A., Jaehoon Lee, and

Donnelly, Joseph E. (2017). The effects of physical activity on learning behaviors in

elementary school children: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Mathematics

Education at Teachers College vol. doi-10.1007/s40688-017-0143-0.