- Title
- Preliminary efficacy and feasibility of the "Thinking While Moving in English": a program with integrated physical activity into the primary school english lessons
- Creator
- Mavilidi, Myrto Foteini; Lubans, David R.; Eather, Narelle; Morgan, Philip J.; Riley, Nicholas
- Relation
- Children Vol. 5, Issue 8, no. 109
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children5080109
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2018
- Description
- Background: The physical, cognitive, and learning benefits of physical activity for children have already been established. However, many schools are failing to provide children with sufficient activity at school due to a crowded school curriculum. Physical activity interventions that integrate physical activity with learning is a way to enhance physical and cognitive benefits without loss of academic time. This study evaluated the preliminary efficacy and feasibility of "Thinking While Moving in English", a primary school program that integrates physical activity into English lessons. Method: Two classes of Grade 4 students (n = 55, 10-11 years old) were randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 29) or control (n = 26) conditions. The program components consisted of 3 x 40 min physically active academic lessons per week, delivered over a 4-week period. The following measures were taken at baseline and immediate post-intervention: on-task behavior, cognition (inhibition and working memory), and learning outcomes (spelling and grammar). Results: Results revealed significant improvements in on-task behavior and spelling in the intervention group, compared to the control group. There were no observed improvements in cognitive outcomes or grammar. Conclusions: This study provides preliminary evidence for the efficacy of physically active English lessons to enhance children's educational outcomes.
- Subject
- learning; primary school children; academic achievement; on-task behavior; cognition; physical activity
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1411198
- Identifier
- uon:36312
- Identifier
- ISSN:2227-9067
- Rights
- © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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