Effects of different types of classroom physical activity breaks on children’s on‐task behaviour, academic achievement and cognition

Mavilidi, Myrto F.; Drew, Ryan; Morgan, Philip J.; Lubans, David R.; Schmidt, Mirko; Riley, Nicholas (2020). Effects of different types of classroom physical activity breaks on children’s on‐task behaviour, academic achievement and cognition. Acta paediatrica, 109(1), pp. 158-165. Wiley 10.1111/apa.14892

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Aim: This study examined the effects of different types of classroom physical activity breaks on children’s on-task behaviour, academic achievement and cognition.
Methods: Participants were 87 Australian primary school students (mean age 9.11 ± 0.62 years), recruited from one school. Three classes were randomly assigned either to activity breaks only (n=29), activity breaks and mathematics combined (n=29), or control conditions involving only mathematical content (n=29). Students were engaged in five minutes of classroom physical activity breaks, three times per week, for four weeks (divided into two minutes at the beginning of the usual mathematics curriculum lesson and three minutes in the middle of the lesson). Assessments were conducted at baseline and post-test.
Results: Significant group-by-time effects were found for on-task behaviour (active engagement: activity breaks and mathematics combined versus control, p≤0.001; activity breaks versus control, p≤0.001; activity breaks and mathematics combined versus activity breaks, p=0.037; passive engagement: activity breaks and mathematics combined versus control, p≤0.001) and mathematics scores (activity breaks versus control, p=0.045).
Conclusion: Physical activity breaks with and without integrated mathematics content were effective in improving children’s on-task behaviour and learning scores.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Sport Science (ISPW)
07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Sport Science (ISPW) > Sport Science II [discontinued]

UniBE Contributor:

Schmidt, Mirko

Subjects:

100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology
700 Arts > 790 Sports, games & entertainment

ISSN:

1651-2227

Publisher:

Wiley

Language:

English

Submitter:

Edith Desideria Imthurn

Date Deposited:

19 Feb 2020 12:35

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:36

Publisher DOI:

10.1111/apa.14892

PubMed ID:

31168863

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Academic achievement, Cognition, On-taskbehaviour, Physical activity breaks, Primary schoolchildren

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.140208

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/140208

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