Another Study Shows Benefits of Physically Active Classrooms

A study by researchers Donnelly and Lambourne explored the connection between physical movement, cardiovascular health, weight and learning. Researchers found that a simple classroom-based intervention to increase physical activity level also improved fitness, decreased bodily fat and improved learning for the participants. In the article "Classroom-Based Physical Activity, Cognition and Academic Achievement" the researchers described their long-term study of 24 elementary schools that examined the effects of implementing a classroom-based physical activity program called Physical Activity Across the Curriculum, or PAAC, over the course of three years on students' cardiovascular fitness, BMI (body-mass index to measure fat percentage), and academic test performance compared to a control group. In the fourteen schools that implemented PAAC, students participated in lessons from a variety of subjects that incorporated exercise into learning activities. The lessons were about ten minutes each, and participants completed about 90 total minutes of PAAC each week. The researchers found numerous benefits to the intervention group, including a lower percentage of bodily fat, a higher percentage of daily physical activity, and improvements in reading, math, spelling and composite test scores when compared to the control group.

The PAAC program was created around the philosophy that physical activity can and should take place in a variety of settings. The program encourages schools to move away from the idea that students must go to a designated place such as the gym and change into different clothing in order to exercise. Instead, PAAC promotes incorporating vigorous movement into classroom learning. An example of a PAAC lesson to learn multiplication describe in the article would be a fixed number of students (i.e. 5 students) running a fixed number of laps (i.e. 5 laps) and then having to calculate the total number of laps that were run by students (5 x 5 = 25). The PAAC program requires very little to no prep time for the teachers and no special materials. However, as evidenced by this study, the benefits were numerous.

In all my searchers for a PAAC official website, all I found was this study. It seems that this study was an initial trial of the effectiveness of the PAAC program, and hopefully it will become more readily available for educators. Nonetheless, any teacher with a little creativity and motivation could take up the PAAC philosophy and find ways to include exercise in their lessons. The nine lessons of about ten minutes each over the course of a week that was implemented in the study is not too daunting of a number for any teacher, and the possible benefits to students can be numerous. I hope to find ways to implement lessons similar to those described in this study in my own classroom.

Donnelly, J.E. & Lambourne, K. (2011). Classroom-based physical activity, cognition, and academic achievement. Preventative Medicine, 52, S36-S42.