Effects of Classroom-Based Physical Activity on Children’s Physical Activity Intensity

Background/Purpose: Increasing physical activity (PA) levels of children is the goal of many school-based PA promotion programs. Classroom-based PA program that integrate PA into academic subjects is a recommended strategy to increase children’s daily PA because classroom teachers have extensive access to children in that context. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of classroom-based PA on children’s PA intensity during the school day. 

Method: 219 school children from nine classes (3^rd - 5^th grades) participated in a classroom-based PA program (TAKE 10!^®) for 12 weeks. Classroom teachers were trained to implement 10-minute bouts of classroom-based PA modified to fit into their curriculum. ActiGraph accelerometers (GT1M and GT3X+) were used in a randomly selected sub-sample of 64 students (36 females and 28 males; 25 3^rd grade, 20 4^th grade, and 19 5^th grade) to determine their in-school PA intensity levels during baseline (week 1), mid-intervention (week 8), and end-intervention (week 12). A one-way repeated measure ANOVA was used to analyze PA levels. The teachers participated in a face-to-face semi-structured interview at the end of the program to qualitatively examine their experiences implementing classroom-based PA.  

Analysis/Results: Children’s average time spent in moderate intensity PA was the same from baseline (18.6 ± 4.4) to end-intervention (18.7 ± 4.1). Children’s average time spent in moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA increased significantly (p < 0.05) from baseline (33.4 ± 8.8) to end-intervention (35.4 ± 7.6). Children’s average time spent in vigorous intensity PA increased significantly (p < 0.05) from baseline (14.8 ± 5.5) to mid-intervention (15.2 ± 4.9) and to end-intervention (16.7 ± 5.0). Students accumulated approximately 2 minutes more of moderate-to-vigorous and vigorous intensity PA at end-intervention compared to baseline. Qualitative analysis of the interviews revealed that teachers perceived that students benefitted physically, psychologically and academically from the program. The teachers observed that students were able to sustain physically longer during the 10-minute bouts of PA as they became fitter overtime. Additionally, teachers reported that students focused better after they participated in classroom-based PA and their test scores improved. Teachers also indicated that classroom-based PA was a great stress reliever and students’ self-esteem improved over the course of the program. 

Conclusions: Implementing the TAKE 10!^® classroom-based PA program was effective in increasing children’s in-school PA intensity levels. Teachers reported that participation in classroom-based PA programs had benefitted their students holistically.

This work was supported by funds received from the AAHPERD Research Grant Program.