Classroom Physical Activity Breaks: Teachers’ Perspectives of an Intervention Study

Background/Purpose: A classroom physical activity (PA) break is one strategy to increase children’s PA and focus during academic instruction. The TAKE 10!^® classroom PA intervention program was implemented in one elementary school in a south-western city in the United States. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively examine teachers’ experiences in implementing TAKE 10!^®in their classrooms.

Method: Study participants were nine elementary school classroom teachers (three 3^rd grade, three 4^th grade, and three 5^th grade) who were trained to implement 10-minute bouts of classroom PA breaks using the TAKE 10!^®program. The teachers implemented the program in their classrooms one to three times per day during the 8-week intervention. At the end of the intervention, the teachers participated in an individual face-to-face semi-structured interview. Five months after the intervention, the teachers were followed up with an interview and/or questionnaire to examine the sustainability of the intervention.

Analysis/Results: The major themes of the study are: (a) barriers, (b) benefits, and (c) what worked. Barriers that the teachers encountered were fitting the TAKE 10!^® program into their daily schedule, dealing with sedentary students’ behavior, getting the students to concurrently move and think academically, and using the limited space in their classrooms. Benefits included helping teachers and students become more aware of the need for breaks during the school day, as well as benefitting both the students and teachers physically and psychologically. The teachers also gave suggestions on what worked for them in their classrooms, which included implementing the program less than 10 minutes once or twice a day, using the same lessons regularly, preparing ahead and giving clear instructions, setting an example by performing the activities with the students, and modifying the lessons from the TAKE 10!^® program. Results from the follow-up interviews and/or questionnaires revealed that the majority of the teachers were still implementing the TAKE 10!^®program after the intervention. The teachers cited the lack of time to complete the core curriculum before the end-of-year testing as a challenge to implementing the program. Many teachers also indicated that they would build the program into their classroom routine next year.

Conclusions: The teachers appeared to be positive toward the TAKE 10!^® program. Due to time constraints, implementing modified lessons for shorter durations may be more feasible than implementing actual lessons from the TAKE 10!^®program. This work was supported by funds received from the AAHPERD Research Grant Program.