engleski

Effects of School-Based Physical Activity on Academic Performance Among School-Aged Youth

Introduction The school environment is ideal for introducing programs that will change the trend of physical inactivity among the children and the young. Although physical education is an obligatory subject in the majority of the world’s and Europe’s countries, it is often shortened and irregular and many participants don’t participate actively in it (Dobbins et al., 2009). Schools often decide to decrease the number of classes and other physical activities of the children to increase the number of academic classes and improve test scores (Rasberry et al., 2011) School-based physical activity is a promising way to improve academic performance while at the same time provide an increase in in-school physical activity. There is a growing body of research focused on the association between school-based physical activity and academic performance among school-aged youth. The presentation “Effects of School-Based Physical Activity on Academic Performance Among School-Aged Youth” aims to present an overview of research examining different school-based physical activity modalities against a wide range of academic performance indicators. Presentation will focus on examples of best practices using new technologies to implement a classroom-based physical activity and discuss the effects on on-task behavior and physical activity levels. Discussion To promote implementation of school-based physical activities, empirical data is needed to document the positive relationship of physical activities and indicators of academic performance, i.e. cognitive skills and attitudes, academic behaviors and academic achievement (Mahar et al., 2006 ; Rasberry et al., 2011). Physical activity is, undoubtedly, an important factor in achieving an optimal health and decreasing the risk of many diseases. However, studies on the effects of school-based physical activity (e.g. during recess, in classroom, during PE classes or extracurricular programs) on indicators of academic performance show a relatively even split between finding positive relationships and no significant relationship (Rasberry et al., 2011). Increase in time dedicated to in-school physical activity, by engaging pupils in school-based physical activity, increases in-school physical activity volume and may contribute to decrease of sedentary way of life and obesity epidemics with a simultaneous improvement of academic performance of pupils.

school ; physical activity

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