Getting a GRIP (getting research into practice) on movement integration in the school classroom

Abstract

In adults prolonged sitting is detrimentally associated with a number of health sequela including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and all-cause mortality, and it has been suggested these negative health consequences may not be fully protected against by participation in physical activity. Altering ubiquitous environments for children to increase their opportunities to break or reduce extended sitting is therefore of key public health interest. Emerging research shows that physical activity can be introduced into the school classroom, through short activity breaks and by integrating movement into the learning of core academic content. This may help to improve children’s time on task, enjoyment of learning, and in some cases academic outcomes. This discussion paper briefly highlights some of the key research on movement integration in the classroom, discusses potential challenges and facilitators of implementation at a variety of levels (e.g. teacher, school, external stakeholder) and presents an ongoing, innovative programme (CLASS PAL) as a case study of one approach to get research on classroom movement integration into routine teaching practice.

Keywords:

• School
• Classroom
• Sedentary
• Physical activity
• Implementation
• Co-production

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to the knowledge brokers, teachers and project partners for their continual willingness to ‘co-produce’ this research. We would also like to acknowledge the co-investigators of CLASS PAL who have contributed to the conception, planning and design of the study, namely Professor Kamlesh Khunti, Professor Cris Glazebrook, Professor Stuart Biddle, Dr. Stacey Clemes, Dr. Natalie Pearson, Dr. Charlotte Edwardson, Dr. Deirdre Harrington and Dr. Danielle Bodicoat.

Notes

¹ Although we acknowledge that some interventions have had a degree of flexibility in intervention content/implementation e.g. Donnelly et al. ³⁰ and Erwin et al. ³¹ .

² A physically active lesson involves the delivery of a lesson of (or main portion) curriculum content through (or alongside) physical movement e.g. physically embodying punctuation as teacher reads a story aloud. For examples see http://classpal.org.uk/resource/list_resource.php.

³ Physically active breaks are short duration (e.g. 5–10 min) periods of physical activity to break-up sitting (e.g. dancing to You Tube video) They are often performed without associated academic content, but can involve the integration of simple curriculum concepts (e.g. Squat given number of times to answer mathematical sum). For examples see http://classpal.org.uk/resource/list_resource.php.

⁴ http://www.clahrc-em.nihr.ac.uk/clahrc-em-nihr/index.aspx.

⁵ http://www.affinitytsa.co.uk; teaching school alliances are groups of outstanding schools that work with others to provide high-quality training and development to new and experienced schools/school staff.

⁶ https://www.youthsporttrust.org.

⁷ http://www.irisconnect.co.uk.