1. The opportunities and challenges for teachers to consider how physically active boys and girls are during recess in elementary school Dr Kristy Howells School of Childhood and Education Sciences, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, UK
Introduction
Recess (playtimes / breaktimes) within the school setting are discussed within the literature as diverse places that may or may not have a contributory effect to physical activity levels of children. Ridgers et al. (2006) stated that “playtime can contribute to between 5 and % of recommended daily physical activity levels when no interventions have been utilised” (p.359). Whilst Pate et al. (1996), suggested that “children best accumulate
physical activity during playtimes and in
unstructured environments, where they are free to interact with their peers” (p.96). But what really happens within an elementary / primary school setting? The aim of the research was to investigate what physical activity was possible during recess and the opportunities and challenges that arose for teachers.
Methods
The research compared boys and girls
and infants (aged 6 – 7 years) (front
row of the photo) and juniors (aged 9
– 10 years) (back row of the photo).
Data were collected within a case study
school setting over one school year. A
case study design was used to provide
a focused analysis and investigation of
one school within one timeline, (a
whole school year), with one set of
unique experiences. Humes and Bryce
(2001) advised that a researcher undertakes a case study to “investigate activity intended to yield new knowledge and understanding” (p.330).
20 children wore Actigraph accelerometers in a pouch
round their waists to record physical activity intensity levels. Morning recess was 20 minutes and lunchtime was 60 minutes, lunchtime also included time that was spent sitting and eating lunch. The infant aged children also had an afternoon recess of 15 minutes. A repeated measures 3 factor ANOVA was used to analyse the effects of factors, p values of <0.05 were taken as the value for statistical significance ± one standard deviation. Statistical analysis was completed using SPSS 17.0.
Pilot Study Results
The pilot phase was completed prior to the main phase
of research to act as a preliminary reliability study to ensure that there could be consistency and repeatability of days. This is particularly important
when using accelerometers to collect physical activity data. 6 days were
undertaken for the pilot study during Sept – Dec. This phase allowed for the children to
overcome any inquisitive behaviour from using the accelerometers. Guo et al. (2010)
suggested that children will want to play with new technologies and indeed the
children did want to play with them. It also allowed me to examine and explore the
logistical issues that the children had in wearing and using the accelerometers, to
ensure that ‘normal locomotor movements’ were collected. The children
on their first day liked to show me how many star jumps they could
do, as in their words – “they wanted to make sure that they recorded
their physical activity for me”. This behaviour was not consistent and soon
the children forgot and did not perform extra star jumps for me.
They also found that the pouch that was holding the accelerometer
was also really useful for storing leaves into it at lunch time! After
despairing slightly - I made them an ‘interesting stuff I found at recess
box’ so that they could value the things they found and not keep them
in the accelerometer pouches. The final interesting moment of the pilot phase was that
the children liked to take the belts off and swing them round their
heads, when I asked them why, they said because it was ‘a new
belt that they were wearing and that it was good for swinging’.
We had a discussion about how to wear the accelerometers and
how it was important to keep on at the waist, after this they kept them on their waists.
I ensured that ribbons were accessible as alternatives, if they wanted to swing an item,
just not the accelerometers.
Main Study
The main study results show the physical activity levels of the children during
morning recess (figure 1),
lunchtime (figure 2)
and afternoon recess (figure 3).
Figure 1 – Overall mean number
of minutes ± SD of MVPA during
morning recess for year group,
gender and type of day
There was a significant main effect (F = 18.96, P < 0.05) for type of day. On average,
during morning break, 1 minute more MVPA was completed on PE days (9 ± 3 minutes)
when compared to Non PE days (8 ± 3 minutes).
There was also a significant main effect (F = 22.02, P < 0.05) for gender. On average,
during morning break, boys completed 1 minute more MVPA (9 ± 3 minutes) when
compared to girls (8 ± 3 minutes).
There was also a significant interaction (F = 14.60, P < 0.05) between type of day and
year group. On average, during morning break, on PE days, infants completed 2
minutes more MVPA (10 ± 4 minutes) when compared to juniors (8 ± 3 minutes).
Figure 2 - Overall mean number of
minutes ± SD of MVPA during lunch time
for year group, gender and type of day
There was a significant main effect (F = 4.89, P < 0.05) for year group. On average, during lunch time, juniors completed 4 minutes more MVPA (19 ± 7 minutes) when compared to infants (15 ± 6 minutes).
There was also a significant main effect (F = 24.34, P < 0.05) for gender. On average, during lunch time, boys completed 2 minutes more MVPA (18 ± 7 minutes) when compared to girls (16 ± 7 minutes).
Figure 3 - Overall mean number of
minutes ± SD of MVPA (for infants only)
during afternoon recess for gender and
type of day
There was a significant interaction (F = 12.57, P < 0.05) between gender and type of day. On average, during afternoon break, infant girls completed 1 minute more MVPA on Non PE days (3 ± 1 minute) when compared to PE days (2 ± 1 minute).
Summary and Recommendations
In summary, boys were found to be most active during lunchtimes, with junior boys completing MVPA for 38% of the lunchtime, whilst infant girls undertook only MVPA for 18% of the lunchtime. Overall the children’s recess did allow them to achieve 50% (juniors) and 39% (infants) of the recommended daily physical activity levels at a moderate to vigorous level. This indicates that school can be a place, (an opportunity) that can support physical activity. Children were static for between 33 and 46% of the time, with infants being static for the longest period of time.
The research proposes various opportunities and challenges for teachers in terms of improving MVPA of particular infants, including possible challenges of infants not yet mastering the fine and gross motor skills involved in cutting up their lunch (Gallahue, 1996). This area of research had not been previously considered within this case study school. Further analysis of eating skills for infants is needed. The teachers could focus on developing the infants fine and gross motor skills in particular their cutting skills. Since completion of this study, more outdoor equipment has been implemented a pirate ship and a trim trail to help reduce static time, and further visits are needed to research the impact of the new equipment.
References
Gallahue, D.L. (1996) Developmental Physical Education for Today’s Children. Madison: Brown and Benchmark.
Guo, S., Zhang, H. and Zhai, R. (2010) ‘A potential way of enquiry into human curiosity’, British Journal of Educational Technology, 41 (3), pp. E48 – E52.
Humes, W. and Bryce, T. (2001) ‘Scholarship, Research and the Evidential Basis of Policy Development in Education’, British Journal of Educational Studies, 49 (3) pp
Pate, R.R., Baranowski, T., Dowda, M. and Trost, S.G., (1996) ‘Tracking of physical activity in young children’, Medicine Science Sport Exercise, 28 (1), pp
Ridgers, N. Stratton, G. and Fairclough, S. J. (2006) ‘Physical Activity Levels of Children during School Playtime’, Sports Medicine, 36 (4), pp. 359 – 371.