Secondary Student and Teacher Perceptions of Classroom Physical Activity

Abstract

Recent literature has shown that the implementation of classroom physical activity (PA) has had a positive impact on overall student performance. However, most of the classroom-based PA literature has explored the impact on elementary students. The purpose of this study was to examine how high school students and teachers feel about the implementation, feasibility, and application of integrating movement into the classroom. Findings from nine individual teacher interviews, one teacher focus group (n = 4), and five student focus groups (n = 20) were analyzed. Four themes were created from the teacher interviews and student focus groups: (a) implementation time of classroom PA, (b) desirable minutes of classroom PA, (c) yoga is the preferred activity, and (d) classroom PA value. Results from this study suggest that students and teachers value the integration of classroom PA but that they have conflicting viewpoints on various components that go into providing movement opportunities.