THE EFFECT OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AND CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR OF FOURTH GRADE STUDENTS

Abstract

Despite great public interest in health and physical fitness, opportunities for exercise in a child's school day are declining as school administrators often choose to cut physical activity time in favor of classroom instruction time. There is a need to study the effect that regular physical activity can have on student learning behaviors and educational outcomes. This study examined the effect of preclass walking on student classroom behavior and academic achievement. Three classes of fourth grade students were randomly assigned to one of three separate 6-week walking sessions. Each class either walked during the first, second or third 6-week session of an 18-week semester. During the 6-week walking session, the students walked for the first 10 min of each 40-min science class. Measures of classroom behavior and academic performance were collected from all three classes during each of the three separate 6-week sessions (one walking session and two nonwalking sessions for each class). A class by session (3x3) ANOVA with repeated measures on the session variable failed to show the hypothesized interaction between class and session for academic performance (p > .05). A class by session (3x3) ANOVA with repeated measures on the session variable showed the hypothesized interaction between class and session for classroom behavior (p < .01). An analysis of the simple main effects of session showed superior classroom behavior for the walking session vs. the nonwalking session for each class (p < .05). While the hypothesized interaction for academic performance was not significant, this is indirect support for the walking condition as walking time reduced academic contact time by 25%. If walking was not beneficial the time devoted to walking should have reduced academic performance in the walking sessions compared to the nonwalking session. In summary, classroom behavior was improved by the walking intervention and academic performance was unaffected, despite reduced classroom time.