Background/Purpose The purpose of this research was to examine 3rd and 5th grade students' naïve conceptions of exercise intensity. Students enter physical education class with pre-existing beliefs and conceptions about how their body works and why it is important to exercise. These beliefs/conceptions influence their level of openness to new ideas, facilitating or constraining their abilities to increase their fitness knowledge and use it to make positive physical activity decisions.
Method Sixty-one third and fifth grade children completed a written assessment and 6 students, whose understandings represented minimal, moderate, and rich understandings were interviewed to assess their naive conceptions. All questions were open ended, encouraging students to explain how their body responded when running.
Analysis/Results Data were analyzed using conceptual change rubrics that assessed the scientific accuracy and level of relationships among concepts. Results suggested that students' understandings of intensity-related concepts represented three understanding levels: isolated (your heart beats), relational (heart pumps blood to muscles to run faster), and naïve theory (heart is a machine with different parts that work together to produce energy). Further, students' beliefs about the heart limited their scientific understandings. For example, nearly half believed that making your heart beat faster is bad (you will have a heart attack and die); yet their explanations were not wrong, just out of context based on the physical activity/running example provided.
Conclusions When teachers acknowledge and respond to students' naïve conceptions as part of lessons and tasks, students are more likely to accept and use scientific explanations in physical activity decisions.