Children's On-Task Behavior Following a Classroom-Based Physical Activity Intervention

Background/Purpose: Children who go through prolonged periods of academic instruction often become more off-task. Systematic observation in the classroom is the best strategy to measure students’ on-task behavior, but such behavior is typically more difficult to measure because of the burden placed on the observers, and time required for recording the observation. Previous research indicates that classroom-based physical activity (PA) in the classroom can increase children’s on-task behavior. To build on this research, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a classroom-based PA intervention on children’s on-task behavior. 

Method: Classroom teachers from four elementary schools were trained to implement 10-minute bouts of a classroom-based PA intervention. Children from 11 classes (one 1^st, three 2^nd, two 3^rd, one 4^th, two 5^th, and two 6^thgrades) participated in the intervention. On-task behavior was measured using systematic observations (5-second interval momentary time sampling procedure). The classes were observed four times during baseline and four times during intervention. During intervention, the observers observed the class 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after teachers implemented the classroom-based PA. During baseline, the teachers carried out their lessons as usual with no intervention. The observers observed the class 15 minutes, then waited for 15 minutes, and observed the class for another 15 minutes. A two-way repeated-measures ANOVA was used to compare mean percentage on-task behavior between: (a) pre-no intervention versus post-no intervention during baseline, and (b) pre-intervention versus post-intervention during intervention. Significance levels were adjusted for multiple comparisons with the Bonferroni procedure.

Analysis/Results: There was a significant decrease (P= 0.002) in mean percentage on-task behavior from pre-no intervention (91.5 ± 2.5) to post-no intervention (82.8 ± 7.2) during baseline. Mean percentage on-task behavior increased from pre-intervention (91.3 ± 5.4) to post-intervention (92.4 ± 3.4) during intervention. Overall, there was a mean percentage decrease of on-task behavior by 8.7% during baseline, whereas there was a mean percentage increase of on-task behavior by 1.1% during intervention.

Conclusions: Children became less on-task after they engaged in classroom instruction for a prolong period of time. Conversely, participating in a 10-minute classroom-based PA helped to prevent the children from becoming off-task. Considering that classroom-based PA is relatively easy for teachers to implement in the classroom, it is recommended that children participate in short bouts of classroom-based PA throughout the school day to sustain their on-task behavior.