Adolescents' Cognitive Processes and Physical Engagement in Physical Education

Background/Purpose: Cognitive processes in education represent students’ thoughts that influence engagement and learning, including their beliefs, attention, self-regulation, willing to engage, and use of strategies (Wittrock, 1986). However, rarely has research examined the students’ cognitive processes in relation to physical activity and sedentary behavior in physical education classes. This research examined adolescents’ cognitive processes and their physical engagement in physical education.

Method: The participants were 211 students from three middle schools, ranging from 11 to 13 years old. The Cognitive Processes Questionnaire in Physical Education (CPQPE, Solmon & Lee, 1997) measured students’ cognitive process variables, including self-regulation, confidence-efficacy, concentration-attention, willingness to engage, and use of learning strategies. The ActiGraph GT3X accelerometers were used to gather physical activity variables including time spent on light activity, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and number of steps. We conducted descriptive statistical analyses on cognitive processes and physical activity variables. Pearson product-moment correlation analyses were then conducted to examine the association between these variables. Lastly, we conduct multiple regression analyses using the cognitive process variables to predict MVPA and the number of steps recorded in physical education.

Analysis/Results: On average, the accelerometers recorded 12.79 minutes (SD=6.21) MVPA, 23.34 minutes (SD=9.52) light activity, and 11.21 minutes (SD=5.54) sedentary time, and 1324.77 steps (SD =415.87 in the targeted physical education class. Correlation analyses showed that the cognitive process variables were moderately correlated to each other (.62≥ r_s ≥.38, p<.01), but they had small to moderate correlations with physical activity variables (.34 ≥ r_s ≥ .18, p<.05). Regression analyses showed that adolescents’ willingness to engage was the only significant positive predictor for in-class MVPA (β =.31) and number of steps (β =.33). Overall, the cognitive process variables accounted for 10.7% of the variances in adolescent MVPA and 14.1% of the variances in number of steps in physical education.

Conclusions: The results demonstrated that adolescents had relatively small amount of time engaged in MVPA, while most of the class time were devoted to light physical activity. This finding points out the need to enhance the physical activity intensity level of the instructional tasks in physical education classes. Of the five cognitive process variables, it appeared that willingness to engage in physical education was the only significant predictor for adolescents’ MVPA and steps. In order to promote adolescents’ in-class physical activity, teachers should create amenable learning environments to increase students’ willingness to participate in the physical activities.