How Elementary In-School Play Opportunities Relate to Academic Achievement and Social-Emotional Well-Being: Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Play is essential for child growth and development, and may have academic and social-emotional implications. To understand the relationship between in-school play opportunities and academic achievement (AA) and social-emotional well-being among elementary school students, a systematic review of the current in-school play literature was conducted. METHODS: Keywords were input across 7 search engines. After screening, 20 peer-reviewed publications related to play, AA, and social-emotional well-being met the inclusion criteria for this review. FINDINGS: Across the included publications, recess was the only in-school play opportunity assessed. Overall, student behavior and social-emotional outcomes benefited from more recess while mixed results were found between recess participation and academic outcomes. However, more recess was not detrimental to AA. CONCLUSION: The findings from this review support the need for recess as part of a whole child approach to education that may mitigate the negative outcomes of sitting through long periods of instruction. More research is needed on the AA and social-emotional effects of other types of in-school play opportunities (ie, centers, play stations, and other breaks). Findings from this review indicate that recess is a necessary part of the elementary school day.

Development of a School-Based Physical Activity Intervention Using an Integrated Approach: Project SMART.

Physical activity (PA) is a health-protective factor with multiple benefits for school-age children, yet only 22% of children and adolescents living in the United States (United States) accrue the recommended amount of moderate to vigorous PA. Given the prevalence of insufficient PA among children, promoting and providing PA opportunities during the school day, especially when integrated into the curriculum and linked to the learning standards, is essential for children. The purpose of this paper is to describe the procedure for the development of a school-based PA program using an integrated approach through the modified intervention mapping protocol (IMP). A total of 22 physical education teachers and 167 children from five different elementary schools were involved in the process. The procedure includes the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) that provides a theoretical framework that plays a vital role in motivating students to have a physically active lifestyle. This study applied SDT and IMP to develop and pilot a PA intervention called Project SMART using an integrative community participatory approach. As a pilot PA intervention, Project SMART is an online educational game where the students navigate a virtual journey across the United States A class's aggregate PA propels the students on their journey, where standards-based modules are unlocked to achieve STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and social-emotional learning outcomes while gaining an understanding of the importance of health behaviors and opportunities to habitually engage in healthy decision-making with the support of their peers. Although initially labor intensive for the researchers, the process of tailoring the intervention to the children's contextual and cultural needs has implications for all theoretically grounded and evidence-based PA interventions.

Essential Components of Physical Education: Policy and Environment.

Purpose: Physical education policies provide guidance and accountability to develop quality programs that increase physical literacy. The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic review of physical education policy research to explore its effects on the school environment and programming as an essential component of physical education. Methods: Using the PRISMA guidelines of identify, screen, determine eligibility, and include, studies were extracted from four different databases, using search terms related to the essential physical education component of policy and environment. Of the 225 publications identified, 42 studies met the inclusion criteria for this investigation. Each paper was coded, and emergent themes were identified. Results: The policy research was predominantly descriptive and focused on: (a) minutes in physical education (83%), (b) moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA; 31%), (c) certified/qualified teachers (24%), (d) exemptions (17%), and (e) student-teacher ratio (12%). Emergent themes of adherence, policy strength, and implementation accountability were identified as influential physical education policy aspects. Conclusions: Policy research over the last 20 years was focused on the regulatory mandate of time. Policy research did not directly address disciplinary process variables of learning activities or outcomes of physical education. The effects of policy exemptions and class size were underrepresented. Themes may explain the lack of reporting student performance as the primary outcome. Further research is needed to examine the downstream effects of physical education policy and determine whether well-written policies increase the number of physically literate individuals.

Rationale for the Essential Components of Physical Education.

Purpose: This introductory article provides the context and rationale for conducting systematic literature reviews on each of the essential components of physical education, including policy and environment, curriculum, appropriate instruction, and student assessment. Methods: Four research teams from Doctoral Physical Education Teacher Education programs (D-PETE) conducted these systematic reviews using the PRISMA guidelines process. Results: This article explains the role of the national framework for increasing physical education and physical activity (i.e., Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program) in supporting the essential components of physical education. It also highlights the expectations for physical education and provides a brief history of these components. Lastly, this article highlights each of the articles presented in the special feature. Conclusion: Understanding the implementation of these components may be important for improving the physical education experience for all students and creating a foundation for lifelong physical activity and health.

The Importance of Providing Opportunities for Health Behaviors during the School Day.

Today, children are less active than previous generations leading to an increased prevalence of morbidity associated with physical inactivity. Globally, full-day preschool is rapidly becoming the norm. Thus, the amount of time that a child spends outside the home is an opportunity for schools and teachers to educate children about the importance of participating in physical activity and making healthy eating choices. One approach to comprehensively offer opportunities for physical activity and healthy eating is called Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child, which intertwines academic success and promotion of healthy behaviors. Particularly for adolescent children, multicomponent approaches that include both school and family or community involvement have the most significant potential to make meaningful differences in the rate of physical activity participation. For young children, teacher training, resources, and equipment are needed to achieve equity across programs and schools, because these are predictors of physical activity participation. Further, school policies, administrative support, modeling by teachers, and the use of cues and incentives can have a positive effect. The purpose of this paper is to describe the benefits of contemporary, evidence-based models for providing opportunities for health behaviors in school from early childhood to adolescence.