Provide professional development opportunities to teachers that include relevant, easy-to-implement ideas for classroom physical activity
A story from South Carolina
As part of the Partnership for Active Children in Elementary Schools (PACES) study, the University of South Carolina (USC) worked with classroom teachers in one school district to design a training informed by pilot research, best practices, national, state, and local resources, and experiences from district teachers already engaged in classroom physical activity. District elementary classroom teachers participated in the training, which was led by one of their colleagues and a PACES researcher.
We spoke to Dr. Colin Webster, Associate Dean for Research and Innovation in the College of Education at USC, about the practical approach the PACES team took in providing training on classroom physical activity.
Key Takeaways
Show, don’t tell. USC made videos of classroom teachers in the school district integrating movement into their classrooms. During the training, the trainers shared these videos with participants in order to show them how teachers in their own school district implemented best practices for classroom physical activity.
“The videos … seemed more relevant because teachers were able to see people they knew engaged in classroom physical activity; it was happening right there in their sphere of school professionals.”
Offer a “menu” of strategies that are practical and easy-to-implement. In addition to the videos, the trainers offered a “menu” from which teachers could pick a method to facilitate classroom physical activity. Not only did this menu offer activity options to choose from, but, according to Dr. Webster, “everything we put on our menu was based on what we saw teachers do in an actual classroom setting without any intervention from USC researchers.” This menu included strategies such as:
- Non-teacher-directed transitions: Children move as a result of the classroom layout, placement of materials, and established management routines.
- Teacher-directed transitions: Children move during transition times as a result of teacher directives.
- Non-academic teacher-directed movement break: Children move without focusing on academic content during a break from a lesson.
- Academic-infused teacher-directed movement break: Children move while focusing on academic content during a break from a lesson.
- Technology-led teacher-directed transitions/movement breaks: Children move as a result of technology (e.g., video, recorded music) used during a transition or break.
- Movement as a reward/incentive: Children move as a result of a reward or incentive provided for good behavior/work.
- Movement as an opening activity: Children move as a result of an activity used to start the school day.
- Special equipment: Children move as a result of using specially designed classroom equipment (e.g., pedal desks, stand-biased desks).
- Outdoor activities: Children move as a result of spending regular classroom times outdoors.
The video shown in the training demonstrated how teachers were implementing these strategies in their own classrooms.