Classifit! : A toolbox for secondary school teachers to support implementation of physical activity in the classroom

Abstract

ABSTRACT Luttikhuizen, Gonneke van (2018). Classifit! A toolbox for secondary school teachers to support implementation of physical activity in the classroom. Master’s Thesis in Education. University of Jyväskylä. Department of Educa-tion.

Activity levels among adolescents are decreasing, whereas the number of young people with overweight and obesity is rising rapidly. This results in severe health problems that occur at an increasingly younger age. Schools can play a crucial role in promoting active lifestyles by implementing physical activity interventions. Due to their compulsory nature, schools can reach out to children from all different backgrounds and risk groups. Many physical activity interventions so far have been conducted in primary school environments, creating the need for an intervention designed for secondary schools. Using Educational Design Research, this study designed a Toolbox for secondary school teachers, with activities to increase the level of physical activity in classrooms. The Toolbox is a website, and consists of two parts: Powerbreaks (videos of short physical activities) and Active Learning activities (to integrate movement and academic content). Two teachers from a Swedish-language secondary school in Finland have tested the intervention, with the data collection focusing on usefulness, ease of use and motivation towards the use of ICT material. The results show that the Toolbox was found useful in increasing levels of physical activity in the classroom, easy to use because of the videos and helped teachers to offer a necessary active break for students. This suggests that practical material available online, could be a great resource for teachers to develop their active teaching methods. Further development is however necessary to ensure a continuation of these positive outcomes, as well as to address several limitations that have been found.