Audience: Readers of the Asia-Pacific

Journal of Health, Sport, and Physical education

Jake Leingang

English 358

IMRAD report

Physical Education

INTRODUCTION

Physical education is an important field that is getting less and less popular in school

systems. I started this report because I have always been interested in physical education and I

have noticed a decline in school systems of proper physical education time for students. This

topic is relevant to me because it is the field I am going into and I want to inform other students

about this problem so we can come up with a solution together. The research I have done

answers the question to why physical education is important and the mental/physical benefits it

has on every individual that spends time being physically active. According to a report from

USA today, Students should be doing at least 60 minutes of vigorous or moderate-intensity

physical activity at school, with more than half of the activity occurring during regular

educational hours and the remaining amount before and after school, says a report released

Thursday by the Institute of Medicine (Hellmich). This quote effectively explains the amount of
physical time should be allotted during a school day for students. The sad part is that students

arent even getting half of the amount needed daily. Today, students of all ages are getting less

and less physical education time and are spending more time stuck in the classroom. Physical

education is important because it has positive mental/physical effects, increases socialization,

and allows students to learn physical abilities. My research is necessary to inform physical

education teachers as well as the general public on why physical education is important and

should not be cut time in schools today. According to an article titled Death of Recess they

stated one aspect of students becoming well-rounded. They said, Students are becoming more

well-rounded in one respect: childhood obesity rates have more than doubled in the last 30 years.

Roughly 18% of children are obese today. The cutting of physical education is certainly a

factor. This shows how much of a decline has taken place. At the same time, schools face

increasing challenges in allocating time for physical education and physical activity during the

school day. Many schools are attempting to increase instructional time for mathematics, English,

and science in an effort to improve standards-based test scores. I will now be describing the

methods I used behind my research to explain how physical education is a positive part of a

students education.

METHODS

My research methods were to look online from electronic databases for information and

to find graphs that can give a visual representation on what is happening in the physical

education. Since this topic is kind of hard to test in an experiment I chose to read and find

valuable sources from other peoples experiments. I chose specific guidelines to make my data
more relatable and clear to examine. The following criteria were used to pick which studies I

included in the report:

The studies had to be focused on children between 5-18 years old

The articles had to be published between 2000-2017

Includes a variety of aspects of physical education such as recess or class-room

based physical activity.

The research must also include some measure of positive or negative performance

to show the effects physical activity has. If a certain article or type of research did

not meet this criteria I did not include it in my report. The research must only

focus on physical activity itself and not just on a single fitness test score.

RESULTS

1. Neural Activity

These are the findings of my research from the methods I described above.

School boards, superintendents, principals, and teachers can feel confident that

providing recess to students on a regular basis may benefit academic behaviors, while

also facilitating social development and contributing to overall physical activity and

its associated health benefits. There was no evidence that time spent in recess had a

negative association with cognitive skills, attitudes, or academic behavior. For

example, this simple graph showing brain movement from the test of students sitting

and walking. The test examined the brain for a students neural activity during sitting
 and walking for 20 minutes and compared them. You can see below how much more

active and healthy the brain looks from just simply walking 20 minutes. You put this

test to a comparison between sitting calmly in class to vigorous activity and you will

see a distinct difference in the positive brain activity

Physical education is an opportunity for all children to be physically active and improve aerobic

fitness. Given the demonstrated academic and health benefits, providing physical education

150 minutes for elementary school children and at least 225 minutes for secondary school

children among all grade level as a part of the 60 minutes of daily moderate-to-vigorous physical

activity recommended by the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (Office of disease

prevention)

2. Academic Performance Improvements:

According to a scholarly author by the name of Joseph Donnelly, he explains how

academic performance can be improved through physical activity through conducting a

research project from 24 different schools. He states, adding sessions of physical activity
 to a school curriculum could have long-term benefits, such as improved academic

performance. When comparing improvement in standardized test scores over three years,

schools were stratified and randomly assigned to receive physically active lessons did 6

percent better than their peers who had received the same lessons in a seated, inactive

manner (Donnelly).

This is also carried over to games such as playing tag. There have been many studies that

show vigorous physical activities, like running and playing tag, may have a positive

effect on academic performance more than lower-intensity activities.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign conducted a study comparing

regular students with students that participated in an after-school exercise program. They

divided 220 8-and -9 year-old students into two groups. One received regular after school

exercise and the other did not. After a year both groups returned and were compared again.

The children in the exercise group displayed significant improvements in their scores

compared to the beginning of the year and compared to the nonactive children. Both groups

showed improvement but the exercise group improved more.

3. Single sessions of physical activity can enhance attention and memory

Immediately after just one session of physical activity, children can increase their

attention and memory, and reduce inappropriate behavior, such as being

unfocused and causing others to become distracted.

 This study tested two groups of students, one was called the energizer group and

the other wasnt given any physical activity breaks. Here were the results, When

comparing students in randomly selected classrooms that offered one 10-minute

Energizer physical activity break daily for 12weeks with those in classrooms that

did not, the Energizers group was significantly more active and exhibited a higher

frequency of on-task behaviors (Mahar).

The study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign comparing two

groups of 8-and 9-year-olds, that was mentioned above, also found that besides

improving academic ability, after school physical activity improved the ability of

the students to pay attention and to block out irrelevant information allowing them

to concentrate more on the tasks they were asked to do. (Reynolds)

4. Decline of Physical Education

A report from USA today by Hellmich, states how the physical education

program is declining. They state, In many schools, physical-education classes

and recess have been squeezed out because of increasing educational demands

and tough financial times. Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act

in 2001, 44% of school administrators report cutting significant time from PE

and recess so there's more time for subjects such as reading and math

(Hellmich).
 Another poll taken from the University of Harvard showed the numbers on just

how much the physical education program is lacking. They state, Almost

seven in 10 parents say their childs school does not provide daily physical

education even though experts recommend 150 to 225 minutes per school week

as well as less than half of youths meet the U.S. Department of Health and

Human Services Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommendation

of at least 60 minutes of daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity

(Harvard).

ABSTRACT

This research focused on how physical activity is extremely important to a students

education experience as well as how its declining in the education systems across the country.

The research provided information on how physical education improves brain activity, memory,

attention, and overall health of a student. The methods for the report were to focus on articles

and electronic databases that had information that met certain criteria so that the report was very

reliable. The results of the report showed that physical education improves overall academic

achievements as well as psychological improvements. The standard 60 minutes of physical

activity for each student is not being met and therefore is causing obesity problems across the

country. The researched showed some graphs about how the brain is effected from physical
activity and the neural activity is improved with movement throughout the day. The report gave

multiple explanations for why physical education should remain an important part of a students

day at school. If time during the school day is not available the research also shows that

before/after school physical activities could also improve learning, attention and brain growth.

Thus, for a student to get the full experience of education there should be a bigger focus on

physical activity and therefore physical education programs should not be cut time.

DISCUSSION

The data and research collected from this report suggest that physical education should be

incorporated into the daily lives of every student and is important for a healthy lifestyle. The

results from the experiments showed just how much it affects a students academic ability as

well as brain activity. It also showed just how much it is declining overall in the school systems

across the country. The flaws of this type of research is that I wasnt able to conduct any

experiment myself since I am not able to get into a classroom or see first-hand how it affects

these students. If I could do future research I would go to schools and have a long term report on

how physical activity affects the students as well as the amount of time that was given each day

for physical activity. I think the implications of this report shows that physical activity should not

only stop being cut but actually should have more time spent in a students routine at school. If

time isnt available during the school day studies also show that before/after school activities

could still be beneficial.

 Works Cited

Hellmich, Nanci. "Report: More PE, activity programs needed in schools." USA Today. Gannett

Satellite Information Network, n.d. Web. 23 July 2017.

Hillman CH, Pontifex MB, Raine LB, Castelli DM, Hall EE, Kramer AF.2009.01.057.

Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Physical Activity Guidelines.

Washington, DC, 2013. November 13, 2014

"Poll finds lack of physical education in public schools a concern of parents." Harvard News.

N.p., 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 23 July 2017. "

Reynolds, Gretchen. "How Exercise Can Boost Young Brains." The New York Times. The New

York Times, 08 Oct. 2014. Web. 23 July 2017.

The Death of Recess in America." The Best Schools. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 July 2017.

Wilkins JLM, Graham G, Parker S, Westfall S, Fraser RG, Tembo M. Time in the arts and

physical education and school achievement. Journal of Curriculum Studies

2003;35(6):721734.