How Does Motivation And Physical Activity Differ By Grade And Gender?

First of all, students do not have much knowledge about the different fitness components; they do not understand the relation between the fitness components and health. If students acquire the background knowledge about fitness, it could improve the class engagement and motivation, and increase the independent drive to exercise. Second barrier to students’ achievement is the lack of motivation to be active, and even more difficult, to specific fitness activities, such as sit-ups and push-ups. In today’s society, students spend more time sitting in front a screen and less time moving. Parent and school today have more responsibility making sure the children get enough physical activity. According to the New York Times (2016), “early school physical education (PE) programs can make a significant difference, and the earlier these routines are learned the more likely they will be carried forth into a healthy adulthood”. Another barrier that prevents students’ success is the loss of instructional time due to discipline problems. The classes are too big, with many diverse students with individual problems, which are difficult to address when these issues are from very different backgrounds. Finally, there is not enough support from home affecting not only physical education, but

Of the 838 middle school students 52.9% of them were females and the mean age of all the students was 13 years old. The majority of the students met or exceeded the standards for both tests. 65-91% passed the physical fitness test, and 77-86% met the academic standards on the ISAT. In general the study reports a weak relationship between continuous physical activity and academic results.

Although the effect that teachers and athletes have on a child’s motivation to partake in physical activity is yet to be studied, it has been

The purpose of the study in the article Recess Physical Activity Packs in Elementary Schools is to see how incorporating fitness equipment impacts student activity during the 150-minute recess time. The researchers also wanted to determine the perception of teachers and principals. From a total of 4 elementary schools, 12 participants were selected. Of these 12 participants, there was one male teacher and three female teachers. From the students, there were two female students and two male students. Four principals were the last selected, they were all female. Purposeful sampling was the technique used to select all of the participants.

Implementing physical education as early as elementary should give children time to get used to P.E. and hopefully help them have a great mindset for working out and staying fit. “School setting offers opportunities to enjoy physical activity outside of class, including recess periods for unstructured play in elementary schools, after-school programs, intramural sports programs, and physical activity clubs.” (Wechsler 6) This quote states that offering multiple recreational physical activities while disguising it as something fun, gives children an intriguing sense on P.E. “Well-implemented school programs can effectively promote physical activity.” (Wechsler 3) This quote states that physical education programs in schools are for students to stay healthy and to get them active. It is the educator's responsibility to keep every student on track with their participation. If students do not participate it is certain they will lose their grade in that

The purpose of this study was to test Bandura’s social-cognitive theory model on adolescent girls’ levels of physical activity for a 12 month period of time. They believed that through this experiment they would gain a better understanding of behavior change as well as to give them the tools to design effective intervention programs. It is believed that self-efficacy is one of the most crucial determinants of physical activity. Once someone believes that they possess the tools and capacity to perform certain activities they will then be able to make necessary changes. The main issue expressed in this article is that physical activity levels among adolescents, particularly girls of low socioeconomic status, remains considerably low. This evident

“Physical education hopes to accomplish, to engage all students, not just the athlete elite, in fun activities that will instill a lifelong commitment to fitness.” (Johnson, 264). Physical education in the classroom can be a vital steeping stone to the way that teenagers think about fitness. Lifelong fitness is something that everyone should be guaranteed, it mainly depends on the experience that a teenager has. Like many other subjects in school, the

While physical education classes are beneficial for the state of a student’s health as well as a way to be active during the day, requiring students to complete a substantial amount of exercise and then judging them on that performance is unreasonable. Holding every student in one high school accountable for reaching the same standards of every other student, is holding people down from reaching goals. People who don’t reach these standards are suddenly not good enough or simply not as good as their peers, which is unkind and unfair. It is time to change the way people look at physical education and it’s not hard to do so.

A convenience sample of two 4th grade classes will participate in the study. The first class will be identified as the control group. Students in this group will be assigned a sealed pedometer and will not receive any pedometer instructions, or pedometer step-count goals. The second group will be identified as the experimental group. Students in this group will receive an unsealed pedometer and daily pedometer step-count goals and instruction. Each group will receive a pre-test and posttest of the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) test and complete the Situational Motivation Scale. The control and experimental group will participate in the same physical education activities such as; team sports, cooperative, tag and dodging games during a 45 minute period. The study will determine if the use of pedometers increase or decrease student motivation for physical activity.

In this study, we focus on students drive on physical activity as leisure-time activity, as defined, physical activity as an option whenever they are free. This study help to

From 1992 until 2008, the different forms of the National Curriculum for Physical Education have been focused around the notion of Sport and Performance. There was a strong emphasis on competition and finding elite performers which may not be an ideal approach. Many children dislike the competitive element of sport and would rather take part for personal or social reasons. This wouldn’t encourage young people to sustain physical activity levels as they may not want to compete and have only seen physical activity in a competitive light. In 2008, the new National Curriculum was launched and its priority was given to health and physical activity rather than sport. This reduced the amount of competitive elements and made it more about taking part. Some would say that the 4th NCPE was seen as successful as in 2007, 17% of boys and 16% of girls aged 2-15 were classified as obese and this decreased as in 2009, 16% of boys and 15% of girls aged 2-15 were seen as obese (Statistics on Obesity, Physical Activity and Diet - England, 2009 and 2011). This slight decrease could be down to the change in the type of activities offered in school although it may not be the only factor. Giving young people the opportunity to set personal goals rather than basing everything around competition would promote life-long participation in physical activity as they will get a sense of achievement from completing that specific goal. However, this focus on health and

- Through multiple tests, physical activity and physical fitness has been proved to improve academic performance. One example of a test used to prove this theory was when a seminal research was conducted by Gabbard and Barton (1979). This experiment consisted of six different conditions of physical activity (no activity, 20, 30, 40, and 50 minutes) and was completed by 106 2nd graders during physical education. Each of the physical education sessions were followed by a 5 minute rest and then a completion of 36 math problems. The authors found a potential threshold effect when noticing that only the 50-minute condition improved in mathematical performance. Other experiments like this one have also been conducted to prove academic improvement from physical activity.

Physical education is or should become incorporated in schools more due to lack of inactivity. It has proven to help in preventing obesity amongst the children and teens when physical education was added in the learning curriculum. As it was proven by “physical activity across the curriculum (PAAC) it has shown promise in weight management” (Gibson, et al, 2008). PAAC evaluated “4905 children from 24 schools” for a year by helping teachers involving physical activity in their teaching lessons to better help in improving, and teaching kids about being active. The PAAC helped teachers create lesson plans with physical activities during breaks and make other lesson plans a bit more fun than just the regular routine. During the time, that PAAC was helping with the lesson plans it was shown, that teachers had increased physical activity from “47 minutes to 65 minutes” as well as helped with behavioral issues some students might have or fidgeting plus it made them more focused and alert which the teachers loved. Still

To look at the effects of physical activity on academic performance, researchers Kari, Pehkonen, Nen, Raitakari, and Tammelin conducted a longitudinal study entitled, “Longitudinal Associations between Physical Activity and Educational Outcomes,” examining physical activity performed in leisure time outside of school affected academic achievement throughout basic education and education obtained in adulthood. The study looked at Finnish male and female children ages 12 and 15, and continued collecting data until the subjects reached their 40s. The participants self-reported their physical activity in overall leisure-time outside school hours, participation in sports club training sessions, and participation in sports competitions. Academic performance was measured in the form of the grade point average and years of post-compulsory education attained in adult hood. The researchers found that physical activity in childhood positively affected the educational outcome of their subjects. They noted

In the modern schools, too many elementary schools are so centered academics and don’t focus on the well-being of the students. The school systems also don’t realize that physical activity can help students perform better in the classrooms. In the recent years, there has been a worldwide tendency to reduce school-based physical education in favor of academic subjects. Given the beneficial effects of exercise and the disadvantages of a sedentary lifestyle, cutbacks in physical education lessons are not near as productive as people think. Systematic reviews provide clear