Literature Review Annotated Bibliography

Transition: Now that we have explore the negatives of our current physical education system lets

Sports can teach kids life lessons for the future and through education. According to the website Edutopia (2017), there is a connection between physical activity and academic performance. “Studies have shown a direct correlation between physical activity and academic performance. A University of Kansas study looking at the performance of students in grades 9 to 12 showed that more than 97% of student-athletes graduated high school, 10% higher than those students who had never participated in sports. Athletes were also shown to have better G.P.A. outcomes than non-athletes.” They say that it may be because physical activity

Schools are the foundation of a child’s development years. (Bluearth, 2017) Most children and adolescents on average spend approximately 6 hours of 175 days over 12 years. This makes school the ideal setting for not only providing and promoting physical activity, but also for increasing and sustaining it at the population level. Engaging in regular physical activity gives children and younger people the opportunity to develop self-efficacy, respect for both themselves and others, and the opportunity to learn and push personal boundaries outside the classroom environment. Children who participate in sport and are physically active at a young age are more likely to become physically active adults.

Kristin M. Hustyi (2012) reports that every child have different preference in terms of the type of physical activity they enjoy, and the items provided for the children to interact with does affect the findings. And the experience the child get through physical activity will affect the percentage of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in which will affect the child’s attention span in class.

Across the country schools have been cutting out gym or recess from their daily schedules. Teachers and school districts desire better test scores from their students. Therefore, they want to have their students study and practice more. But in fact, studies suggest that adding a physical activity program or increasing the amount of time students have physical activity may be more beneficial to students and their test scores. There have been thousands of studies on this topic. Some involve recess, others gym, and new studies are centered around taking breaks in class. All this research has shown that activity can help kids with their test scores. In most studies, more than 50% of students’ test scores were positively impacted by increasing the amount of activity during the school day (“Association” 6).

A. What was studied? (theoretical framework) The time allocation for physical education school-based physical activity is often replaced with other classes in an effort to increase children’s academic performance. However, a growing body of literature suggests that physical activity either had no effect on academic performance or that it enhanced it..

Over the last 30-40 years, the amount and intensity of exercise has gradually declined. Few children in the United States have actually met the recommended “sixty minutes of vigorous exercise” per day (Institute of Medicine, 2013). Although most states and districts have policies pertaining to physical education, these programs lack reinforcement and are often considered weak. Physical education has slowly declined throughout the years, and the the purpose of encouraging students to make physical activity part of their daily lifestyle has been lost. Recent research from Cornell University has found that the average high school gym class consists of students being active for an average of only sixteen minutes! This is nowhere near the recommended sixty minutes of physical exercise. Physical education has been pushed to the side while academics have been prioritised. P.E. classes have become overlooked by society as a whole. Students simply see it as a courses used only for socializing, or to avoid academic courses such as Algebra, Biology, and History. While teachers no longer encourage students to be active, this should not be the path in which we take physical education. The importance of exercise and physical activity goes beyond the classroom with is proven benefits in memory, cognition and attention which are skills that can be used for daily life activities. In recent times, many programs are popping up across the country to emphasize the importance of being active!

Similarly, the National Association for Education of Young Children (NAEYC) stressed the importance of physical activity in cognitive development, refining motor skills and socialization among young children. While, research highlighted the importance of physical activity and education it has been inconsistent in establishing a direct link between physical activity and academic performance. This analysis will investigate whether children who participate in physical activity are more likely to succeed academically. I hypothesize that children who participate in physical activity, on average, will perform better academically.

“Sigfusdottir (2007) found that body mass index and physical activity were responsible for as much as 24% of all differences in academic achievement. Dwyer et al's (2001) evaluation of nearly 1 million students in grades 5 through 9 found that those with higher levels of physical fitness (particularly aerobic capacity) achieved higher scores on standardized tests (this effect was strongest for mathematics tests). Shepherd (1997) found that reducing academic class time by 240 minutes per week and replacing it with physical activity increased scores on standardized math tests.”

Limited Physical Education: According to data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), in 2011 only 51.8 % of high school students were enrolled in physical education classes, and only 28.4% attended physical education class daily (7). Also, it is found that as student go on to a higher grade, their participation in physical activity goes on decreasing due to increased burden of studies. In higher grades, it becomes difficult for students to manage their time between school, assignments and outdoor activities(7). In US, the current problem is that 37% students do not participate in vigorous physical

In chapter 16, Beyond Physical Education: School-Based Physical Activity Programming, Joe Barrett thoroughly elucidated the importance and declines in spontaneous and self directed child and youth physical activity. In today’s society, children and youth are living shorter lives than their parents due to the lack of physical activity. The observation of this matter triggered many organizations to produce physical activity guidelines for children. The CSEP and PHAC issued guidelines stating that children (5-11 years) and youth (12-17 years) regardless of their status should participate in as a minimum sixty minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily. Additionally,

A book written by J. Ratey and E. Hagerman titled, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain provides statistical information and studies of the correlation between the two. The book questions essentially what the impact of physical activity is on grades (Ratey & Hagerman, 2008). One of the studies in this book was produced Virginia Tech included reducing the amount of time towards physical activities, while increasing time to classroom activities and subjects (Ratey & Hagerman, 2008). The results of the study found that there was no academic improvement (Ratey & Hagerman,

The second article was tested with a whole middle school which tests all of the students. The problem was exact to the first article, that students in school were not receiving their full physical activity experience. Determining whether the sports can help will aid athletes in not having to think the sport is bringing their grade down. The method was a simple survey, asking the student how much physical activity they have in a normal day and was compared to what their grades were at the time of the study. The results in the study showed that the student’s athletic activity had little effect on the grades of the students, which disproves stereotypes. Limitations in the study are that ninety eight surveys were administered but only fifty eight were given back to the researchers. Further research may be that elementary, middle, and high school students can all be tested to see if the age of the student determines their success or failure with participating in physical activity.

There is nothing more important than health, especially in this day and age. It’s concerning that only 29 percent of high school students surveyed by the CDC (2011) had participated in at least 60 minutes of physical activity on all seven days before the survey. The CDC also noted that only 31 percent of these high school students attended physical education class daily. Only 8 percent of elementary schools, 6.4 percent of middle schools, and 5.8 percent of high schools provide daily physical education to all of its students (SHPPS, 2000). The government is missing the fact that physical education can actually improve test scores, not the opposite.

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