Moving kids do better at school
May 26, 2011
Elizabeth Haggarty
TORONTO STAR
Teens learn math more effectively if they dance with it, spinning fractions around the room, sashaying with multiples and moving their hands to the beat of decimal places.
At least that is what the Connecticut school board is hoping, with ongoing scientific studies backing them up.
Why? “It is not rocket science it is a simple biological function,” Dr. Jean Mee, Physical Education & School Health Education Consultant for the Connecticut State Department of Education, told the Star. “More oxygen in the brain increases self control, reduces behaviour interventions, creates fun more engaging classes and improves academic performance.”
In fact, the Connecticut Department of Education is so committed to combining physical activities with academic lessons in their middle and high school classrooms that they have put together a team of 18 physical education experts and trainers to divulge the secrets of how to get students to prance around the room while learning more than just who has the best dance moves.
“What we’ve seen is there is a positive correlation with physical activity and the positive impact in terms of academic learning in Social Studies, English and Science with (high school) students who participate in three to five hours a Meek performing better on standardized tests,” said Dr. Roland Sintos Coloma, Assistant Professor of Sociology & Equity Studies in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE).
What’s less clear is how combining physical movements with specific concepts and ideas can improve learning, but so far anecdotal evidence from classes that have sent their students spinning in calculus class have largely been positive.
And for teachers eager to introduce physical-activity-wielding activities into their class room there are a range of curriculums available online:
“ABC for Fitness, Headstart Body Start, Fuel Up to Play 60 and activity works are all programs that teacher, schools or an individual can look into most are free and accessible online,” says Mee.
While physical activities combined with academic learning are more commonly found in elementary schools, Mee has decided to focus on increasing truly active learning in the State’s middle and high school.
“The assumption is you can get little kids will do anything it is easy to get them to move and so in middle schools and high schools it is more of a challenge to get the teachers to take a look at it and give it a try,” Mee told the Star, stressing that physical learning must be based on age appropriate curriculum. “If we ask them all to do the duck walk across the room teens may be resistant, but contemporary dance is enjoyed by many on their own time so we want to get high school teachers to encourage that sort of movement,” said Mee.
Take the Math Dancing Game, where teens and college students create movement patterns to symbolize mathematical concepts. “Well, for many people, having a kinesthetic experience of an abstract idea is extremely helpful in understanding what that abstract is,” Dr. Karl Schaffer a choreographer and mathematician at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, told Science Daily.
Games like the Math Dance help students remember concepts by giving them physical experience to base unfamiliar symbols and use these movements to recall the symbols Meeks later, claims Schaffer.
Coloma has seen an improvement in his own classes at OISE when he introduces movements from the mundane, like standing up to move to different groupings, to the more exciting, like acting out historical moments.
“Once you move it captures your attention so your focus becomes directed and, I would argue, this would be connected to learning and a deeper understanding of material by providing a different, three dimensional view of the material,” Coloma told the Star.
“When I do incorporate physical movement in my lessons my students are far more excited in learning,” he added.
But that doesn’t mean Coloma advocates teachers ordering sprints during a Shakespeare reading.
“There needs to be a combination of movements that are educationally oriented into general content areas. If there is a disconnect, it doesn’t connect the movement to learning and it becomes just a fad or an add on,” said Coloma.
And just because students can be seen careening around the class room doesn’t mean the sports normally available in schools should be replaced.
“These activities are not intended to replace physical education and recess but should instead enhance physical education and living,” says Mee.
When first presented with the idea of adding dance, crab walks and sprints to their lessons, some teachers in Connecticut were hesitant.
“Some were afraid of taking time away from academics, but once they learn to manage children in a physically active environment they see that it doesn’t take any longer to teach than other classes and they love it,” said Mee.
Most of the research involving physical activity and learning is being done in the U.S., Coloma told the Star, but that hasn’t stopped teachers training at OISE from pursuing their own interest in the area after he asks them to stage a tableau in class, he added.