Browsing by Author "Kruus, Niina"

Earlier research has indicated that the majority of children don’t reach the daily recommendations for physical activity. Children spend a significant amount of the day in school, so school has a possibility to offer pupils versatile physical activity during the day. Every pupil takes part in lessons equally and lessons are part of every school day. The aim for this study is to research physical activity during lessons. The following research problems were set: 1) How can physical activity be added to elementary school lessons? 2) Why should physical activity be added to elementary school lessons? This research was executed as a literature review. Data were collected using Finnish and English databases along with the help of recent and valid publications’ references. Collected data were used to make conclusions and answer the research questions. It was discovered that physical activity during lessons goes into two categories. Physical activity could be integrated to teaching, or it was also possible to take a break from teaching and do physical activities during that time. Physical activity was typically aerobic exercise that lasted around ten minutes. Physical activity during lessons could however last for even the whole lesson and it was also possible to concentrate on other forms of physical activity than only aerobic. While searching for reasons to add physical activity to lessons, many different results were found. Physical activity could be positively linked to learning, concentration and some cognitive prosesses. Physical activity during lessons added to the physical activity of the whole day, and both the pupils and the teachers found it worthwhile. This research shows that physical activity during lessons can be diverse and it doesn’t have negative impact on learning results. Research gives current information on physical activity during lessons. In the future it would be interesting to research the same topic from the point of Finnish schools and to map the Finnish teachers’ opinions on physically active lessons.